Why Literacy? Personal and Professional Reflection

This article discusses the importance of literacy and its impact on personal and professional growth. It explores the definition of literacy, its evolution, and its role in society. The article also provides insights into the steps to develop literacy skills and the importance of teaching literacy in all subjects. Additionally, it highlights the benefits of literacy for individuals and communities.

“Why Literacy?” Personal and Professional Reflection 1
“Why Literacy?” Personal and Professional reflection.
Task 1
The term literacy has been defined in many ways by various people. It’s definition has
changed and will change in times to come. The concept of literacy is the ability of a person to
read and write and to have a holistic knowledge about one’s society and also to interact with
his or her community. A person is said to be literate if he or she knows the three R’s-
Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. According to (Education For All: A Global Monitoring
Report, 2006) “The most common understanding of literacy is that it is a set of tangible
skills-particularly the cognitive skills of reading and writing.”In modern times literacy also
includes knowledge in a specific area or subject. It has evolved from its older meaning which
refers the ability to read and write as literacy. Now literacy includes the knowledge of
numbers, languages and computers and also the ability to solve mathematical problems in
some cases. The primary step of attaining literacy is to acquire the ability to read. It begins
with the understanding of spoken words followed by the decoding of written texts and
ultimately understanding the meaning of the texts. Once language literacy is achieved, a
particular subject can be understood with ease. The skill of reading includes some sub skills
like phonology, semantics, and grammar usage and sentence formation. Literacy skills also
include Information literacy, Media literacy and technology literacy. When a person becomes
literate he or she can critically analyse a text and also draw logical conclusions from it. He or
she can express his or her ideas in a coherent manner both in spoken as well as written form.
The attainment of language literacy paves the way for subject understanding and knowledge.
The curse of illiteracy looms large on the lifestyle of an individual. According to (Dudgale
and Clarke 2008), lowered rate of literacy increases the rate of living in a non-working
household and also reduced participation in voting processes. On the contrary when more

“Why Literacy?” Personal and Professional Reflection 2
people become literate the dependence on state benefits decreases and they are more likely to
be independent both economically and politically. The increase in literacy rate also increases
the probability of individuals living in their own houses and using computers in workplaces.
Also it has been seen that literate families have lower divorce rates and also a higher rate of
living in working households. The people of a literate community have more mutual trust
among themselves which leads to a perception of a safer environment. Ultimately literate
communities will give birth to a literate nation which will have a better workforce, good
standard of living, citizens who are aware of their rights and duties and all these factors will
help the country to prosper. The literate citizens through their democratic rights will establish
a welfare state.
The building steps of literacy are language and reading acquisition. These two terms are very
much related as the ability to understand a language makes it possible for a person to read
and express his or her thoughts in a written form. Language acquisition is achieved through
four key components- phonology, morphology, syntax and pragmatics. Initially a child
develops the ability to identify sounds in words, followed by understanding the meaning of
various words and thus extending its vocabulary. This is followed by correct usage of
grammar and the development of a sense of where to use which words. Language acquisition
is a continuous process and the initial grasp on a language allows a child to move towards
reading a subject. The ability to read develops from childhood and continues until one
becomes a proficient reader. As in case of other skills the proficiency of a reader is enriched
with more and more reading. This skill is developed in a person through some phases. The
first phase relies mainly upon semantic and visual information. Also listening to someone
else’s reading is an important part which can be supplemented with simple printing
experiences. The main objective in this phase is to make the child to have fun through
reading. The second phase includes identification of letters and teaching of words through

