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The traditional definition of literacy is considered to be the ability to read and write, or the ability to use Language to Read , Write , Listen , and Speak . In modern contexts, the word refers to reading and writing at a level adequate for Communication , or at a level that lets one understand and communicate ideas in a literate Society , so as to take part in that society. The United Nations Educational, Scientific And Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has drafted the following definition: "Literacy is the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate and compute, using printed and written materials associated with varying contexts. Literacy involves a continuum of learning to enable an individual to achieve his or her goals, to develop his or her knowledge and potential, and to participate fully in the wider society." Many policy analysts consider literacy rates a crucial measure of a region's Human Capital . This claim is made on the grounds that literate people can be trained less expensively than illiterate people, generally have a higher socio-economic status and enjoy better health and employment prospects. Policy makers also argue that literacy increases job opportunities and access to Higher Education . In Kerala , India , for example, female and child mortality rates declined dramatically in the 1960s, when girls who were educated in the Education Reform s after 1948 began to raise families. Recent researchers, however, argue that correlations such as the one listed above may have more to do with the effects of schooling rather than literacy in general. Regardless, the focus of educational systems worldwide include a basic concept around communication through text and print, which is the foundation of most definitions of literacy. WORLD LITERACY RATES See also: List Of Countries By Literacy Rate Asian, Arab and Sub-Saharan Africa n countries are regions with the lowest literacy rates at about 10% to 12%. East Asia and Latin America have illiteracy rates in the 10 to 15% region while developed countries have illiteracy rates of a few percent. Within ethnically homogeneous regions, literacy rates can vary widely from country or region to region. This often coincides with the region's Wealth or Urbanization , though many factors play a role. LITERACY THROUGHOUT HISTORY The history of literacy goes back several thousand years, but before the Industrial Revolution finally made cheap paper and cheap books available to all classes in industrialized countries in the mid-nineteenth century, only a small percentage of the population in these countries were literate. Up until that point, materials associated with literacy were prohibitively expensive for people other than wealthy individuals and institutions. For example, in England in 1841, 33% of men and 44% of women signed marriage certificates with their Mark as they were unable to write. Only in 1870 was government-financed public education made available in England. What constitutes literacy has changed throughout history. It has only recently become expected and desirable to be fully literate and undesirable to be illiterate. At one time, a literate person was one who could sign his or her name. At other points, literacy was measured only by the ability to read and write Latin (regardless of a person's ability to read or write his or her vernacular), or by the ability to read the Bible. The Benefit Of Clergy in Common Law systems became dependent on reading a particular passage. Literacy has also been used as a way to sort populations and control who has access to power. Because literacy permits learning and communication that oral and sign language alone cannot, illiteracy has been enforced in some places as a way of preventing unrest or revolution. During the Civil War era in the United States, white citizens in many areas banned teaching slaves to read or write presumably understanding the power of literacy. In the years following the Civil War, the ability to read and write was used to determine whether one had the right to vote. This effectively served to prevent former slaves from joining the electorate and maintained the status quo. In 1964, educator Paulo Freire was arrested, expelled, and exiled from his native Brazil because of his work in teaching Brazilian peasants to read. From another perspective, the historian Harvey Graff has argued that the introduction of mass schooling was in part an effort to control the type of literacy that the working class had access to. That is, literacy learning was increasing outside of formal settings (such as schools) and this uncontrolled, potentially critical reading could lead to increased radicalization of the populace. Mass schooling was meant to temper and control literacy, not spread it. Examples of highly literate cultures in the past See Also: History of writing India and China were advanced in literacy and made many scientific advancements. Many universities like Nalanda provided education to pupils and scholars from all around the world. . The dark green areas were literate at around 1300 BCE . The light green areas were literate at around 300 BCE . Note that other Asian societies were literate at these times, but they are not included on this map. Note also that even in the colored regions, functional literacy was usually restricted to a handful of ruling elite.]] The large amount of Graffiti found at Roman sites such as Pompeii , shows that at least a large minority of the population would have been literate. Because of its emphasis on the individual reading of the Qur'an in the original Arabic Alphabet many Islamic countries have known a comparatively high level of literacy during most of the past twelve centuries. In Islamic edict (or Fatwa ), to be literate is an individual religious obligation. In the Middle Ages, literacy rates among Jew s in Europe were much higher than in the surrounding Christian populations. Most Jewish males at least learned to read and write Hebrew. Judaism places great importance on the study of holy texts, the Tanakh and the Talmud . In New England , the literacy rate was over 50 percent during the first half of the 17th century, and it rose to 70 percent by 1710. By the time of the American Revolution , it was around 90 percent. This is seen by some as a Side Effect of the Puritan belief in the importance of Bible reading. In Wales , the literacy rate rocketed during the 18th century, when Griffith Jones ran a system of circulating schools, with the aim of enabling everyone to read the Bible (in Welsh). It is claimed that, in 1750, Wales had the highest literacy rate of any country in the world. Historically, the literacy rate has also been high in the Lutheran countries of Northern Europe . The 1686 church law (''kyrkolagen'') of the Kingdom of Sweden (which at the time included all of modern Sweden, Finland , and Estonia ) enforced literacy on the people and a hundred years later, by the end of the 18th century, the literacy rate was close to 100 percent. Even before the 1686 law, literacy was widespread in Sweden. However, the ability to read did not automatically imply ability to write, and as late as the 19th Century many Swedes, especially women, could not write. This proves even more difficult, because many literary historians measure literacy rates based on the ability that people had to sign their own names. Online Video: The Spread, Rise and Fall of Early Literacy TEACHING LITERACY Literacy comprises a number of subskills, including Phonological Awareness , Decoding , Fluency , Comprehension , and Vocabulary . Mastering each of these subskills is necessary for students to become proficient readers. Alphabetic principle and English orthography Beginning readers must understand the concept of the ''alphabetic principle'' in order to master basic reading skills. A writing system is said to be ''alphabetic'' if it uses symbols to represent individual language sounds. Wren, Sebastian. Phonics Rules, Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL), 1999. http://www.sedl.org/pubs/catalog/items/read07.html, retrieved July 7, 2007. In contrast, logographic writing systems (such as Chinese ) use a symbol to represent an entire word, and syllabic writing systems (such as Japanese Kana ) use a symbol to represent a single syllable. |
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