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Next Gen Literacies

Literacy – the power code

By August 7, 2017126 Comments5 min read21,648 views

U.S. Vice President Pence ignores NASA “DO NOT TOUCH” sign. Would anyone else get away with such illiterate behavior?

“Literacy” is one of those words that everyone uses as a technical term but that is actually really hard to pin down. When I asked the new students in my “Literacies” unit last week what they thought “literacy” meant, they came up with quite a variety of definitions.

The most popular definition of “literacy” was that it is simply a cover term for “reading and writing”. That understanding of literacy contrasts with spoken language. Closely related to this first understanding of literacy is a second of literacy as “the ability to read and write.” Students with a background in language teaching readily referenced the “four skills” – speaking, listening, reading and writing – that make up language proficiency.

The latter understanding of literacy has spawned a significant expansion of the use of “literacy”: today, “literacy” is no longer exclusively about language but may be used to refer to all kinds of knowledge and competences: financial literacy, computer literacy, digital literacy, media literacy, news literacy, environmental literacy, ethics literacy, health literacy, spiritual literacy, artistic literacy, emotional literacy, etc. etc. While the connection with written language is more obvious in some of these literacies than in others, the reason for the extension of the meaning of “literacy” to “competence” is clear: in the contemporary world, the acquisition of most competences is mediated through the written word and at least some reading and writing is involved in the vast majority of learning.

The multiple meanings of “literacy” from “written language” via “ability to use written language” to “all kinds of language-mediated competences” make the link with social practices obvious and give us yet another perspective on literacy: literacy is a way to do things with words. Literacy practices are intricately linked to the way we manage our social affairs and organize our social lives. In short, literacy is a tool of power.

While some people like to pretend that literacy is a neutral technology and that “the ability to read and write” will be equally beneficial to everyone and have the same consequences for any individual and in any society, nothing could be further from the truth.

One simple way to start thinking about the power relationships inherent in literacy practices is to consider its semantic field. A semantic field is constituted by all the words in a language that relate to a particular subject. In English, the key terms in the semantic field “literacy” are obviously “reading” and “writing”. Both words have Germanic roots: “read” derives from Old English “rædan”, which meant “to advise, counsel, persuade; discuss, deliberate; rule, guide.” Its German cognate is “raten”, which means both “to advise, counsel, guide” but also “to guess.” So, reading was associated with thought and cognition early on.

“Write” derives from Old English “writan” meaning “to carve, scratch.” Well, writing started out as a way to scratch marks on bone, bark or clay, or to carve them in stone or wood. So, it’s not surprising that the word for “write” originally meant something like “to carve or scratch” in many languages. Latin “scribere” is no exception.

You may wonder why I’m bringing up Latin here. Well, it is not to show off my classical education but to draw attention to the fact that – apart from basic “read” and “write” – most English words in the “literacy” field are actually derived from Latin.

The Latin verb “scribere” has given us “ascribe”, “describe”, “inscribe”, “prescribe” and “proscribe”, to name a few. The latter two in particular point to the fact that the written word is closely connected to the enactment of power: so close, in fact, that the written word may be equal to the law. The expression “the writ runs” makes this connection obvious: where a particular written language is used, a particular law applies.

English words that make the power of literacy obvious are usually derived from Latin (and, of course, “literacy” itself is another example). This demonstrates the strong hold that not only the written language per se but Latin writing in particular had over Europe for almost two millennia. Latin was the language of the law and the language of religion – two domains that took a long time to separate from each other. The close association of writing with religion is also obvious from the word “scripture” – where a word for “writing” generally has come to stand specifically for religious writing.

There are many other fascinating associations to explore in the semantic field of “literacy” but I’ll close with an example from German, which makes a neat point about the fact that the relationship between written and spoken language is also a power relationship in itself. The German word “Schriftsprache” literally translates as “written language” but specifically refers to the standard language. The expression “nach der Schrift sprechen” (“to speak according to writing”) means to not use a regionally marked dialect but to speak the national language in a standard manner.

As linguists we like to insist on the primacy of speech but “nach der Schrift sprechen” reminds us that power usually runs in the opposite direction and, in literate societies, the power code is either written or writing-based speech.

What does the semantic field for “literacy” look like in your language? What is the etymology of the translation equivalents of “read and write” or of “literacy”? And what do they tell us about literacy as a social practice embedded in relationships of power?

Reference

Details of the vice-presidential transgression in the image are available in this Time article.

Ingrid Piller

Author Ingrid Piller

Dr Ingrid Piller, FAHA, is Distinguished Professor of Applied Linguistics at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. Her research expertise is in bilingual education, intercultural communication, language learning, and multilingualism in the context of migration and globalization.

More posts by Ingrid Piller

Join the discussion 126 Comments

  • Siqi says:

    In China, being literate basically means that one has the ability to read and write written text. Similar to what is mentioned in this article, the focus of literacy is on written language. We usually call those who are illiterate “不识字“, which literally should be translated to “lack the ability to recognize words”, so for example, if one can speak and understand Mandarin when hearing it but cannot identify the Chinese character in paper, then he/she could be considered as illiterate.

  • Anas says:

    In Jordon, the main language spoken is Arabic. Arabic is written in its own alphabet – there are twenty-nine consonantal letters and “diacritical signs to represent vowels, as well as subject, object, and other grammatical units” (Alhaddad, 2014). “Literacy” in Arab معرفة القراءة والكتابة or maerifat alqira’at walkitaba, means knowledge, learning and knowing (maerifa).

    In primary schools, grades 1 – 4 are devoted to using Arabic and the main aim is to enable students to use Arabic, being the official language, to express ideas both in writing and speaking. In secondary schooling, the attention is in understanding classical and modern Arabic literature. As such, students are encouraged to express their opinions about a particular subject matter being discussed in classrooms. Those in the teaching profession may notice students from Arab nations are able to participate in classroom discussions but lack the ability to express the same thoughts and opinions in writing. This has become one of the main aims of the Board of Education in Jordan – to improve students’ writing ability in particular academic writing.

    On the subject of literacy, in the 1980’s literacy rates among the Arab nations were only at 51.3% and today the rates range from 80% and above in nine countries (Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar, and Libya), which are relatively small states with the exception of Saudi Arabia, to less than 75% in nine other countries with large populations, with Iraq, Mauritania and Yemen standing as low as 40% and 41.2% and 49% respectively (Hammoud, 2006).

    Literacy and power, thus, is a social commodity in which it is further complicated by gender, ethnicity and socio-economic status. Furthermore, due to its location – it borders other Arab countries such as Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Palestine, and Israel, there is a constant movement of migration for work and the number of refugees is on the rise. As such, approximately 2.9 people out of the 10 million population are non-citizens.

    How does this affect literacy and individual power in terms of navigating through the social, economic and political arena? This has raised various heated discussions on Jordanian government’s commitment to literacy, especially among the Palestinian refugees to the number of unemployment rate among local university graduates. This will require a discussion on another forum as I am sure students from other countries have their own related issues in their respective countries.

  • Xinyue Ji says:

    (1) In my language, “literacy” means “识字,读写” .
    (2) Honestly speaking, I’m not really sure about the equivalents of read and write of literacy in Chinese and I guess it may is “读”.
    (3) In my opinion, in Chinese, most occupations need people who have literacy ability like computer literacy, and these people may have more ability and can be more highly used, as a result, they have much power than other people.

