Literacy

Traditionally, and perhaps many people nowadays, view literacy as the ability to read and write. However, literacy also suggests how and why this skill is used by individuals in a society. Literacy, or literacies as Gee points out (1996), carries with it an ideological stance, a cultural and social component. Being literate then not only means one can read and write in their language, but understanding that literacy controls how one reads and writes because of the ideological implications involved. Literacy is empowering. It provides the means to an end, whatever goal the "literate" person may aim at. This is why it is important to understand local literacy practices before other literacy development programs can be developed and implemented, as Street (??) suggests in his introduction. Teachers need to learn to appreciate local literacy practices, and they need to truly listen and understand their students' needs before blindly imposing a literacy development program that does not benefit their students.