Theories of literacy - Essay Example

? Exam Inserts His/Her Inserts Grade Inserts 18 March Outline Introduction Thesis: The literacy and other theories complement each other to increase the literacy and learning process. Question 1. literacy? Discuss how this question is answered by various theorists. Be sure to include how theorists explain differences and language acquisition. Transaction Theory: Rosenblatt's transactional theory. Emergence Literacy Theory by Marie Cay. Sociolinguitic Theory by Basil Berstein Conclusion. . Indeed, the literacy and other theories help the teachers tailor the most appropriate literacy and other programs enhance the literacy statistics of the United States learners. There are many theories of literacy. The research focuses on the different literacy theories. The research includes scrutinizing the essence of the literacy theories. The literacy and other theories complement each other to increase the literacy and learning process. Question 1. literacy? Discuss how this question is answered by various theorists. Be sure to include how theorists explain differences and language acquisition. Diane Tracey (2006) emphasizes that theory is defined as the explanation of a phenomenon that is popularly accepted by a large majority of the community. In terms of literacy theory, literacy theory is defined as the ability to read and write words. In addition, literacy is seen as the ability to read or write words. Literacy can also mean the ability to comprehend the different forms of correspondences. There are different forms of communication. The forms include body language, sign language, and video, pictures, listening, and speaking. In our modern world, literacy means the ability to read complex math or number systems (adding, subtracting multiplying, etc.) and complex words. Literacy levels vary from one community to another. Literacy in one country or community may be different from the literacy in another country or community. For example, an American resident would not understand (illiterate) the Japanese immigrant’s Japanese language. Peter Molnar (1997) states Piaget discussed how 60 day old child, Laurent, was able to shake a hanging rattle and attached with a string to the child’s arm. Peter Molnar (1997) insists “Smiling and cooing, Laurent repeated these movements several times and with shorter and shorter intervals: "Laurent naturally shook the balls by chance and looked at them at once (the rattle inside them made a noise (p.109). When the rattle’s shaking was frequently repeated Laurent arched his body, waved both his legs as well as his arms short. He showed in increase in pleasure and continued to retain the interesting result. In addition, Henry Sussman (1989) mentions “It is now possible to complete the semiological definition of myth in a bourgeois society: myth is depoliticized speech. One must understand politics as describing human relations in their real, social structure, in their power of making the world (p. 3.)” The quote clearly shows that there are many facets of political life. Each individual or learner has a different critical view of the government. Some approve of the government’s political decisions. Other political decisions generally affect all the members of society. The average person or organization seeks government support Literacy is an activity that continues during the life of the individual. The literacy process begins with the ability to read words, numbers, figures, pictures, graphs, and other information. To accomplish the reading aspect of sentences, the individual must first learn how to read and understand each letter, number, figure, picture and the like. The literacy process ends with the words enter the head of the information receiver. Marc Miyashiro (1996) opines communication plays a vital part in the improvement of the organization. Communication within an organization is geared towards achieving established goals and objectives (p. 45). In addition, reading development includes a wide variety of language underpinnings. The underpinnings include being aware of and understanding the incoming spoken words (phonology). The underpinnings also include the determining the correct spelling of each word (orthography). Further, the underpinnings incorporate the intended or right meaning of each word that is received from the message sender (semantics). In addition, the underpinnings include grammar aspect of the communicated idea, concept, command, request, opinion, criticism, and other purposes. (1971;78) mentioned that the set of problems chosen can be defined as the interpretation and evaluation of several culture theories in the light of related information offered by language. The average literate person can described as fluent in the reading processes. In addition, the literate person can easily comprehend as well as criticize the average printed material. Further, the illiterate person can create an inference and synthesis. The literate person can easily make essays that are congruent, with flow, and vividly discusses the facts, data, and other pertinent matters. The literate person can draw up insights, findings, and conclusions from a survey form result. In addition, the literate person uses gathered facts as a basis for the individual’s decision making activities. Lastly, individual can gather the required data needed to create innovatively creative thoughts. The New York-based United Nations characterized literacy as the ability to identify, create, interpret, compute, and communicate both written information and spoken data. In addition literacy includes ability to exert the required mental, physical, and other powers to take full control of the individual’s life (literacy). Literacy includes enhancing the individual’s potentials. Charles Bazerman (Goggin 2010) states “Literacy does not require or inexorably lead to any particular development, but it is a powerful tool available for organizing, extending, providing resources for, and transforming all of our social endeavors."