Socio-cultural view of Literacy

Definition: Culture - may be described as the ideas, customs, skills, arts and tools which characterise a given group of people in a given period of time (Emmitt & Pollock, 1997 in Adolescent and Adult Literacy and Numeracy EDVT12015, 2011).


Socio-cultural view of literacy=  This means that the language and mathematical concepts and processes that we use to engage in living in society are given meaning only if they are located within the cultures and social contexts in which they occur (Adolescent and Adult Literacy and Numeracy EDVT12015, 2011).  


Click here for HD LINK:    Example:"Literacy & Numeracy Demands in ITD Abacus Project"

Oakhill and Beard (1999) as cited in Winch et al.(2010, p. 98) argue that literacies are not a plural; that is,they do not equate with various cultures as this would mean that their are as many literacies as there ae cultures throughout the world.  Oakhill and Beard (1999) believe that teaching literacy is about teaching the skills of reading and writing and once learnt may be applied in many ways to cover the broad definition of literacy.  The skills referred to enable people to decipher the writing systems and systems that they need to use in their socio-cultural experiences.  Oakhill and Beard's view is very much influenced by cognitive psychology and its origins from Vygotsky.  Vygotsky's social constructivist or socialcultural theory suggests that a child will learn from 'scaffolding and guided discovery, continuing interaction between the child and its environment to facilitate the child's understanding of the world about them' (McInerney & McInerney, 2006, p. 62)

Teachers adopting a Vygotskian Social Constructivist Perspective for Education:
Teachers should:

1. develop students'personality
2. facilitate creative potential of students
3. actively involve each learner
4. guide individual activity of students and do not dictate or force own will upon them; rather,adopt collaborative approach where authentic teaching and learning arise from a collaboration between adults and students
5. align teaching strategies that support individual characteristics and development recognising a uniform approach is not adequate
6. provide tools that learners need to internalise the ways of thinking central to participation in the social and cultural world around them.

(McInerney & McInerney, 2006, p. 62)

Sommerville (2009) as cited in Winch et al. (2010, p. 98) believes the variations in languages, symbols and gestures' are in fact 'processes of translation' giving meaning to literacy as being linked in some way across all boundaries.  I do not agree with Sommerville's view that the concept of multiliteracies in a sense militates against this by encouraging teachers to add all sorts of different literacies believing they are all distinct from each other.  I agree that all literacies have a common foundation however and may be further linked as they are orchestrated in a socio-cultural manner by individuals.  

This can give rise to literacy theory as stated by Winch et al. (2010, p. 98-99), 'Literacy throws light on the nature of comprehension and the locus of meaning', nevertheless, 'in the balanced approach to reading ... the importance of the reader, the writer, the code, and the sociocultural context of the text are all considered important in finding meaning and teaching children to read.' 

Teaching writing in the classroom:

Focus on:

• effective use of language
• purpose of the writing (audience intended)
• teaching strategies include: Modelling Writing; Imitating Written texts; Guided Writing (joint construction of texts with peers or teacher); Independent Writing (assisting student to become a confident and accurate writer).  
• Recognising texts are socially constructed 
• Texts are written for a social purpose (instruction, argue a point, report on a topic or incident, tell a story ...)
• Texts are read within a social context.
• The critical importance for a teacher is to 1) understand the social importance of texts and 2) understanding of language are essential. 
• Sociolinguistic approach : emphasises the purpose of a text will determine: Structure, Grammar, Layout and Vocabulary required.  
• Recognition of students' social language experiences: Home; Community; Online & School formal and School informal.  These social contexts will provide most of the text types or genres students will be engaged in.   

Definition: Genre - 'refers to any staged, purposeful cultural activity, and this includes oral language genres as well as written language genres.  A genre is characterised by having a schematic structure - a distictive beginning, middle and end' (Deakin University, 1984, p. 25, as cited in, Winch et al., 2010, p. 424).