MODULE 1: INTRODUCTION TO ADULT LITERACY
1.1 Defining Literacy
1.2 Literacy in Canada
1.3 Literacy in Manitoba
1.4 Assignment
Section 1.1: Defining Literacy
What
do we mean when we say someone is literate/illiterate? At first
glance this might seem like a simple question with a simple
answer--being literate means you can read and write, being illiterate
means you can't. Upon closer examination, however, it can be
seen that this is a rather simplistic definition and not overly
useful. For example, what if a person can read a paragraph or
two, but can't read a full book, use the Index or Table of Contents,
write a paragraph or two, and so on? Can this person rightly
be described as literate?
As
many of the available definitions
allude to, "literacy" refers to much more than the
ability to read text. A more inclusive definition of literacy
must necessarily address the fact that at the core of being
literate is the ability to deal with
information in the various aspects of our everyday lives.
That is, it is the ability to locate, understand, evaluate,
utilize, and convey information at home, at work, and in the
community. It makes sense then to consider literacy/illiteracy
in terms of degree; that is, as existing along a continuum.
The following levels were included in a 1994
International Adult Literacy Survey (conducted by the National
Literacy Secretariat and the Applied Research Branch of Human
Resources Development Canada and was managed by Statistics Canada
in cooperation with OECD, Eurostat, and UNESCO in 7 countries),
and are useful for determining degree of literacy/illiteracy:
Level 1 indicates very low literacy skills, where the
individual may, for example, have difficulty identifying the
correct amount of medicine to give to a child from the information
found on the package.
Level 2 respondents can deal only with material that
is simple, clearly laid out and in which the tasks involved
are not too complex...
Level 3 is considered as the minimum desirable threshold
in many countries...
Level 4 [and up] show increasingly higher literacy skills
requiring the ability to integrate several sources of information
or solve more complex problems...
The
rapid and increasing integration of information technology--computers
in particular--into our lives has implications for any
definition of literacy. The Internet, for example, provides
us with speedy access to vast amounts of information and as
such, a greater degree of critical evaluation skills are required
than ever before. Readers must be able to sift through far more
information than in the past, to the point that a new term has
been coined to describe the situation - 'infoglut.'
In addition to the volume of information, is the question
of the quality. Anyone can post information to the World Wide
Web. As such, much of this information has not undergone the
same scrutiny/editing as educational materials such as textbooks
and journals have. And the question of reliability of information
does not end with text. In that computers are multimedia,
information is conveyed using sound, images and text to a far
greater extent than ever before. Images in particular can be
easily altered using sophisticated software programs, thus critical
evaluation skills are essential to both learning and living
in today's society.
What
are the reasons for low levels of literacy? As quoted in the
Report on a National Study of Access to Adult Basic Education
Programs and Services in Canada (Hoddinott, 1998), one adult
literacy student was able to capture the complexity and diversity
of reasons in the following:
For
whatever reason
(be it poverty or ignorance)
people
were held back from going to, continuing in,
or finishing
school.
Here
are a few examples and/or reasons:
A parent
dies or becomes very sick;
the child
has to go to work or stay home to look after
or support
the family.
It's not their fault; it still happens.
Negative
messages from mother or father or anyone -
thinks
work is better for the child,
don't need an education, won't get far
anyway.
Still
happens.
Get and/or
got married young.
Husband
and/or family keeps wife/girlfriend down,
out of
school, stuck.
Still
happens.
Drugs,
alcohol, bad decisions.
Still happens.
Violence
in the home,
isolation,
being denied information about people, places,
things.
Still happens.
My point
is, sometimes there are circumstances beyond our
control,
and opportunities
haven't always been there,
and being
an adolescent and having a generational history like
any or
all of the above,
it only
makes sense that bad decisions are made.
Even
today many teenagers leave home, get kicked out,
or have
to go to work, leaving schooling behind.
And sometimes
they just think they don't need to finish school
to get
a job
only
to find out that that's not true (see "Afterword").
Additional
information regarding barriers to literacy can be found here. To read more about reasons for joining a literacy
program click here
for testimonials from some Manitoba learners.
As
we have seen defining literacy is not a simple matter. Although
there are many definitions of literacy, the
important point to keep in mind is that literacy has to do with
an individual's ability to deal effectively with information,
in whatever form it is conveyed. That is, literacy is the ability
to locate, understand/analyze, organize, and/or convey information
in various forms (e.g., text, numerically, graphically) and
in various contexts (e.g., at school, the workplace, at home).
Resources:
On to Section
1.2
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( Page updated
23-Sep-2002
)
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