“Why Literacy?” Personal and Professional Reflection 3
rhyming sounds. In this phase the student can be introduced to all the four steps of reading in
a limited way. In the next phase the student should be encouraged to read simple texts and to
suggest alternatives for given text features. They should be encouraged to explain the text in
their own way. This is followed by the transitional phase where the student should be
introduced to grammatical features and ways by which authors and illustrators present their
ideas. All these developments should ideally be made before a student steps into high school.
From this time onwards literacy on specific subjects becomes primary. After a student has
acquired the ability to read and write he or she must now try to become literate on specific
subjects. The students should also be taught technological literacy. According to (Education
for All: A Global Monitoring Report, 2006), technology literacy is defined as “the ability to
access and use the variety of information sources to solve an information need.”
The teaching of literacy should not be confined only to Arts and language teachers. All the
teachers of different subjects should have knowledge about the theories of literacy to make
their subjects more interesting and easier to understand for the student. The methods of
giving traditional lectures will not always appeal to the minds of the young children.
Teachers must teach in such a way that they can kindle the interests of the students on those
subjects by presenting the subject matter in an interactive manner. This will ensure better
comprehension of the subject. According to Richard Vaca, author of Content Area Reading:
Literacy and Learning across the Curriculum, adolescents of the 21st century will be exposed
to higher levels of critical reading and writing. It would be necessary to teach them the
modern skills of literacy to satisfy their thirst for knowledge.
Task 2
The skills of literacy must be taught by all the teachers irrespective of their discipline areas.
When a student is going to high school, the basic skills of literacy are already developed and

“Why Literacy?” Personal and Professional Reflection 4
so the high school teachers must focus on expanding their subject knowledge. When a teacher
takes a science class it is not always about giving uninterrupted lectures about a topic. This
may bore the students and he or she may not relate himself to the topic. So it is imperative to
involve them by asking questions and encouraging them to ask questions. They may be made
to search for information related to a topic from books and the internet. They should be
taught to get acquainted with technologies to access and analyze data with ease. This will
increase their interest towards reading a subject. Also when explaining a topic, it should be
related with everyday experiences. For example when a teacher is explaining gravitation he
or she must emphasise on the everyday effects of gravitational force-how the gravity of the
sun is holding all the planets together? How the gravity of earth is responsible for not
allowing the gases of our atmosphere to escape? Etc. The students must be encouraged to
present a topic to the other students in the class. In this way their subject knowledge will
increase as well it will make them more confident. Moreover, experiments should play a key
role in explaining the basic principles of science. Also multidisciplinary approach must be
adopted to make the subject more interesting. Along with this independent investigation on
the subjects should be promoted to have a firsthand experience. This will rouse their curiosity
and the knowledge gained through it will get permanently ingrained in their memory. In
addition to that, the knowledge about the basic terms associated with science subjects and
particular topics should be imparted.
A class consists of students of various levels of merits and intelligence. Some of them may
have natural inclination to the science subjects and some may find it too difficult to
understand. Teaching should be done in such a way that it will cater to the needs of all the
sections of students. This can be achieved by arranging the students in small groups having
both good and bad students and then asking them to perform an experiment or task together.
Their works can be competed with the projects of the other groups as competition encourages

“Why Literacy?” Personal and Professional Reflection 5
students to do better. They will put maximum effort and in turn will expand their knowledge
about a subject.
Thus, it should be kept in mind while teaching a subject in a classroom, active participation
of both the teachers and the students is required. The topics should be taught in relation to its
everyday implications. It is important for the teachers to involve the comparatively weaker
students in the entire process and this can be achieved only if the teachers have the basic
understanding of the concepts of literacy in classroom teaching.

“Why Literacy?” Personal and Professional Reflection 6
Reference List:
 Education For All: A Global Monitoring report, 2006, UNESCO[online].Available
from: www.unesco.org/education/GMR2006/full/chapt6_eng.pdf [Accessed on
4thApril 2019] Crawley.R. (2017).Teaching Literacy In All Content Areas [online] Available from:
https://www.theeducator.com/blog/teaching-literacy-content-areas/ [Accessed 4thApril
2019.] Wikipedia[online] Available from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy
[Accessed on 4thApril 2019] Susana A.Eichenclas, Andrea C .Schalley, Diana Guillemin. 2013, ‘The Importance
of Literacy in the home language: The View from Australia’, Sage journals Available
from: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2158244013507270[Accessed on
4thApril 2019]. Dudgale G. and Clark C.(2008). Literacy Changes lives: An advocacy resource.
London: National Literacy Trust. What are Literacy skills?[online] Available from:
https://k12.thoughtfullearning.com/FAQ/what-are-literacy-skills[Accessed on 4th April
2019]

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