Of New Englishes and and New Literacies

5.3 Core Components of Literacy
Literacy as a complex notion is driven by many components as illustrated below.



Fig. 3: Simplified Components of Literacy
As a cognitive activity, literacy involves critical thinking. This entails developing and using analytical thinking, developing a questioning mind towards one’s world, and producing critical responses to what one hears, sees/views, writes and talks about. Literacy is an umbrella concept which encapsulates the traditional language skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. However, in contemporary times, we cannot talk of literacy without reference to technological skills which is a driver of literacy. This is why we talk of ICT or digital literacy or how we deploy technology in various content areas in teaching and learning and in daily use for living and how these content areas inform technological practices. This is what has given rise to digital humanities for those of us in studies in the humanities. How we manipulate critical thinking and technological skills in the deployment of the basic communication skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing lie at the heart of various forms of literacy. As our understanding of these skills and components change, so is the notion of literacy so much so that we can begin to talk of literacy of literacies.

6. 
   Forms of Literacies and New Literacies
   

There are different forms of literacy so, it is better to talk about literacies. Lawal (2016) provides an illuminating taxonomy of literacies as seen in the diagram below. According to Lawal (2016), “Literacy as genus is thus a complex, ideal, superordinate process and behavior instantiated by real human beings through diverse avenues in variegated contexts within developmental stages on a continuum of proficiency” (p. 7). Thus the taxonomy begins from a superordinate node known as ‘Generic Literacy’, which flows down to ‘Literacies’ which then split into five parameters of Medium, Personal/Individual, Context, Attitude, and Continuum. As Lawal (2016) notes, “The five parameters …in the taxonomy cannot be mutually exclusive as they derive from one and the same generic source. There are thus possible as well as obvious overlaps which would serve to give rise to newer and newer literacies” (p. 8). So, within the parameter of ‘Medium’, we can identify sub-parameters of ‘Visual, Multisensory, and Tactile’. From these sub-parameters we can situate digital literacy which seems to define the sub-genre of ‘new media literacies’. New literacies within the coordinate of ‘Literacies’ can be applied to other core subordinates of ‘Person or Individual’, the acquisition and utilization of new literacies; the ‘Context’ within which new literacies are acquired and applied; the ‘Attitude’ to new literacies in terms of reception, use and cultural practice. The ‘Continuum’ of new literacies determines the degree of proficiency in the use and deployment of new literacies.