  • Nana says:

    Considering literacy as the ability to read and write, is a brief definition, understanding the human context it is clear that literacy involves not only spoken and written language, but also body language and many other dimensions that include: financial, environmental, digital.artistic…
    In my country (Colombia) there is still illiteracy, people in rural areas do not know how to read their names or read the numbers on bills, they use money based on the bill’s colours. Some others know only how to write their names and they can read the numbers on bills and their ID numbers. This is an unfortunate situation mostly caused by corruption. the government has some programs to alphabetise people and there are certain non governmental organisations that support similar programs with people in areas of difficult access. hopefully, the situations start to improve in my country and each day more and more people can be listened to while communicate their ideas more effectively.

  • Thi Bach Tuyet Nguyen says:

    I found this article entitled “Literacy – the power of code” definitely inspirational and valuable. As it does mention a wide range of perspectives on literacy such as reading and writing, knowledge and competences, neutral technology and especially a way of doing things with words. In particular, literacy is exactly considered as a tool of power. Whenever talking about literacy, I myself believe that literacy is referred to the abilities of reading and writing something. Hence, this article helps to broaden my mind to see literacy in different aspects and meanings.

  • Natalie Estrella says:

    I would like to comment on a concept raised in the blog that literacy is a means to power and a tool of power, associated with the concept that ‘knowledge is power’. Without the ability to read and write a person becomes dependent on others who have these skills and this can clearly be seen in the case of children who haven’t acquired these skills yet and of tourists traveling to a country where they have no proficiency in the target language. For example, to take a simple every day example, may son and I have always enjoyed cooking together. Before he started school, this would involve me reading the recipe and measuring the ingredients while he would pour and mix the ingredients. Now however, that he is in year 5 at school, he can follow the recipe and bake completely independently. This of course gives him a great sense of achievement, confidence and ultimately power.

  • Lai Ng says:

    There are multiple meanings of literacy. It can be just a cover term of ‘reading and writing’.It can refer to the all kinds of language -mediated competences of learning and achieving purposes through the written words. Simple speaking, it is a way to do things with words. It is a powerful tool helping us to manage our social affairs and organise our social lives. the brief historical description of English to Latin gives us a good example of how linguists define literacy in old English, its power of enactment and the importance of investigation in the semantic field when its relevant researches are done.

  • Khoa Nguyen says:

    I found this post very interesting because I can relate what was written to the so-called “Literacy” in my country. In Vietnam, as many of Vietnamese students have stated in this post so far, the meaning of the term “Literacy” is equivalently translated as “Đọc”, which means reading skill, and “Viết”, which means writing skill, and of course, as in many other countries, it is true that the more literate a person becomes, the more respectful he or she gets from the community. I just want to share a story which is related to history about “Literacy” in Vietnam. After Ho Chi Minh, the hero of Vietnamese people, declared ‘The Declaration of Independence” from France for Vietnam in 1945, he launched a campaign called “The Literacy campaign”, which helped to eradicate illiteracy in Vietnam because only 20% of Vietnamese people could be able to read and write at that time, and then, by 1965, 95% of the population was literate as the school system was rescued. Ho Chi Minh is remembered as a hero of Vietnam as the one who realized the importance of “Literacy” and did what he could do best to gain it back for the whole nation.

  • Marie says:

    As others already commented on the semantic field and the power relations of literacy in the Korean social practices, I’d like to focus on the detailed meanings of the word in Korean and provide some examples of how it differs from that of English. Interestingly, Korean does not seem to have an exact equivalent for the English word ‘literacy’, although the Korean government did its best to increase the literacy rate after the Korean War. The dictionary explains that literacy is the ‘ability to read and write’ but does not provide a word that can be directly rendered into Korean. However, when I searched a few Korean words that convey similar meaning – but with differences – like literacy, 문해(文解/Munhae), 독해(讀解/Dokhae), and 식자(識字:Sikja), they were all unanimously translated into ‘literacy’ in English. It is noteworthy that all of the three examples have slightly different focuses while the general meaning still relies on ‘the ability to read and write’. 문해(Munhae) is to read a text and understand, 독해(Dokhae) is to read and understand the ‘meaning’ of a text, and 식자(Sikja) is to ‘know’ the writings or letters. The usage of these words also varies depending on the context. For instance, the meanings of Munhae and Dokhae seem identical at a glance; however, there is a significant difference as shown in a survey called IALS (International Adult Literacy Surveys) conducted by the OECD in 2001. The survey result indicates that majority of the Korean adult population achieved a high level of Munhae (reading and understanding the text) while only a few of them were capable of Dokhae, which is to grasp the meaning of the text. (Source: http://oecd.kedi.re.kr/FileRoot/LuBoard/B_DATA/Files/B_DATA0000013481F.pdf)

  • Nidhi Dhir says:

    In India literacy is defined as acquisition of 3R’s i.e. reading, writing and arithmetic. The article made me think about the connection between power and being literate. I strongly believe that being literate helps in becoming socially and financially powerful, since in my country all highly paid or white-collar jobs require high degree certificate which leads to high social status as well. Apart from this in ancient times in India according to caste system only high caste people or royalty had exposure to literacy (reading and writing) which means being educated is more close to being powerful.

  • Tingting Li says:

    “literacy” in Chinese refers to the ability to use language and words, that is, to hear, read and write. Acquiring this ability needs people to be educated from the early age. Writing ability is the foundation of academic literacy, and that speech is only meant to promote understanding, and that understanding will eventually be “transcribed”. The main factors influencing the development speed of students’ literacy and proficiency include the nature of the project, students’ age, their environment (such as urban, urban, rural or suburban environments), learning time, class size and course design.

  • Thuy Linh Nguyen says:

    The Vietnamese translation of “Literacy” is ” Sự biết đọc, sự biết viết”, which means ” the ability to read and write.”. As you know, Vietnamese alphabet today is a Latin alphabet with additional letters and diacritics for tones. However, some words are borrowed form Chinese and even some pronunciations are based on ” chữ Nôm” a manipulated set of Chinese characters. I’m not sure about the origin of ” đọc” (read) but “viết” is a word borrowed from Chinese used in Vietnamese ways and written in Latin alphabet. Its original writing in “chữ Nôm” is 曰 and its meaning is speak, ask, answer or placed at the beginning to start a topic.
    Thuy Linh Nguyen

  • Au says:

    Before reading this blog, my definition of “Literacy” is also the ability to read and write which is rarely related to two other ability-speaking and listening. I prefer the way “literacy” is defined in this post which is a way to do things with words. As far as I am concerned the four macro skills are actually hard to separate them because they support the progress and the development of each other so in this case I totally agree that the ability to read and write is closely related to spoken language. For example, people have to prepare a script for an important speech which there is a connection between written language and spoken language.

  • Yan Yan says:

    I’m from China, and the translation of literacy in my language is “识字“. Literacy meaning that basic reading and writing skills in China. Long times ago, literacy is a symbol of the power, the education is a noble capitalists the patent, the general civilian population, absolutely no chance to get by. In 1880, there are 20% people have literacy skill in China. At present, literacy wasn’t the patent of noble or rich family, but symbolic power, such as law and stipulation must to using in written form.

