In his article “What is literacy?”, James Paul Gee maintains that the definition of discourse: is a formal discussion that can be used to identify oneself as a member of a social group. In the reading, discourse talk into production of goods in a society “dominant discourse” and assent to talk about those groups that have disagreement when using them as “dominant groups”. When people discuss something with other, they are not using their own ideas. Important to realize, the author organizes discourse that directly to groups in society. According to the author, he goes to discuss about a distinction which is between acquisition and learning. Acquisition means the act or process of achieving of a language. Learning means the act or process of …show more content…
gaining knowledge or skills. Everything in life is included by acquisition and learning. In other words, whenever people playing instruments, working in a company, or practicing a secondary language, they need to combine of acquisition and learning. He argues that reading class has a stressful learning and not an acquisition. Gee also summarizes the regular definition of literacy as “the ability to read and write”. Then, the author states that important process as primary discourse and secondary discourses. A primary discourse that people closest to each other, such as parents, sibling, neighborhood. Secondary discourse that the area outside the home, where people can develop and show their skills and experiences in life. Gee admits that all of discourse is a large amount people go through from acquisition, not by leaning. Finally, the author goes to explain that children are going to school seem like learning, reading ability, but to put in another way, Gee has confident that children acquire the literacy by their experiences at home. The school would help children have more knowledge, gain more skills to them and make them be successful in life. After summarizing the reading “What is literacy”, Gee tells very clear and directly by giving technical grammars.
People know grammar, but they do not know how to use while reading and writing. Gee describes everything to let people know about defining the term of discourse. I understand of the reading that literacy is able to write and read. Then, when I finish Gee’s reading, I think of literacy as a language of discourse that contain into the community and connect with people. What is the discourse mean? It means communication of thought by words; talk; conversation. Discourse cannot be learned or taught as the subjects in school, but it acquired through social life. Additionally, Gee goes on to explain the two kinds of discourse: primary discourse and secondary discourse. In his reading, I really like how he says about primary discourse and secondary discourse. In The first place, primary discourse is developed and expanded in society; it is getting a connection and process with this secondary discourse. First, primary discourse is people are closest together, such as parents, sibling, or neighborhood. In other words, primary discourse in my life would be learning great things in my family when I was as a child. Family environment grew me up and gave me large numbers opportunities. I was fortunate to get both father and mother as great family. They teach me how to behave and respect with people around. Family is my small society; if I do not have family with me, I would not develop my knowledge. Family teaches me how to connect and behavior with the neighborhood. Family provides me the value of life as sharing information and building the
happiness. Secondary discourse which has the area outside of the home; people can expand and develop their skills and experiences. By all means, my secondary discourse is studying in the USA. Many things happen when I am being here as changing a cultural language, meeting a lot of students from other countries. About two years ago, I was feeling stressful when I was here the first week in school: no friends, no family and no English. Thankfully, people were friendly when they talk to me, I tried to communicate with them by feeling and body language at first; then, I got a best friend to talk. She was practicing with me almost every day when we were in school. Now, my English is pretty much better than the first was in the USA. I am in college and got friends from over the world. We are doing stuff together as working out, doing homework, and parties. I have my own experiences to be in the USA even though in the beginning was a hard time to communicate and knowing with people. Being an international student would contribute me to life with so much emotion, such as happiness and sadness, but I can earn myself the value of life, and things I have to go through by myself. Even though being international, I have to go far away from my family, have to be confident. I would need to try my best to be successful because the USA has a good environment and education. This article is really interesting to read. Gee said that primary discourse and secondary discourse have a really strong connection. Primary discourse is an environment, a foundation for secondary discourse to move father into the development of language. Also, these two need to be compatible with each other. Furthermore, there are lots of example and explanation in “What is literacy?”. It gave me more knowledge so that I can apply it in the future. As a result, I believe culture’s values and behaviors can be learned. Everything that people know is totally from learning.
One of the propositions Barton and Hamilton include when defining the nature of literacy is “Literacy is best understood as a set of social practices; these can be inferred from
In this paper, James Paul Gee states his opinion on the definition of literacy. He begins by redefining the word “discourse” and uses it frequently throughout the paper. Gee defines discourse as a group that you are socially linked to through your actions and thoughts. This group defines who you are in society. He then uses the beginning of his paper to continue explaining “discourses”. The main points he covers are that discourses are defined by history and culture and therefore, change through time. Also, he explains that one is involved in many different discourses. This might cause one to break rules or understandings of one discourse to align with a dissimilar one.
Throughout the span of the past few weeks I have traversed the globe, visiting several countries and regions, only to realize that although new methods develop, language as a way of expressing ones self has remained the most effective. Despite this fact, language still has its pitfalls. Neil Postman, in his essay “Defending Against the Indefensible,'; outlines seven concepts that can be used to aid a student in better understanding the language as a means of communication. He describes how modern teaching methods leave a student vulnerable to the “prejudices of their elders';, further stating that a good teacher must always be skeptical. He urges teachers of all subjects to break free from traditional teachings as well as “linguistical tyranny';
Throughout childhood, one progresses from naivety and innocence to knowledge and awareness. It is a long journey that we as people go on to become adults, and even when we have reached our goal, there is still much more to learn about the world around us. Harper Lee’s
A discourse community is a group of individuals all with relatively the same ending goal or original interest that all have their own way of participation and have different motives, it is easier to feel more included in a discourse community once literacy achieved. Discourse communities can be found in many different places; it is just a matter of what is being looked for. These communities can come from the entire population, all of the people who speak the English language, any place of education, restaurants, any home, or even at the gym/ recreation center. In order to become literate in the fitness discourse community the differences in basic motives, the values that are important, and the places available to work out at must be understood.
