Of New Englishes and and New Literacies

5.2 Understanding Literacy
The term ‘literacy’ is one of the most pervasive and fluid concepts in contemporary discourse. This fluidity arises because although literacy evolved as a language-based term, it has increasingly expanded into a trans-discipline cutting across and encapsulating virtually every conceivable area of human endeavour and experience. Therefore, any working definition of literacy must be seen as generic so that societies, cultures, institutions and even individuals can situate their own definition and understanding of literacy. For the purpose of this lecture, I shall delimit the notion of literacy broadly into three. First, literacy as a set of competencies used in a metaphorical sense to denote basic competencies in listening, speaking, reading, writing, critical thinking, technological and numeracy skills. Secondly, literacy as practical ramification or social practice applied in areas such as communication, cultural identity, socio-economic development, political participation, education, spiritual enlightenment, recreation, etc for life-long learning. This yields reference to such areas as academic literacy, computer literacy, media literacy, health literacy, eco-literacy, emotional literacy, financial literacy, peace literacy, ICT literacy, Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) literacy, etc. Thirdly, literacy as a trans-disciplinary domain of enquiry studied as an academic discipline and as professional practice. From these three perspectives, it is obvious that literacy is a plural notion that does not yield itself to a universal definition. It is therefore understandable to agree with the point that …”literacy is not uniform, but is instead culturally and linguistically and even temporarily diverse. It is shaped by social as well as educational institutions, the family, community, workplace, religious establishments and the state” (UNESCO, 2004, p.13). To underscore the changing dimensions of literacy, UNESCO has since 1958 provided insights to how the definitions of literacy and a literate person have expanded continuously.
The UNESCO recommendation of 1958 says, “… a literate person is one who can, with understanding, both read and write a short statement on his or her everyday life”. This was when the focus was on the 3R’s of reading, writing and calculating. So literacy was seen as “…the ability to read and write with understanding a simple statement related to one’s daily life. It involves a continuum of reading and writing skills, and often includes also basic arithmetic skills’ (See UNESCO Education for All 2000 Assessment).
In 1970, UNESCO shifted emphasis to functional literacy and so it described a functionally literate person as “…as one who can engage in all those activities in which literacy is required for the effective functioning of his or her group and community and also for enabling him or her to continue to use reading, writing and calculation for his or her own and the community’s development.” In June 2003, UNESCO modified the definition of literacy although for the purpose of measurement to be, “…the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate and compute using printed and written materials associated with diverse contexts. Literacy involves a continuum of learning in enabling an individual to achieve his or her goals, develop his or her knowledge and potentials and participate fully in community and society.” (See World Education Forum 2015 draft report on Framework for Action: Towards inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning for all, April 23, 2015).