  • Cami says:

    The link between literacy and power was an idea that I had never explored intellectually in any depth until now. On reflection I realise that I couldn’t do many things in my life at all without the ability to read and write. Being able to find work in newspapers and on-line, apply for work – usually via the written medium of a resume, find basic information about bus times, shops, opening and closing times etc, would all be impossible without literacy skills. I lived in Japan for sometime too and even though I can read and write Japanese quite well, I still haven’t mastered all of the kanji. Not being able to read everything really made communicating and knowing what was going on in a world where so much information was communicated via email difficult. At first when I saw the amount of kanji in an email I wouldn’t even try to read it but I eventually I realised that I was missing out on so much information I had to try to read all the emails that came. When I go to the shops in Japan too, there are still many products that I have never seen before and I am not able to read the labels and understand. I often have to stop and ask fellow shoppers and when I first moved to Japan I had to ask about how to cook things too because I couldn’t understand the cooking instructions on the packets too. Not being literate in a society means that you have to rely on other people to explain things – and they are not always right either. It can be extremely frustrating and really locks you out from many opportunities.

  • KyKy says:

    I am a Vietnamese and the translation of “literacy” in my language is “sự biết đọc, sự biết viết”. In the present age, it is understandable that human beings take literacy for granted, and forget how much power the “simple” acts of being able to read and write hold. Personally, literacy is equivalent to language, culture and everyday life, and being literate apparently relates to power. For example, undeveloped countries could lift themselves out of poverty by developing powerful literacy skills.

  • Jeanie says:

    The meaning of Literacy in Korea can be defined as the ability to read and write. However, I agree that literacy is a tool of power. There are some reasons. Korea is one of the countries with high literacy rate. To improve national competitiveness as well as the people’ quality of life, the government has poured into education by providing nine years of the free compulsory education system to the people. As a result, about 98% of the people can read and write using Korean. Moreover, as Koreans have learned how to read and write with the help of education, it is possible for them to access various information as well as get a higher level of education. It allows people to have a higher social status and a better life. Considering this, literacy is a tool of power.

  • Siyi Wu says:

    I agree with the article. In china, literacy is defined as the basic language abilities of reading and writing. It helps the daily understanding in reading and writing. It also assists individuals to recognize, explain, create, account, express the information related to computers, CDs, printing and so on. In these 50 years, the power of literacy has been put in an important position in China. For example, some economic, legal, science or governmental department requires the individuals to involve in and give some advices, which push the individuals to learn literacy.

  • Karly says:

    The use of literacy in language and other contexts is a great description of an individual or groups’ competence or understanding in relation to a particular subject matter. Being literate therefore has highly positive ramifications as an individual with a great understanding of a situation should be expected to be able to achieve better outcomes than an illiterate individual. In the financial world, financial literacy refers to an understanding of how to manage finances. A financially literate individual should subsequently be expected to have greater financial wellbeing over a given period of time than a comparable individual with who is financially illiterate. A great example of this can be seen by comparing the financial wellbeing of individuals who have attained a great amount of wealth through their own means compared to an individual who gains wealth overnight such as through a lottery. Many lottery winners are seen to be placed in a very poor financial position very shortly after attaining their wealth due to a lack of financial literacy. On the other hand, those that have slowly acquired wealth typically do not experience significant financial hardship due to a lack of financial literacy.

  • Naoya says:

    When it comes to ‘literacy’, it basically has two meanings in Japanese: ability to write and read and knowledge of a particular field. Obviously, the original meaning of literacy is the ability to write and read as the article explains. However, in Japan, most people ranging from junior high school students to adults would come up with the second meaning as expertise more frequently these days. In particular, the word for literacy is often associated with information and computer. This might be because we are all more likely to be expected to use computers effectively and judge validity of information by ourselves in society due to advance in technology, which involves an invisible power to force us to acquire the skills regardless of our feelings and intentions. In contrast, from different perspectives, literacy has changed the power relation between the government and the people as there have been increases in the number of individuals who gain access to information on the government and write their comments or opinions for a response to it.

  • Luv says:

    As Luis mentions, in Spanish “literacy” is related to the knowledge of reading and writing. It could be translated to “alfabetización” in Spanish, which is “the process and result of learning to read and write”. The word derives from the Greek language “alpha”, “beta” and a suffix “-cion”, that it is used to refer to “action and effect”. The semantic groups of “write” and “read” come from latin “legere” (to choose) and “scribere” accordingly, as mentioned in the post. Seeing literacy as a tool of power, it could be defined as a skill that people use to identify and defend themselves in a competitive social and political world.

  • N_W says:

    The word “literacy” in Eng-Thai Dictionary defined as the ability to read and write. In the histories of Thailand, Thai men first learnt to read and write with the monks at the Buddhist temples since Sukhothai period. At that period of time Thailand started to contact with Western countries, King Rama V saw that education is important which cannot be overlooked. Since then Thai education is become more developed and extended. However, becoming a literate people, we have to focus on all 4 macro skills. Listening and speaking are the fundamental skills of reading and writing. Thus, for me literacy is ability to listening, speaking, reading and writing, we cannot reading and writing well without starting with listening and speaking.

  • Kim says:

    “Literacy”, in Indonesia, to the best of my knowledge has been understood as same as what Professor Ingrid Pillar mentioned in the article above that it refers to the ability to read and write. As I agree with the article, Indonesian people also used the term “Literacy” to express the ability or knowledge someone has in certain fields such as a computer, health, business, etc. Moreover, It may bring a sort of different power for those who claim or are claimed as literate people among the society, to some extent, and this is also supported by the article that “Literacy” can be a power. These people may have more confidence in delivering ideas either in speaking or writing than those who might be less or not literate.

  • Hasnahana Hasnahana says:

    By reading this article, I have had a different view regarding literacy. Literacy is not only the skills of listening, speaking, reading or writing but beyond that and enriched with varieties.
    In my country, Bangladesh, literacy means to write and read the common or simple sentences in the Bengali language. But I can know that literacy is not bound with this limited meaning to write and read but something more than that.
    The Bengali language is a mixture of various languages and dictionaries from the early 20th century attributed slightly more than 50% of the Bengali vocabulary to the native speaker; for example, naturally modified Sanskrit words, loaned from non-Indo-European languages, almost 30% unmodified Sanskrit words and the rest are foreign words.
    There are so many Bengali words that are no longer used by the Bengali people but the foreign words. For example, people use (write and speak) ‘chair’ the English word but nobody uses ‘Kedara’ the Bengali words for chair anymore.
    Besides, one word has various meaning in different contexts. So in this purpose, literacy does not mean only to write or read but to have enough knowledge to understand the message of these reading or written text.

  • Preeya says:

    According to the article, Literacy – the power code written by Ingrid Piller, is an interesting article that presented the meaning of literacy has extended definitions. Literacy are powerful and freedom, literacy can be defined as a social practices that refer to the ability of an individual to read and write, as well as all skills of knowledge and competencies. Thailand has a long literacy’s history when the Thai alphabets were created since Sukhothai period (1238-1438). Currently, Thai government tried to promote the importance of literacy as an essential prerequisite for Thai citizen as active literate citizens. Therefore, literacy provides measurable benefits for the society as a whole.

