The Importance Of Literature, Literacy And Language Acquisition

This understanding of literacy development is relatively new and complements the research that supports the crucial role that early experiences play in shaping the development of our brain.

Literacy has the power to transform us. By reading we learn new things and we are more likely to express ourselves to others. We can understand another’s language, other cultures, and know the way others way of thought.

The clear cut definition of literacy is the ability to read and write, pretty simple. The more elaborate definition of literacy, though, is being able to read, write, and comprehend what is being read or written. People apply it to everyday life such as reading a book for school to reading a menu at a restaurant. Throughout

As I think what literacy means to me, the most important thought that comes to mind is my understanding of it: the ability to read and write, I feel that without the ability to read and write, mankind is unable to properly function because there is no foundation for adequate communication. So literacy is reading development, a progression of skills that begins with the ability to understand spoken words and decode written words, and culminates in the deep understanding of text. Everyone has some moment which have the potential to influence the craft of understanding that directly has the undying impression for the lifetime. As for learning process which comprises the reading and writing aspect, there comes events that helps people to grasp the authenticity of learning which turn out to be moments of learning for some people in a very inspiring and motivating manner. In this essay I will talk about my literacy history and how it has been developed throughout portions of my life.

Since a child going up, literacy was not my strong suit. Literacy throughout my life seem not to cope with me. Later as I grew up, literacy meant to me that it is one’s ability to read, write, and speak. More importantly there is a more meaning of literacy, meaning that not only writing, reading, and speaking, but able to understand, analyze, and communicate with other peoples’ ideas. Soon enough literacy has made an impact on my life, it has been and will be a lifelong process. Literacy will always be with me, starting from my past and ending in my future.

I define literacy as being able to express my thoughts and emotions. I know everyone has different opinions and emotions. Therefore, everyone will write differently and read in a different pace. Also, everyone likes different types of books, for example fiction or nonfiction. As a result, everyone’s literacy journey is unique. Everyone has a different definition when it comes to literacy which is what makes it special. Some prefer to read and others prefer to write. It all depends on personal preference.

Literature is at the heart of the Australia English Curriculum and is integral to the teaching of language and literacy. Discuss how the children’s literature can be used to develop an understanding of the components of the language?

Literacy is being able to read and write; having said this it would be safe to say literacy means learning from books. However, think about the evolution of literacy and the different ways in which children and people learn and retrieve information; this definition could also include interaction with the digital text. There is a wide range as to what counts as literacy such as blogging, social networking, emailing, digital storytelling, online chatting and even shopping online just to name a few. Not everyone will agree with what is now counted as literacy, but if students are not enlightened on the many aspects of what could make them valuable assets in the future; that would be negligent. In Rich’s article digital literacy is being discussed which is the topic this response will focus on. Learning is not restricted only to the classroom. Digital literacy can be beneficial with

Our view of literacy upon commencing this course, was that it is the ability to read and write. Our understanding of it however was partially true because, reading and writing are essential of any person’s literacy, but reading and

Since literacy evolves with changes in cultural communicative practices and technological developments, so too do definitions of what literacy is. There is some agreement on what literacy involves, and most definitions include reading, writing, speaking and listening, and sometimes viewing or visual literacy. The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia [EYLF] (DEEWR, 2009, p.38) defines literacy as “a students’ capacity to access, manage, interpret and reflect on written texts in order to achieve their goals, to develop their knowledge and potential, and to participate effectively in society”. But why is literacy so important? Research shows that people with good literacy skills are more likely to have greater self-esteem, improved health, better jobs and higher wages than those with poor literacy skills. They are more able to take advantage of the opportunities that life may offer them. In order to acquire and share an important text, teachers need to consider a number of variables relating to students’, as according to Larson and Marsh in Making Literacy Real (2014) “literacy is grounded in social, cultural, historical and political practices”. In addition to appropriate literature, the NRP (National Reading Panel, 2000) noted that phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension are crucial for effective reading instruction. The recommendations were that all students be explicitly and systematically taught these five key components.

Literacy is defined by the Tertiary Education Commission (2008, pg. 6) as the “…written and oral language people use in their everyday

Literacy is defined as being literate, that is, being able to read and write in a language. My personal experience with literacy began at an early age, at the age of 4 when I began to sit and read words and letters in the back of my mother’s car. Soon enough, she would bring me a magazine called “Majed” which, in the 90’s, was a popular magazine. With this, I began even more interested in reading and writing and reviewed every word in the magazine associated with each of the short pictured stories. It was the first memory I deeply recall of literacy and it was what laid the foundation for my personal love of reading and writing. The methodology used for this is an interview. There are three interviews which are analyzed and brought together in the form of a narrative. This narrative serves to better explain the emotions and thoughts that the interviewees had about the idea of literacy.

Through this week learning resources, I have learned that there are evidences that demonstrate that when a child has limited experiences he or she is more likely to have difficult comprehending what is read. It is why early childhood professionals affirm that oral language is the foundation for literacy development. Everything that children learn about speaking and listening they use for writing and reading and what they learn from writing and reading they use in listening and speaking. In other words, oral language and literacy develop simultaneously. When parents provide rich language and literacy reinforcement at home, children do better in school than those who do not. It is also known for early childhood professionals that for a child with limited experiences is more difficult comprehending what is read. For example, a child who has being exposed to many environments like a farm or like a museum will have more mentally engagement in classrooms activities about things he or she already know that children who have not had experience in those environments. Many researches showed that children that have not have a literacy development or an oral language development years before formal schooling, are less likely to be successful beginning readers, opening an achievement lag that might last through the primary grades. Some of the reasons why parents are not actively involved into their children’s educations are their socioeconomic or legal status. For example, in an immigrant family sometimes both parents have to work and sometimes they have to work two shifts. I have known families where children are the whole day in school and with nannies. Those children do not develop any skills that help them to succeed at the time of attending forming school.

“Literacy is defined as a social practice, meaning a form of activity through which we use text in culturally appropriate ways for specific purposes” [Kern, 2000]. On the other hand, Neilson (2014) argues that “the power of literacy lies not just in the ability to read and write, but rather in a person’s capacity to apply these skills to effectively connect, interpret and discern the intricacies of the world in which they live” [Delvene, 2014, para. 1]. Significantly, when these two perspectives are analyzed, literacy can be seen as a skill and a tool. Whereby, students, can possess the learned skills and still be unable to utilize these skills in an informative way.

To myself, the definition of literacy is having the ability and means to read and/or write. Although this seems as though it is a stereotypical and common definition, I have found during the course of my life that this definition holds to be true to my personal being. When I was younger, I used to think literacy was simply the literacy book that we read out of during English class. The more that I grew, the more I realized that literacy was having the ability to read the book- not the book itself. While in junior high, my English course was referred to as a literacy course. During this course, we learned on what basis literacy forms. The teacher explained that literacy is not the words on the page; literacy is having the means of reading the words, and having the ability to comprehend what exactly it is that we were reading. Though this seems similar to cultural literacy, it is actually quite different. Cultural literacy is having the ability to comprehend and participate fluently in a particular culture, whereas literacy is just having the ability and means to read and/or write in general.