Discourse communities and literacy sponsors are very useful terms to know while in college reading and writing in order to understand and finish the course. This paper is a great example as a whole on why these two terms are indeed useful, without them this paper could not have been written. Everyone is involved somehow with a discourse community and literacy sponsor so it is always good to understand what these things are that you are involved with and how to notice them in college reading and writing along with the world.
“Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope. It is a tool for daily life in modern society. It is a bulwark against poverty, and a building block of development, an essential complement to investments in roads, dams, clinics and factories. Literacy is a platform for democratization, and a vehicle for the promotion of cultural and national identity. Especially for girls and women, it is an agent of family health and nutrition. For everyone, everywhere, literacy is, along with education in general, a basic human right.... Literacy is, finally, the road to human progress and the means through which every man,
After reading the essays in Ways of Reading this semester I find validity in the old cliché I still have much to learn. In particular, I thought I knew what major philosophical arguments grounded the field of education however I never realized how many diverse debates are occurring in the field of literacy education. In concluding a theme from the essays, I would suggest a common theme of contextualization and its importance to both writing and education. In Authority and American Usage, David Foster Wallace writes, “you need more than one dialect to get along in school” ( ). Wallace’s quote represents a conclusion of an argument about the role context plays in regards to efficiency with language. In this case Wallace uses the example of a boy who is excellent at rapport with his teachers
When schools offer children quality education in their primary language, they present them two things: knowledge and literacy. The knowledge that children get through their first language helps make the English they hear and read more comprehensible. Literacy is developed in the primary language transfers to the second language. The reason is simple: Because we learn by reading, that is, by making sense of what is on the page, it is easier to learn to read in a language we understand. Once we can read in one language, we can read in general.
"Soliday tells us that "the plot of a literacy story tells what happens when we acquire language, either spoken or written." This seems like it should be a natural process but she suggests that when we treat learning as a foreign process, something to be analyzed and deciphered, we can better "explore the profound cultural force language exerts in [our] everyday lives." Based on her article and on your own experience, what do we gain when we consider our literacies as processes worthy of closer examination?"
The aim of this essay is to explore language acquisition and compare and contrast different theories of language acquisition and language development. Language in its most basic form is used to communicate our needs and wants. It encompasses a range of modes of delivery including signing, spoken and written words, posture, eye contact, facial expressions and gestures. So how do we learn ‘language’? Are we born with the skills for communication, or is it something that we have to learn or have taught to us? Four theories are looked at in this essay to determine how children acquire and then develop language. These theories include behaviourist, nativist, cognitivist and sociocultural. This essay will highlight some similarities and differences in each theory and what impact these have on a child’s acquisition and development of language. Lastly we will look at the implications of these theories when working with children. Can a classroom teacher deliver a quality literacy program based on just one of these theories or does it need to incorporate components of all four? Sims, (2012) pp. 21 states ‘’High-quality learning experiences in the early years of life enhance children’s cognitive and language skills’’. This places a great responsibility on educators and teachers alike to provide an environment which is rich in learning opportunities that will encourage both the acquisition and development of language.
James Paul Gee defines discourse as “a socially accepted association among ways of using language, of thinking, and of acting that can be used to identify oneself as a member of a socially meaningful group or ‘social network’” in his article What is Literacy (1). After defining discourse, Gee compared the word to an “identity kit”. A person’s identity is subsidized into social and personal identity and social identity is broken down even further into type (characteristics) and role (actions). A person might have to take on different roles throughout their life and therefore their social identity may change. Just as the world around us and definition of the word literacy changes and evolves, so do people 's discourses. Technology has empowered people and allowed them to become what they consider to be literate. Context and interpretation both play important roles in the definition of literacy. Context dictates the literacy and identity of the situation and how people interpret different discourses changes the definition of literacy. Most people would consider literacy to be the ability to read and write, but there is more to it than
Garton, A., & Pratt, C. (1998). Learning to be literate: The development of spoken and written language (2nd ed.). Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
There are some theoreticians who view literacy in a form of social practice. In their view, social issues are also important components, as well as linguistic competence and understanding cognitive processes in language studies. Freire (1974) views literacy not only as a process of knowledge transformation, but also as a relationship of learners to the world. Vygotsky (1978) suggests two stages of development at social and individual level. In his view, literacy is a phenomenon that is created, shared, and changed by the members of a society. Gee (1996) similarly argues that becoming literate means apprenticeship with texts and apprenticeships in particular ways of being. In summary, literacy practices are not just about language, but about their interrelation with social practices.
Literacy and education are similar yet two very different concepts. Literacy is the ability to read and write. How ironic it is to be a part of the country where right to education is a fundamental right but half of the country’s population can’t even spell their own name. Illiterate people, no matters how talented or experienced they may be, fall into the traps of various others who have continued to exploit them since centuries. One may argue or debate that being literate is not the only means to