    • N_W says:

      I saw that campaign too. Thai govs were promoting Thai people to acknowledge of the important of literacy ;however, it did not seem to be work. I think to be literate people, it needs to be fostered since we were young. So, this campaign is kind of hard to be success. What do you think?

  • Arnon says:

    In Thai language, literacy was defined as the ability to read and write, it also look like in many languages. “read” meant “to persuade” which was associated with thought and understanding, sometimes it can mean “read one’s mind”. “write” meant “to scratch”. At present, the development of literacy in Thailand has used for the quality of life and people’s activities and developed to solve the illiteracy problem of population which able to learn throughout life for social.

  • Jun says:

    This is an interesting article. I really agree that literacy is not only the ability of reading and writing but also it is a tool of power. This means literacy should not only be restricted to languages whereas it should be referred to all the competencies, knowledge and skills. Also, literacy is powerful. For example, in ancient China, when people created the skill of papermaking, this skill must be recorded. Therefore, when more people learned how to make paper, more information can spread which means people have the power to make more books and it can be considered as a civilization of the world.

  • Naive says:

    I totally agree with Ingrid’s point on the expansion of the use of literacy today. The word ‘literacy’ itself means ‘sự biết chữ’ (back translated as ‘the ability to read and to write’ in Vietnamese). However, through time, Vietnamese people have a wider view on the term. It could be considered as ‘am hiểu’. (back translated as ‘the state of understanding something well’). They now understand it as the ability to gain knowledge, to understand knowledge and to be creative on the gained knowledge. Moreover, literacy also plays an essential role when people look at a someone and judge them.

  • Shaher Mohammed Shaher Asiri says:

    Hi everyone,

    According to this article, I know in my previous knowledge that literacy is the ability to read and write in a language. After reading this article, this term ” literacy has a boarder meaning which involve more than aspects of learning in which have effects on our social lives and it’s manners.
    As most of us may know that the reading and writing are the basic means of learning in all fields of study.
    There is an interesting knowldge for me that the original word ” Read” in English and German is not associated with reading itslef but also related to cognition and thoughts.
    This implys that literacy is a mean of power in diverse aspects of life..

  • Fern says:

    Fern

    I come from a background of Sinhalese of which the root language is Sanskrit. සාක්‍ෂරතාවය (saaksharathava) is the cognate for literacy in Sinhalese which directly translates into having the ability of letters. Nevertheless, literacy generally means being able to read and write. Reading and writing translates into කියවීම (kiyaveema) and ලිවීම (liveema) respectively .The cognate for writing has the meaning of carving , making into shape while the cognate for reading denotes reading as well as ( informally) speaking or palaver . Sri Lanka has a high literacy rate (92%) and what this percentage indicates is ambiguous since the indicators are not clearly defined. Around four decades ago this meant being able to write one’s name on legal documents instead of pressing a thumb mark on them. Being literate is a statement of power whereas being illiterate results in losing status in modern societies. As literacy concerns mainly with the written word, it is worth pondering over the many oral traditions that have passed from generation to generation, enabling sharing of knowledge yet, are not considered literacy.

  • A D I A says:

    This article does provoke me to draw a better idea about literacy as well as to give me a better understanding about literacy. In my language, Bahasa Indonesia, the word for literacy is “literasi” and it is generally known as the ability to write and read, including the ability to get the new knowledge and understanding through visualization, audio or touches (especially for those people with vision/hearing impairment), but when it comes to literacy as a social practice, many people who cannot read or write are still called illiterate, even though they have other valuable skills and competences. Hence, people need to realise that as the time changes, literacy should be understood as broader concept that can be associated with other skill and capability owned by people through learning regardless the way they learn, where and when they learn it. It can be formal or informal, collectively or independently and it can be the ability and skills to operate or to use certain tools that come along with the advancement of technology, or to understand how to use certain skills to deal with the needs that emerge in their life because of today’s social, cultural or political changes, etc. This is when we can really see and understand their literacy as a “tool of power”

  • AN says:

    The definition of the word ‘literacy’ is not static, where it changes and evolves to reflect societies’ changing needs. The word ‘literacy’ in my native language (Tamil) is ‘கல்வியறிவு’, of which is pronounced ‘kalviyaṟivu’. The word comprises two individual words – ‘கல்வி’ (kalvi) – education and ‘அறிவு’ (aṟivu) – knowledge. The word, thus, translates to ‘knowledge through education’. Back in time, ‘education’ referred to learning the ability to read and write, of which was a luxury to most underprivileged society. Those unfortunate to receive an education were thus referred to as ‘illiterates’ ‘Literates’ are thus those who do receive a formal education, where literacy is viewed upon as isolated bits of knowledge through reading and writing, where the ability to converse alone would not suffice to denote one as a literate.
    A literate would, therefore, be highly regarded as ‘able’ and would be within a high position of power as a literate person possesses a wide range of abilities and competencies, where they are able to build intentional cross-cultural connections and relationships with others to pose and
    solve problems collaboratively and strengthen independent thought and attend to the ethical responsibilities required by those complex environments.

  • Pegah Marandi says:

    Dear all,
    Oracy and literacy are deemed the two vital pillars of human life and interaction. Without them engaging in daily life is not that easy. Despite the fact that in old days people interacted verbally (oracy orientated) and could get along with their lives, these days especially in the 21st century literacy plays a fundamental role. It seems that power relation determines the language to be spoken and written (discourse) and as Michel Foucault believes power relation determines what language, education, and knowledge to be superior. Also Professor Ingrid Piller stated that “literacies is essentially tied to knowledge and skills which is the key connection. Literacies is now used for skill or knowledge.” Hence, it seems that literacies play an important role in our lives.
    In addition, according to Bahman Baluch (2005), “Persian language and orthography which is a modified version of the Arabic script is used for transcribing the Persian (Farsi) language, which is the major language spoken in Iran. Persian is also one of the two (Farsi and Urdu) major languages spoken in Afghanistan, and the main language in Tajikestan, a former central Asian republic of the former Soviet Union. However, the Persian spoken in these countries and the script used to transcribe the spoken language, particularly in Tajikistan, have been influenced by local factors and borrowed words.” This indicates the language I speak in my country and where it essentially came from. Also, I like to add that poets such as Saadi, Hafez, Ferdousi, Molavi, and many more, helped the Persian language to survive until today and even many parts of Iran speak classic Persian which is the influence of these poets.
    With regards,
    Pegah

    • Piiigah says:

      Dear Pegah,

      I enjoyed the way that you commented on the article.
      I agree with you in term of the power of literacy, especially in the 21st century. The ability of reading and writing is essential, and the need for this knowledge to interact and communicate in this world is an undeniable fact.
      Additionally, you mentioned our great poets as Ferdousi, Rumi and many more which are the representation of the power of the Persian language and the history of Iranian civilization.
      “Shahnama” which is the name of Ferdousi’s book is teaching as classical literature in many universities around the world.
      And following the article the literacy these days is not only limited to the language.
      The importance of the ability to read and write which is called “literacy” is the essential part of competence in other fields as the media literacy, digital literacy and many other subjects which are the most crucial part of our digital world.

