TWO WOMEN TAKE ON THE MEANING OF LITERACY

Two women, Sylvia Scribner and Andrea Lunsford take a closer look at the meaning of literacy in the context of America and other cultures. Andrea’s analysis was much simpler; she looked at how modern technologies related to literacy are actually enhancing younger generation’s understanding of the written word. She argues young adults are able to differentiate between the appropriate languages for a text message to a friend from an email to a professor. Sylvia looked at literacy from 3 different metaphorical perspectives as well as her own. She helps us understand the complexity of literacy and its definition by comparing literacy as adaptation, power and a state of grace. She also looks closely at the social implications of literacy through her own research in a West African village.

After reading these texts along with Hedge and Carr’s from last week, I am unable to confidently give a single sentence to define literacy. The meaning or definition of literacy is neither static nor universal. It is a multidimensional term that relies on the society and time period it is representing. A good example of this is in Sylvia’s Literacy in Three Metaphors. She references that literacy as a standard, in our country, has changed immensely. Since World War 1, our idea of the “minimal literacy threshold” has continually increased from a fourth grade reading level.

Hedge’s ideas in America The Illiterate and Lunsford’s ideas in Our Semi-Illiterate Youth? Not So Fast most definitely conflict each other. Hedge makes the claim that the level of technology we use in our daily life is making us more illiterate than we already are while Lunsford proves through her study that using technology such as email and texting as well as social networking improve the quantity of writing, increase the awareness of context and audience and prove no more errors (in writing) than previous studies. Scribner’s ideas in Literacy in Three Metaphors and Carr’s ideas in Is Google Making Us Stupid? are in accord. Carr shows through personal experience and historical evidence that the evolution of the level of literacy is normal. As people and social expectations change so will literacy. We can’t fight it so much as identify that the changes exist. Scribner explains how complex the idea of literacy is and how hard it is to identify and teach literacy. She shows through her research in Africa that the definition of literacy shouldn’t and isn’t static throughout different cultures. Both Carr and Scribner recognize that literacy is ever changing through social norms and across cultures and shouldn’t be limited to one definition.

We as Americans are stressed because although we cannot define literacy we strongly believe as a country that we are illiterate (or becoming illiterate) because of recent technological advances (computer, cellphone, kindle, Facebook, etc.,).