(12) The quote clearly shows that a person can be literate on a certain level. In order to be successful in life, the person must be literate enough to communicate with one’s friends, families, and other persons or groups of persons. In order blend with one’s preferred group, the person learns how to communicate with the members of the group. E. D. Hirsch (Goggin 2010) emphasized "To be truly literate, a person must be conversant with a specific body of knowledge known to educated people, or, more precisely, the cultural knowledge of the dominant society." (p. 141). In this aspect of literacy, the person must learn the basic technical terms of technological terms of a body of knowledge. The lay person will be confused with the nurse’s statement your vital assigns are favorable. To the lay person, vital signs are very confusing words. Jacqueline Jones Royster (Goggin 2010) mentions "Literacy is the skill, the process, the practice of 'reading' and being articulate about 'men and nations,' which is more than just simplistic, isolated decoding and encoding skills (p. 2)." The quote clearly shows that learning is continuing process. Donald Ellis (1999;1) mentions “When you speak English -- or any other language -- you are using a system of sounds that have developed and evolved over a long period of time. The language you learned growing up is called a natural language (p. 1).” Putting it another way, it is not the imitation language or even a language created by persons for machines, computers, or a different kind of use. The normal community languages are deeply technical and guided by rules. However, the natural languages can be described as sensitive to persons and the societies where they dwell. George W. Bush (Goggin 2010) states “"More and more, we are divided into two nations: One that reads and one that can't, and, therefore, one that dreams and one that doesn't. Reading is the basics for all learning, and it must be the foundation for all other education reforms (p. 2)." The quote clearly indicates the illiteracy can be eradicated by teaching the people how to read. The person who cannot read cannot understand the teachings of the Holy Bible. The above theorists clearly explain cultural differences and language can precipitate to a person’s being literate or illiterate. Kenneth Allan (1998) stated “My general argument is premised on the assumption that most human experience is constructed through culture and that cultural production tends to create pressures for equilibrating behaviors (p. 99).” The author states that it is symbolic. Consequently, the stability of the community’s culture is inherently unstable and dependent on individuals for its state ob being. In addition Transaction Theory: Rosenblatt's transactional theory. The theory states that reading is a transaction because the readers’ previous knowledge, experiences, personality, and culture influence how one person interprets a story, a poem, or a picture (Rosenblatt, 1994). For example, if two students read a poem, they have different interpretations of the poem. The mind creates uniquely different messages to the two poem admirers. An African American will interpret a book using one’s African American cultural background. On the other hand, the Asian American reader will interpret the book’s stories in terms of the Asian American’s cultural inheritance. The Christian reader of the crusades will have a different interpretation and temperament compared to Muslim reader of the crusades story (p. 45). Rosenblatt creates a mutual and a mutually defining link between literary text and its readers. Transactional theory can be applied to the teaching of any literary topic as well as literary criticisms. Rosenblatt (1984) mentions interaction is a word that brings out images in terms of pictures of various objects rushing into each other but basically staying unchanged (P. 59). A good example occurs when billiard balls that are unrealistically shown as running over another. Similarly, the situation occurs when a person reads a book or lesson. Transactional theory produces a criticism between the entire poem’s meaning and each poem text. In this respect, a poem can be classified as a literary masterpiece. Rosenblatt crafts a reasonable debate for creating a different aspect of the text and poem. The debate states that it is not purposely to address a text in the same level as a poem. Rosenblatt explains a ext is a mere ink on a document. On the other hand, the poem points to the occurrences or activities in the reader’s mind. The poem contains power-packed words that symbolically bring out unbridled emotions, images, and concepts in the transaction. Poems are created by the magical interplay of text (Rosenblatt, 1978, P. 66). For example, Joyce Kilmer’s world famous poem, Trees, can be used to explain the Rosenblatt’s transaction theory as follows (http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/trees/): “I Tthink that I shall never see A poem lovely as a tree. A tree whose hungry mouth is prest Against the sweet earth's flowing breast; “ The word poem can be defined a set of words. However, reading the entire first two lines of the poem, trees, creates a lovely image that the poet can never equate the most beautiful poem in the world to the same level of a tree. The poet shows the importance of trees in the life of the poet. The word or text think can mean pondering. However, the poet, Joyce Kilmer, uses the group of texts or words to indicate that the poet is thinking of whether the poem is of the same beauty level or status as a tree, a creation of God. The 3rd and 4th lines of the poem, trees, the word breast can normally be defined as the part of the body that produces milk for the baby child for feeding. On the other hand, the entire 3rd and 4th lines creates a magical impression on the reader that the earth has a breast. The depiction is correct because the trees get their material nourishments from the soil, part of the part’s breast. The human milk is likened to the water and other soil ingredients needed by the trees to survive. Emergent literacy theory by Marie Cay. The theory shows how the young child will interact with books when the child is reading a book (Tracey, 2006). Likewise, the each child will interact differently when they write or read the same book. The two children will have different depths in terms of reading the book. A child who is reading a fairy tale such as Snow White and the seven Dwarfs or Snow White will surely be drawn into the cultural world of the fairy tale. The child will forget the real world he is in such as the home or the school library (p. 26). Further, Marie (1966) insists teachers are capable of implementing a literacy-rich classroom environment by implementing literacy classroom activities for children that include games and songs. The songs and games enable the development of the children’s phonemic awareness (p.145). Instructors encourage repetitive reading and reading aloud during class time to reinforce children’s understanding of concepts. In the same light, as the child writes what he or she reads in the book, the child is catapulted into the adventures of the book’s stories. On the other hand, if the child is reading a horror story such as Frankenstein or Dracula, the child will tremble from fear. The child will fear the Monster is trying to hurt the child, the reader of the book. On the other hand, the child will act energetically as one reads a war book. The child will surely side with the American soldier in the World War II story. The child will feel hatred toward the German soldiers. The story shows that the Germans are led by Adolf Hitler in World War II. The child will be angry at the German soldiers for killing the Jews, in the Gas Chambers. In addition, the child will be happy to read an adventure book. The child will read the story of the Odyssey and marvel at the thousand ships sent to retrieve Helen of Troy from the Paris. This clearly shows that children normally react to the stories written by the authors. According to Marie (1966), there are several stages of the emergent literacy theory. The first stage of research and awareness starts at the infancy age when the child uses one’s ears to comprehend sounds or words coming form one’s parents, brother, sisters, or other person. At this stage in the child’s life, the child can easily recognize and be mesmerized by a rattle hanging over the child’s crib. The child can easily recognize the faces of one’s parents, siblings, and complete strangers. Clearly there is a difference between how a to printed word and a spoken word is sent by the message sender and received by the child or any message receiver (p.86). Consequently, the parents, baby sitters, and other individuals are persuaded to read books or stories to the child in a repetitive manner in order to catch the child’s attention and the keep the child’s attention. Next, the second stage occurs during the child’s preschool years. The stage includes a lot of writing and reading adjustments. The adjustments are aimed at keeping the learning pace on the child’s capacity to learn a new word or message in the classroom environment. During this important stage, the child’s learning process is favorably gained by connect the letters to common words. The words can include the names of people, places, things, or the alphabet song. The children are persuaded to learn the letters during their daily reading classroom reading activities. During the early writing and learning stage, the children venture in the challenging world of formal education. The learning process is pegged as learning through the use of phonetics. The children are taught to write phonetically. For clarity, the children scribble what they hear as they attentively and eagerly listen to the word spoken by the classroom teacher. The child’s fourth learning stage is described as the transitional writing and reading stage. Here, the child learners can easily recognize the meaning of some written words discussed in the prior classroom activities. For example, the child will learn that the word hen refers to an animal have the characteristics of a hen. The child will learn that the word hat represents the object which is used by persons on their heads to stop the harmful ultraviolet rays of the sun from harming the person’s brain parts. During the same stage, the young children can understand and even pinpoint the inner thesis of any given sentence. In addition, the eager children can combine many ideas together to create a beautiful, realistic, and understandable image. The author vividly describes