  • Yang says:

    I do agree the point of view from Ingrid. Literacy is the way that people to read and write, to express and understand the meaning of words. In the history of Chinese literacy system, it starts with hieroglyphs which mainly bases on the appearance of something such as a man or a woman, an animal or a plant. All the hieroglyphs in Chinese are the pictures. For example, “man” in Chinese character is “男” which can be separated with “田” and “力”. “田” is at the upper part of the character, which means the “field”. The “力” is at the bottom, which means the “power”. These two parts combine together, which means the man represents the power of a family and has to sustain the field, to grow crop and feed his family.

  • 777 says:

    It was so interesting to read this article since my perceptions toward ‘Literacy’ was exactly same as what the student mentioned in this article stated, which is ‘reading and writing’. I agree that ‘Literacy’ actually can be defined as not only language but also some knowledge or competences in various areas. One truth that made me amazed was about the origin of the meaning of writing in Japanese, which is ‘書く’. It is mentioned that Japanese ‘書く’ was originally from ‘掻く’ which means ‘to scratch’. Obviously this is same as the origin of English word ‘writing’.

    • Yang says:

      Hi 777,

      I agree with your point. “書” is the traditional character in Chinese, it can be “writing” as a verb as you mentioned above, and at the same time, it also can be “book” as a noun. 😉

  • Ary says:

    Literacy is indeed the tool of power, which was proven aeons ago. Since the start of thousand-years colonization of ancient Vietnam (the country was given/known by many different names throughout the history) by the dynasties of ancient Chinese empire, ancient Chinese language might have bestowed upon its colonized Vietnamese people the thinking that whoever could read and write the language of the authority stood the higher ground. Ancient Vietnamese people spoke their own language, yet, because the power wielder at the time used Chinese as a means to record information, there was hardly any evidence of Vietnamese people visually recording information using any scripted letters/words until the creation of Sino-Vietnamese and, later, the Roman script alphabet. The decrease of China’s influence regarding political power could also, to a certain extent, be traced by the fact that ancient Vietnamese people moved from using Chinese to Sino-Vietnamese as scripted language then to Roman scripted alphabetical system in a near modern time. The use of Roman script, however, marked another influence coming from a different source: European cultures.
    From a different aspects of the linguistic influence of Chinese and Roman script language, the modern Vietnamese contains several borrowed-words from Chinese , French, and English language. Although there are many specific terms invented to replace those words, there are still a few that are difficult to be replaced, e.g. “ban công” – balcon/balcony. There are also a few cases in which attempts are made to replace the French/English-borrowed words, yet the resulting terms ended up being the pronunciation-scripted Sino-Vietnamese version, e.g. “TV” (English) – “Vô tuyến truyền hình” (Sino-Vietnamese). From the aforementioned examples, it could be concluded that the influence of languages used by the “power wielders” from the past can still be detected even though the country itself is technically liberated.
    As for more recent and society-related facts, banks in Vietnam used to accept finger prints as personal identification for banking documents. However, after a while, several incidents, or accidents, happened and caused the banking leagues to deny any customers the banking service if the individual is considered “illiterate” since those potential customers would not be able to fully understand the bank’s policy, which could results in the fact that they are not fully aware of the benefits they’re entitled to, nor of their responsibilities to uphold. Moreover, it is obvious that they are exposed to potential threats to their money/property, which possibly leads to future disputes. Banking is but a single example of the power and welfare that literacy can give to its wielders. There are many other aspects of life that an individual could benefit from literacy. As such, the Vietnamese government is known to make sufficient investments so that the rate of literate citizens become higher and higher in annual reports from Ministry of Education.

  • Ss says:

    This artical has interesting views about the relationship between literacy and power. These argunments remand me of a social problem raised recently, that is many different kind of jobs, especially manual jobs, have replaced by machines. Compared with mental workers whose work normally relating to ‘literacy’, the manual workers are much easier to loose their jobs.
    I think, nowadays, ‘literacy’ is no longer just a capability of writing and reading, because nearly everyone have already owned this ability. It may much more relating to knowledge. Therefore, people who have more ‘literacy’ abilities means that he or she has more knowledge. Knowledge can be seen as a kind of resources, opportunities or even wealth, and people who owned these things can be seen have more power because they have more opportunities to success.

  • Qianxin Xiao says:

    The entire literacy system is critical for the development of the human civilization. Generally, literacy represented the capability to read and write which enable individuals to understand a language or master it. Each language will have its literacy system. For example, Chinese can be considered as a hieroglyph because it is developed based on the appearance of the staff. Also, hieroglyphs indicate that each Chinese character is a picture. Like the Egyptian words, if you want to write “trees,” you can only draw a tree “树”(the Chinese character of a tree) rather than spell out the words. So, when we learn the Chinese style, it is actually learning the simplified picture that expresses a thing or an idea.

  • Tamanna Habib says:

    This article is very interesting as it provides a depth understanding of ‘Literacy’. I used to think that ‘Literacy’ means the ability to read and write. In my mother tongue which is Bengali literacy means to write name. But, this article has widened my knowledge regarding literacy. It shows the origin of the word ‘Literacy’ and its power relation in society. After reading this article, I think literacy means the competence of doing something. It can be any language, knowledge or skill. So, the term literacy can not be restricted to the concept of the ability to read and write. The meaning and definition can be varied according to the context and situation. I think, developing literacy in any language may contribute to the development of professional knowledge and skills.

  • Ann says:

    I am glad that I read some of the replies written to Prof. Piller’s article. it is interesting to read about the birth of literacy, development and its power. Literacy is more than reading and writing. Literacy is meant in my native language which is “Sinhala” is a “sward” (weapon). If you are an author or an editor you have the power. Sri Lanka has a proud history. There are lot of scriptures written about Lord Buddha and Buddhism. These carvings proves the literacy level of ancestors. These writings are very complex and still taking a huge effort to read. Literacy is a powerful tool in the social context.

  • Zhongliang Lin says:

    In Chinese, literacy refers to the ability of reading and writing (读写能力). As mentioned in this article, today, literacy is no longer just a language, but can be used to refer to a variety of knowledge and abilities. That comes to literacy is a tool of power. Studies have shown that people who write down their goals are more likely to achieve them. Having documentation of our goals and reading them back to ourselves on a regular basis keeps our motivation at the forefront of our minds and allows us to start to create action plans. This is productive literacy in action. Simply having the ability to write down what you want to do and where you want to go leads to an impressive head-start. On the other hand, the ability to seek out and understand information gives us all independence to make choices, to advocate for ourselves and to learn about our community and world. People who can read and write are powerful in society and studies show that literacy leads to greater self-reliance and civic engagement.The ability to seek out and understand information gives us all independence to make choices, to advocate for ourselves and to learn about our community and world. People who can read and write are powerful in society and studies show that literacy leads to greater self-reliance and civic engagement. which has also been mentioned by the author that literacy was associated with thought and cognition early on.

