What is Literacy?

According to James Paul GeePower Point Presented By:

Michelle Mardula and Katie Belis

Discourse:

• A socially accepted association among ways of using language, of thinking, and of acting

• Can be used to identify oneself as a member of a socially meaningful group or “social network”.

Discourse as an “identity kit”:

• comes complete with the appropriate costumes and instruction on how to act and talk

• taking on a role that others will recognize.

Institutions

• Made up of concrete and abstract things:

Concrete: People, books and buildingsAbstract:

Bodies of knowledge, values, norms and beliefs

Example Discourse Groups:

• Being a man or a woman• Factory worker or boardroom

executive• Doctor or patient• Teacher or student• Club or gang

Discourses:

• Are inherently “ideological”: involve a set of values and viewpoints

• Are resistant to internal criticism. Ex: trying to repair a jet in flight by stepping outside of it.

• Define positions from which we speak and behave are defined in relation to OTHER discourse groups.

• Discourses hold certain concepts, viewpoints and values at the expense of others. At the same time, discourses tend to marginalize the viewpoints and values central to other discourses.

• Discourses are intimately related to the distribution of social power and hierarchical structure in society.

How does one come by the discourses that he controls?

Acquisition and Learning

Acquisition: a process of acquiring something subconsciously by exposure to models and a process of trial and error, without a process of formal teaching. This happens in a natural setting and is how most people come to control their first language.

Learning: a process that involves conscious knowledge gained through teaching, which involves explanation and analysis.

Primary Discourse: a birthright or being born into a discourse group.

Secondary Discourses: discourses that go beyond the primary:

developed in association with and by having access to and practice with secondary institutions (schools, workplace,

stores, churches, etc.).

Secondary Use of Language:

language used in secondary discourses

Literacy: control of secondary use of language

Dominant Literacy: control of a secondary use of language used in dominant discourses

Powerful Literacy: control of the secondary use of language used in secondary discourses

Literacy is mastered through acquisition,

NOT learning.