the last stage is that of competent writing and reading. Children at this stage are metamorphosed into adequate text readers. The children can easily understand long novels using vague, confusing, unfamiliar and complex words. During this final stage, the learning children can independently comprehend words and stories without the direct help of the teacher or parent (Marie, 1966, p. 132). The children’s mentors can strongly handle an understanding of the children’s reading and writing progress by observing and intervening during the children’s normal learning activities. The teacher’s favorable help enhances the child’s current learning aptitudes and knowledge. The nonstop literacy enhancement significantly affects the child to mature to conventional from emergent literacy. Literacy is promoted by teachers, caregivers and parents efforts. The emergent literacy theory discusses the child’s learning process, especially when learning the English language. With the implementation of the different literacy learning stages, the children learn the required phonemics needed to enable the children to learn new and unfamiliar words of any language with flying colors (Kay & Green, 2004, p. 49) Sociolinguitic Theory by Basil Berstein. Peter Trudgill (2000) reiterates the theory clearly shows that the code is a set of organizing principles behind the language used by the members of each social group (p. 14). Likewise, Atkinson (1985) reiterates teachers craft one type of communication modification of communication depending on modalities in school (p.44). The everyday language used by members of each diverse cultural group reflects the concepts, thoughts, ideals, language, and temperaments of the group. The accountants have their own set of technical language. The engineers have their own terminologies. The physical therapist has a different medical terminology compared to the medical terminology of the pharmacist. Atkinson (1985) insists Sociolinguistic theory had been developed by Basil Bernstein to influentially enhance the prevailing communication research using language codes. (p.89). The language code includes the principles organized behind idioms used by a social society. The language codes are either prohibitive or elaborated. The codes as used to unite a group of selected persons. The outsiders cannot understand the meaning of the codes. Often close friends used codes to ensure eavesdroppers do not intercept their confidential information. In the same light. In the accounting profession, the accountants use codes to ensure that information if fairly presented to all stakeholders of the company. An example, an accounting will send the following accounting codes to the financial statement users indicating the company holds primary assets. The current assets is composed of cash and cash equivalents, inventories, accounts receivables, short term marketable securities, and deferred tax assets. The company’s current assets increased from its 2010 amount $41,678 to its 2011 amount $44,988. The long term marketable securities are composed investments held for more than one year. The 2010 long term marketable securities increased from its 2010 amount $ 25,391 to its 2011 amount $ 55,618. The company’s property plant and equipment section includes buildings, land, and production equipment. The company’s property, plant and equipment increased from its 2010 amount $4,768 to its 2011 amount $7,777. The company’s goodwill, acquired intangible assets, and other assets form part of the company’s total assets portfolio (Brigham, 2001). The lay person will find the above accounting codes very difficulty to comprehend. The lay person does not know what are considered as property, plant, or equipment. The client will not understand the fair explanation of the word other assets. Further, the layperson will find the terms cash and cash equivalents, inventories, accounts receivables, short term marketable securities, and deferred tax assets very confusing. The lay person must ask the help of an accountant or a person who is an expert in accounting and finance to explain each and every accounting code used in the preparation of the financial reports. The Bernstein theory shows how the people implement language in communication or data transfer during the people’s daily interpretation to reflect the various shapes and a social group’s concepts. The relationships or influences that are ascertained among members of a given group affect their language uses and the speech they implement. The Bernstein theory focused on the amplification for the comparatively unfavorable performance outcome in the language subjects by working class students. However, the same persons were getting high scores in mathematics subjects. The middle class individuals also generated high math scores in the same exams. According to Atkinson (1985), The Bernstein theory explains that, one learning code can never be better than the other learning codes at all aspects. Each of the learning codes contains probabilities and aesthetics of their own. (p. 38). Society sets distinct values on orders maintained and elicited experiences. A correlation exists between social class as well as their restricted or elaborated code. The restricted code is likely found in the working class while both codes are found in the middle class. Middle class access both codes because it is more socially, culturally and geographically mobile. Bernstein theory is applicable in a classroom set up. Atkinson (1985) emphasized that the teachers teachers create a modernization