  • Nasser says:

    One is considered to be literate in Persian as long as they have the ability to read and write simple texts. Those who have completed the compulsory primary school (years 6-12) are known to be literate.
    Modern Persian (Farsi) is the altered version of the Arabic script dating back to 7 A.D. As in Persian orthography, there is a one-to-one correspondence between sound and script, becoming literate in Farsi is arguably easier compared to other languages such as English and French where a great deal of effort is required to master reading and writing.
    As far as power relations are concerned, since education is highly valued in Iran, an individual’s role in the community is intertwined with their level of education. This means that sustained development through literacy is determinant in obtaining employment, receiving improved health and nutrition, increased income and awareness of one’s rights.
    Overall, literacy is considered as a means of identification and communication in an increasingly computerised, text-mediated and information-rich world.

  • Farzaneh Morovati says:

    Hello,
    It was really interesting to know about the deeper aspects of literacy other than reading and writing. The term, Power Code, reminds me dominantly of the same role and meaning of literacy in my native language Persian (Farsi). Literacy in my language is written “فارسی” and goes beyond the knowledge of a language by itself. It endorses on the competency to manage everything in social life with the aid of language and personal skills to the highest level both theoretically and practically, so the person who is called literate is all-known who wisely applies language in the concerned field.
    Thank you

  • Sirin says:

    As the example of German, my first language, has already been given, I will portray aspects of my second first language, which is Turkish. Literacy in Turkish (“Okuryazarlık”) literally means “reading and writing” and hence the ability to do so. This aspect has been touched on in the article as well, showing how deeply connected the understanding of literacy is with reading and writing. “Okuma”(reading) refers to the ability to read, but at the same time means “to study“.”Yazma” (writing) derives from the word “tahri”, which is no longer in use, but means composition and refers to the creation of written works. Studying as an ongoing process in life underlines the power derived from literacy mentioned in the article and how important it is in social practices. Writing does not simply refer to the ability to write, but already comprises planned and structured written works on certain topics, again portraying the importance of literacy as an inevitable competence when taking part in everyday life.

  • Wendie LIU says:

    Very detailed and comprehensive research about “Literacy”, I do agree with the conclusion prompted by Dr Ingrid Piller-“Literacy is the tool of power”. I would like to share some opinions of mine from Chinese cultural and social perspective, thousands of years ago, in ancient China, “literacy” is not only the ability to read and write, but also stands for a sound reflection of one’s highly-ranked educational level in “Literature”, since a huge amount of “Literature” like “the Master Sun’s Art of War”,”the Historical Records” and “the Analects of Confucius” have been regarded as the necessities to absorb for the dominator and conqueror to expand their territory and govern their citizens in a more effective way and maintain their imperialism for a long-term consistency.

  • Thet says:

    “Literacy – the power code” is such an inspirational article that I have gained new insights in seeing literacy.
    The term’ literacy’ means fundamental skill to read a&;onf and write zwfonf simple and basic texts in the official language of my country that is the Burmese language. In Myanmar, literacy is regarded as one of the survival skills in life, but this is the very first time that I can perceive the relation between power and literacy.
    Concerning Etymology, I am uncertain about where the terms were derived from but generally, the Burmese language, the Sino-Tibetan language, has a lot of loan words from Pali.
    A thought that just came into my mind by reading this post is, “Could it be a reason that those who knew Pali, especially Buddhist monks held the power in everyday life in our history?” In my country, in the past, ordinary people who could not read and write were the subjects to be abused and oppressed and exploited. Looking at the present, in general, the higher competency in literacy people have, the more influential and powerful they are and the more and better opportunities they can seize in a variety of areas including academia and society. Thus, it is true that literacy is a powerful tool in different social contexts.

  • Vu (Yang) says:

    Literacy not only defines as the ability to read and write but also connect to social practices. In Viet Nam, Literacy can be understood in Vietnamese as “khả năng biết đọc và viết”, which associated with the ability to read and write. During a Vietnamese war, the alphabet of Vietnam impacts by The Roman. As you can see, Vietnamese is Roman-based script and personally. “đọc” means “read”, and “viết” means “writing”. Especially in the year of 1945. People who have well literacies at that time which refers to people who have well and high education.

  • Gab says:

    While the word literacy entails the ability to read and write, the present-day societies offer various definitions and links. One interesting point from this article that struck me is that “literacy is a way to do things with words.” The way we use the words (either through reading or writing) affects the way we communicate and interact in the world we live in. it is interesting to note how literacy contributes to the overall power a person may possess in his/her community/society. For instance, a person who is considered “literate” in my society is often perceived by the other members as a valuable person. The more he/she uses his/her being “literate” in variety of ways makes him/her more valuable (e.g. in politics and social relations).

  • Mengyao APPL941 says:

    The first time I get to know more the term ‘literacy’ is through searching its meaning.‘读写能力’ is the one of the equivalent translations for ‘literacy’ in Chinese,and anther one is ‘精通文学’,although I cannot totally agree with latter explanation because it explains ‘literacy ’ as the meaning of ‘being profecient at literature ’.In fact,from my own opinion, literacy is about the behaviors of input and output ,that’s is why I tend to consider ‘literacy ’ should been explained as ‘读写能力’ which stands for ‘abilities of reading and writing’.

    读——read, study,pronunce
    ‘读’ in ancient Chinese only means ‘read out’ is not like today own several meanings. In addition,the basical element of this word‘讠’ means ‘the voice ’
    写——write, draw,stretch, compose.
    The original meaning of ‘写’ is ‘put something down’ in ancient China,other meanings were extended from the original one.

    Finally,in terms of ‘literacy is a tool of power, only the individual who has high reading and writing abilities is able to have access to be officier for managing average illiterate people in ancient China.It is could be said that literacy is a standard of marking classes for ancient society in China.

  • AzPc says:

    Literacy is not just about writing and reading, and also it is not just about the four skills of a language. The whole literacy system is really important for the whole human civilizations. There are a lot of periods of the whole literacy evolution, such as the proto-writing, ideographic writing, and mnemonic symbols. within using the writing, ideas and theories can go through different places and the different time. this means that people from different countries and different centries can share their knowledge, which can have a strong positive impact on the whole civilizations.

  • YAYA says:

    The normal definition of “literacy” is the ability to read and write. It is convinced that people start to obtain this ability at a very early age. When they enter the kindergarten,the basic language will be taught such as simple alphabets and numbers. As the development of individuals, the aspect of literacy might be expanded which includes various features as the context mentioned. The most interesting thing in Chinese is written language has irregularity. For example, “说”(say)can be written in two ways including “说” and “説” . Both of these letters are used to express something,but the writing form are different. There are a lot of similar examples. It is be explained that “説” is the usage of ancient China,“说” is used in contemporary. “说” is simpler than “説” in written form which is a modification as the time goes by.
    After reading this article, I got a deeper comprehension in the concept of literacy. It is not only to describe some ability but have huge impacts in humans’ social life.

  • Salam Moussa Oghli says:

    “In short, literacy is a tool of power.” This reminded me of Abrahamic religions in which certain scripture(s) play(s) a central role in their beliefs and constitutes the laws which believers strive to follow word for word in many cases. According to numerous Muslims, the Quran is of great importance. Muhammad was illiterate. He became a vessel or medium of communication between Allah (Divinity) and humanity and his role was defined in the very first verse he shared to his community in Surat Al-Alaq “Recite (“read” is the literal word used in Arabic) in the name of your Lord who created”. Muhammad gradually became a political leader after that and he had a great authoritative power.
    Interestingly, Arabic (one of my mother tongues) does not have a specific term for literacy and it is usually referred to as “to know how to read and write” even though Arabic is known for being rich with descriptive words and its tradition and culture through one of its religions shows what an important role literacy plays. However, “Ummiyyah” is a special term for illiteracy. The other reason why I referred to Islam is because according to Islamic tradition and Quran, Muhammad lived in a tribe called “Umayyah” and he was sent to be among illiterates “Ummiyyin”. Even though Umayyah comes from the name of the founder of that tribe, I wonder if it could also be the origin of the word.

