Literacy: What It Is, Types And Development Phases
The learning processes through which we acquire information and knowledge are many and very varied, and research around them increasingly takes into account factors and aspects of the environment which influence the development of our ability to learn.
One of these concepts is literacy a term referring to learning processes that takes into account not only individual abilities in terms of reading and writing, but also the influence that the sociocultural context and the role of the person has in this process.
Literacy is understood as the concept that refers to the set of competencies and skills that enable the person to collect and process information in a certain context through reading and convert it into knowledge which can be expressed orally or through writing.
However, the concept of literacy is characterized by emphasizing the sociocultural vision of learning. That is, it crosses the boundaries of cognitive abilities. Literacy not only takes into account recognition and understanding through language, but also recognizes the influence of the social context, the roles and dynamics of the reader and the writer, as well as the possible interlocutors.
Types of literacy
This sociocultural conception of learning through written language specifies that various types of literacy can occur Some of them are vernacular literacy, which refers to reading learning in everyday life, and official or regulated literacy.
Furthermore, there are a large number of areas in which literacy can occur. Learning theorists have come to propose such as financial literality, labor literality, critical, information, digital or disciplinary literality to name just a few of them.
Taking into account this great variability within literacy, the skills and abilities that make a person an expert in a certain type of literacy are also very varied, which means that the ability to read or write is only part of the set of faculties. necessary to develop and obtain literacy in a specific area.
Key concepts
There are two concepts that are key when it comes to understanding the notion of literacy. These are literacy events and literacy practices.
1. Literacy events
Also known as literate events, they refer to all everyday situations in which written language plays a fundamental role These literacy events are evident in the reading of signs, posters, forms, pamphlets or documents.
However, for these actions to be considered literacy, the person must have in their repertoire of skills the knowledge of the rules and conformities that are tacitly found in the situation, known as literacy practices.
2. Literacy practices
Literacy practices, or literate practices, encompass the social and cultural rules and conformities mentioned above. These provide meaning to the situation or context in which the act of reading occurs.
What are the governing principles?
Based on what is described by the theories that define the concept of literacy, we can break down a series of principles by which it is governed. These principles are specified in the following statements:
Finally, in order to acquire literacy, people require situations or contexts with a significant purpose that allows them to put literacy into practice. In the same way, all kinds of opportunities need to present themselves to apply them in different situations that motivate it.
How is it developed and expressed in learning?
Although there is no “protocol” or fixed and predetermined stages that regulate the process of learning literacy, we can distinguish a series of phases that, although they appear in a diffuse way, serve to guide us in how people acquire these capabilities
There are three moments through which literacy develops: emerging literacy, formal learning and literacy.
1. Emerging literature
From the first years of people’s lives, they are exposed to all types of information and messages represented in writing, which they must interpret and work with their uses and meanings
Before starting school, the child is surrounded by books, advertisements, brochures and catalogs and all types of press or documents with letters and symbols, all of them associated with the culture to which the child belongs.
This phenomenon that occurs long before literacy or formal learning is called emergent literacy and can be reflected in the child’s ability to know how to use a book or what the symbols they perceive refer to.
2. Formal learning
Next, the school stage begins in which the person acquires the formal skills that allow reading and writing as well as phonological skills, what initially consists of learning in itself (learning to read and write) will become a means of learning other knowledge.
At the same time as formal learning, the person acquires, gradually and through the experiences of daily life, all the necessary skills that make up literacy.
These situations favor the improvement of these skills which will become specific literacies for each of the subjects.