of communication based on the school’s modalities (p.44). The children’s mentors are persuaded to transfer knowledge to the pupils under an environment of multiple learning areas. Consequently, the implementation develops the pupils’ communicative capacities. The teachers comprehend the methodologies that are suitable to allow the child learners to received communicative knowledge. For example, the multilingual students of any United States school effectively learn English as a second language. Going further, Brian Davis (2004) opines that Bernstein's model of schooling as a 'pedagogic device' was well conducted stating “four general stages are proposed for the sequencing of reading development, from pre-school through junior and upper primary to secondary school, constituting a literacy curriculum that underlies the overt content of school syllabi. It is suggested that children from highly literate communities access this underlying curriculum tacitly, while many Indigenous and other children from less highly literate communities are effectively excluded. Four learning interactions are analyzed to illustrate how patterns of pedagogic discourse in home and school can build both orientations to ways of meaning and children's identities as successful or unsuccessful learners” (p. 91). Further, Brian Davis (2004) theorizes “Previous research has revealed social class differences both in relation to authority and in the extent to which language and meanings are contextualized. For example, Kohn (1963, 1983) observed that working-class jobs usually require obedience to authority and conformity to rigid routines, whereas middle-class occupations tend to allow more autonomy and intellectual work. Kohn argued that these differences carry over into child-rearing. Indeed, studies have found that working-class parents tend to be more authoritative, whereas middle-class parents are more likely to emphasize reasoning and playfulness when instructing their children (p. 108).” In addition, Bernstein (1975) argued that linguistic codes differ by social class. According to Bernstein, more privileged classes, who tend to be individualistic and have more opportunities to venture beyond local environments, have fuller access to 'elaborated codes' or language with meaning that is explicit and relatively independent of contexts. This is the language of mainstream society, including schools. Meanwhile, lower status families are more likely to use 'restricted codes' or language with implicit and context-dependent meanings. This orientation makes sense when emphasis is placed on community and common knowledge is shared. Bernstein explains that the codes are necessary. The group members do not have to discuss in detail the meaning of the group’s code. The group members can save time reading a message by just looking at the codes. For example, the accounting words the company generated a net profit for the current year clearly shows that the business passed the profitability benchmark during the year in question. On the other hand, the accounting person’s sending a message stating that the company generated a gross loss for the prior year indicates the business entity was not able to generate the minimum amount of revenue during the prior accounting year’s operations. Consequently the company will not be able to generate the required net profits for the current year. The codes instill openness among the group members. The working class generally favor the use of restricted codes a medium communication. The workers only need the restricted codes as a means of communication among themselves. On the other hand, the social class groups have more time to use both the elaborated codes and the restricted codes as a means of clear and fast communication among its group members. The social group, belonging to the middle class population, is generally more geographically located. Likewise the social group’s members are socially mobile. In the addition, the members of the social group are also culturally mobile. The restricted codes are evidently less formal when compared to the social group’s elaborated communication codes. Based on the above discussion, there are several theories of literacy. The different literacy theories complement each other. Bernstein, Cay, and Rosenblatt have their complementary concepts of learning. The essence of the literacy and other theories is to find the best theory that fits each uniquely divergent literacy subject. Indeed, the literacy and other theories help the teachers tailor the most appropriate literacy and other programs enhance the literacy statistics of the United States learners. References: Atkinson, P. (1985). Language, Structure and Reproduction: An Introduction to the Sociology of Basil Bernstein. London: Methuen. Allan, K. (1998). The Meaning of Culture. Westport : Praeger Press. Brigham, E. (2001). Fundamentals of Financial Management. Sydney: Harcourt Collins, A. (1979). Children's Language and Communication. Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum Press. Durant, A. (20009). Culture and Commmunication in Intercultural Communication. European Journal of English Studies , 13 (2), 147-162. Ellis, D. (1999). From Language to Communication. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Press. Goggin, P. (2010). Professing Literacy in Composition Studies. Michigan: University of Michigan Press. Greenberg, J. (1971). Culture and Communication. Stanford: Standford University Press. Marie M. C. (1966). 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