  • Jas Ng says:

    Hi all,

    I must say that it’s so stimulating to read comments of people from diverse background to understand what literacy means and how powerful it is in their language. As a passionate reader, I believe that literacy is more powerful than what it represents as “the ability to read and write”. To me, understanding a text written in a particular language does not mean you can read every single word in this text but understand the message the writer tries to convey beyond the written form of the text. In other words, literacy is linked to not only the linguistic competence but also the reader’s knowledge and competence of social practices which most of you have recognized as well.

    Other Vietnamese classmates have mentioned how “literacy” is translated in Vietnamese and how it is derived from Latin language, so I may not explain it again here in my comment. However, I would like to further discuss an interesting point given by Prof. Piller that “literacy is a way to do things with words”. In Vietnamese, we have some words written in the same form but can be understood in different ways based on contexts or the writer’s implications when composing. Therefore, to be “literate”, the readers have to have adequate knowledge and understanding of how the words are used and what they mean in particular contexts.

    Before reading the article, I have no ideas about the transfer or development of words from the same root. I then try to relate the process to my first language, Vietnamese and find it so amazing to see how languages are connected. Hopefully, I will have chances to deepen my knowledge in the linguistic field by reading more articles and sharing from other classmates.

    Welcome to all replies and discussion from all of you.
    Jas Ng

  • abc says:

    Piller’s equation of literacy to competency and power is evident in many Latinate languages. Piller noted that the Latin root “scribere” connotes power. This sense of power is transferred into many words with the same root, such as “describe”. To describe transliterates as “describir” (Spanish), “descrivere” (Italian) “décrire” (French), “a descrie” (Romanian).

    The link between competency, wisdom and reading can be seen in the closeness of the English words “read” and “ready”. As Piller noted, “to read” comes from the German root word “raten”, meaning “to advise” etc. “Ready” stems from the same root, and implies wisdom and competence.

  • Rochelle says:

    I couldn’t agree more with Dr. Piller that literacy is the tool to power, it not only enables us to have the ability to read and write but also link us with knowledge and skill that it may coincide with throughout the learning process. I am from Singapore therefore it is mandatory for me to study in both my first (English) and mother tongue (Chinese). In Mandarin, the word 女 (nǚ )means female. It is not only a character but it is also a radical as well. If you see this word as a radical for any Chinese character, it means that the word has a tendency to do with females. For example, grandmother 奶 (Nǎi); mother 妈 (Mā); auntie (father’s sister) 姑 (Gū); older sister 姐 (Jiě); younger sister 妹 (Mèi).
    The characters enable us to know the meaning of the word so it would be easier to depict the meaning of the context that they are supposed to be used for. Korean and Japan uses such Chinese characters as well that it represents the same meaning. Therefore, when I try to read Japanese or Korean characters with some Chinese characters, I would be able to understand and get a glimpse of the meaning of the context accurately most of the time. Therefore, I would say that this is a very good example of literacy represents a tool of power, a power to understand, communicate and survive within the society.

    • Jas Ng says:

      I’m also learning Mandarin as a foreign language. I find out that it’s really helpful to learn the language thanks to the relation of the characters.

  • Frank says:

    Hi all

    While I would definitely more than hesitate to call it ‘my language’, as for me it’s very much a second language that was learned as an adult, I thought I might talk about these words and their etymology in Auslan (Australian Sign Language) and how those relate to social practice and power.

    Auslan is a language with a higher degree of iconicity than English. By that I mean a great deal more of the signs in Auslan resemble the underlying concept than words in English resemble their concept. A easy example would be how the word crocodile in English doesn’t resemble or sound like that giant reptile at all, but in Auslan the sign for crocodile [resembles its gaping maw](http://www.auslan.org.au/dictionary/words/crocodile-2.html). It’s quite obvious to the lay observer that this sign likely means crocodile. English does have a few words that somewhat resemble the sound, the cuckoo bird for example is named for the sound of its birdsong, but compared to Auslan highly iconic words in English are few and far between. So rather than necessarily tracing their etymology back to the language it evolved from (British sign language), some of the more iconic signs evolved to resemble the concept.

    *I should note that while Auslan has more iconic signs than English has iconic words, there is still a vast quantity of opaque (not at all iconic) signs, and also that not all iconicity is quite so obvious as with ‘crocodile’, it was a more extreme example to demonstrate the point. There is a scale of how transparent the meaning of a sign can be, with the sign for Sydney somewhat resembling a bridge for example. You wouldn’t immediately know that that sign meant ‘Sydney’, but there’s a clear iconic link once it has been explained. http://www.auslan.org.au/dictionary/words/Sydney-2.html

    Onto then how this all relates to power and social interaction. Some of the signs then for reading, writing and literacy in Auslan are all rather transparent (highly iconic), with them representing visually the act of reading, writing and the two combined respectively:

    http://www.auslan.org.au/dictionary/words/read-1.html
    http://www.auslan.org.au/dictionary/words/write-3.html
    http://www.auslan.org.au/dictionary/words/literacy-1.html

    As I thought about how these signs are so iconic, it occurred to me that they visually demonstrate, far more than the English words ‘read’ and ‘write’, how those acts have some particular skills and motor functions associated with them that not all people possess, due to education or disability. Those iconic signs demonstrate that to perform those tasks in a ‘socially acceptable’ way one must in be able to grip that pen in a particular way for example:

    https://i.pinimg.com/564x/72/9c/c8/729cc8abca6b6af830d277bfafae354d.jpg

    Even in that one sign, there are some assumptions relating to power and social acceptability in our culture, the sign uses the most ‘socially acceptable’ and developmentally mature grip. Another skill and motor function they demonstrate is that one must be able to see and scan ones eye across the page (that sign for reading includes the sign for seeing, as it scans across the page). And that’s before we even get to my area as a speech pathologist, the ability to parse and understand the words in the brain: The signs show a fluent and fast-paced reader and writer, which not everybody is able to accomplish.

    Studying this unit, I hope to learn to be able to better develop resources in this field, to craft and create tools to assist people with communication difficulties engage with society and their loved ones in a way they find most satisfying and meaningful.

    References:
    For more on the grammar and history of Auslan I highly recommend Johnston and Schrembri’s ‘Australian Sign Language: An introduction to Sign Language linguistics’, from where I got the few examples of iconic words in English, and from where I learnt about iconicity many years ago. Try to think of another English example, you might be here a while.

