Literacy and DiscourseENGL 289: Intermediate CompositionUniversity of CincinnatiC. LaVecchia (with quotes from Maritza Ramos)

What is literacy?“Literacy is a many-meaninged thing.” – Sylvia Scribner

Some definitions“The ability to ‘read’ a specific subject or medium; competence or knowledge in a certain area” – Oxford English Dictionary

Literacy is generally fluency in a practice (whether reading, writing, dancing, medicine…).

You can also think of it as “ways of being in the world” (Gee).

Literacy is a Sociocultural Practice“It should not be surprising to see differences in literacy between members of different ethnic groups, age groups, sexes, socioeconomic classes, etc.” – John F. Szwed

Affected by our backgrounds, cultures, and communities!

Multiliteracies

Many scholars and researchers in writing studies, education, linguistics, and related fields feel that literacy is about more than just the ability to read and write.

James Gee has argued literacy is also about the meaning behind what we say, not just the language itself

Because we participate in many different discourse communities and use many different discourses, we each have many different literacies (plural)

“Texts”: in writing studies, a text can simply refer to an artifact, not only a document wth printed words.

What is discourse?Systems of language used by communities, cultural groups (sometimes called dialects), etc.

discourse “Language in action”— either an instance of language (“His discourse was terse and harsh”) or a collection of instances that demonstrate a quality (“Legal discourse is __”). – Downs and Wardle

Amy Tan describes her many “Englishes.”

Gee and Discourse“Discourses are ways of being in the world; they are forms of life which integrate words, acts, values, beliefs, attitudes, and social identities as well as gestures, glances, body positions, and clothes.”

“A Discourse is a sort of ‘identity kit’ which comes complete with the appropriate costume and instructions on how to act, talk, and often write, so as to take on a particular role that others will recognize” (484).

ConclusionThe literacies and discourses in our everyday lives reveal our values, backgrounds, and identities!