  • Luis Torres Vasquez says:

    Etymologically speaking, Spanish, my mother tongue, shares the same Latin roots with English when talking about the meaning of ‘literacy’ which is defined, in the Diccionario de la Lengua española [Dictionary of Spanish language], as ‘the basic knowledge of reading and writing’. This is also related to having attended school and received the minimum possible education. That being said, and from a social perspective, the person who is unable to read or write is seen as someone who is in a very unfavorable position because he or she may not be able to access to services or even interact in society on his or her own when requested to read or write. Contextualizing the matter, in Peru, those who do not know how to read or write are immediately labeled as “ignorant people” and secluded from the rest. This certainly resonates with what Dr. Piller posits when calling it “a tool of power”, those who do not have it are -to some extent- defenseless. This also made me recall the case of a congresswoman in Peru who did not know how to read or write. Peru’s law abides this scenario since you –ridiculously- just need to be Peruvian over 25 to run for Congress. Of course, there was quite of a turmoil once she got elected, but what it really puzzled me was the sort of misconceptions surrounding the case: to some, she had cracked the system and had acquired political power and relevance; however, from my perspective (now and then), she was still ‘defenseless’ having to believe what her assistants or even party colleagues told her was written in the papers she had to sign.

  • Haley says:

    I am a native English speaker, so as far as the etymology of literacy goes it has already been described in this article.

    The main thing that sprung to my mind when thinking about literacy and it’s relationship to power was political literacy. In Australia (my country) the vast majority of people are literate in the traditional (reading and writing) sense and from this ability comes a modicum, at least, of political literacy. When asked to participate in a democracy and vote for a government people are able to read about the various issues affecting them and from being literate assess whether a particular party or candidate will benefit them or not.

    This is not the case in many developing countries. As an example, I was once traveling in an underdeveloped African nation and met an educated lawyer who told me he that he thought they were better off under a dictator than the current democratic system. When I asked why he thought this he gave me the example of his mother. She is illiterate. When it comes time for elections a party comes around and gives her $5 and this is who she votes for. Her illiteracy is taken advantage of by those in power and prevents her from making a choice that could possibly benefit her and make her life easier.

    As far as this as a social practice, those in power have the opportunity to take advantage of an illiterate population.

  • Makoto says:

    The term “literacy” has become widespread among school education in Japan. The background is that it became natural to get much information from the media. Although Japan has one of the highest literacy rates around the world, Japanese students find it difficult to get the right and reliable info or read and think critically because traditional teacher-centered, lecture-style lesson has been dominated. By understanding the wide range of “literacies,” I hope I will understand more of how to make students read and think critically as well as write with an appropriate manner.

    • Haley says:

      Hi Makoto,
      I have come across this alot, that is the lack of ability to think critically because of the teacher-centered style in many cultures. I also would like to understand how this relationship with literacy can impact critical thinking and what can be done to encourarge/change that.

  • Armani says:

    The meaning (semantic filed) of the term “literacy” in my language – Vietnamese, in my opinion, is absolutely beyond the “ability to read and write” of the linguistic field! This means that Literacy also relates to the “knowledge and competences” of many other aspects as mentioned in the text (financial literacy, computer literacy, digital literacy, media literacy, news literacy, environmental literacy, ethics literacy, health literacy, spiritual literacy, artistic literacy, emotional literacy, etc. et). For example, its equivalents may be: “khả năng đọc và viết” or “sự có văn hóa” (civilization) or “người có học thức” (intellectual) or “sự có giáo dục” (being educated), et cetera. Thus, in this context Literacy is not about Ability to read and write, but also General Knowledge and Competences, in various facets of social practices!
    When it comes to Power, from my about argument, if it has been said that: To a person, his/her knowledge and competences of social affairs/practices are considered as his/her power, so his/her Literacy is definitely is his/her Power/Strenth!

  • Van Le says:

    Literacy can be translated into Vietnamese as “biết chữ” or “biết đọc biết viết”, which associated to the ability to read and write (as other classmates have mentioned). In Vietnam, there was a historical period that considered as a battle against illiteracy since a large number of people could not read or write as they did not have chances to go to schools due to continuing wars at the time. Vietnamese letters (as national language) derived from Latin, so when Vietnamese people learn other languages that also originally derived from Latin such as English, we do not encounter much difficulties to write.

    When I read the article “Literacy – the power code”, the first thing I looked at is the picture with the sentences “U.S. Vice President Pence ignores NASA “DO NOT TOUCH” sign. Would anyone else get away with such illiterate behavior?” It reminds me about some occasions that I know that people who actually literate but have illiterate behaviors. For example, some Vietnamese may ignore the big sign in some lakes: “Cấm câu cá”, which means “Fishing is strictly prohibited”, and still do their hobby. This show that literacies are also link to social practices and as professor Ingrid Piller said in class: “Literacy in this sense includes not only linguistic competences but also the ability to understand information and to engage with it critically”.

    • Jas Ng says:

      I also noticed the picture at first and agreed with you that many people are literate but can have illiterate behaviours. It emphasizes the point that literacy not only relates to the ability to read and write but also their competences in social practices.
      A very good and interesting example in your second point, Van.

  • Xi Yang says:

    I have never really thought about the meaning of ‘literacy’ before reading this article, to me or to many people, literacy basically means the ability to read and write. But now toward the end of semester, I have learnt that literacy has lot more to offer. I am strongly agree with many of the above comments that some languages have a certain degree of similarities because they may comes from the same language, I also believe that geography is main reason which cause this similarity. Based on my own study history, Asian languages such as Chinese, Japanese and Korean are similar to each other in terms of pronunciation and writing. Not only Asian languages, a lot of European languages share the exact same words and similar grammar structure. For example, all the vocabularies have gender in French and Spanish which is different unique and different from Asian languages.

  • Hayu Austina says:

    I remember how you asked us in the first meeting of the class “What is Literacy?” and most of us came up with “the ability to read and write”. Since we could not give the same answers later on, it was nice that you encouraged us to reflect on the deeper meaning of Literacy. I agree that literacy is a tool of power and the power in the society is usually run through written-based speech. I think it is because written products can be easily transferred and read many times without being distorted compared with spoken products. Talking about written products, Indonesian spelling has been changed since 1972 by the president at that time. Some of examples on the changes are: “oe” becomes “u”, “tj” becomes “c”, “dj” becomes “j”, and “j” becomes “y”. A criticism on the political motive behind it appeared after that policy. The oppositions mentioned that it was a way to gradually remove the influence of previous government, especially when people would gradually neglect the written products in old spellings during the previous government era.

  • Khalid says:

    I was reading about the exact meaning of literacy in Arabic language with a great relation to Qur’an, I have found an interesting definition which presented literacy as the “Reading ability” with a metaphorical meaning that goes beyond the abstract word to encompasses the “knowledge” of understanding and reacting. It was defined as the ability to distinguish the meaning in all its facets and contexts, and it was not about being ‘educated’ rather it represents all the knowledge that people may have about specific things.

  • Nancy says:

    No one can deny the crucial roles of literacy in an individual life and in society. In my country, illiteracy eradiation campaigns have been conducted for over seventy years and efforts to promote literacy still continue today.
    Literacy, in my social context, does not merely mean “the ability to read and write” but closely links to education and social status. The higher education you recieve, the more educational qualifications you possess, the more respectable and valued you become in the society.

  • fadiyah says:

    The literal meaning of literacy is limited to “the ability to read and write.” However, the concept has evolved manifold. It is now used in different contexts, such as the specific knowledge competencies such computer literacy, financial literacy etc. I feel literacy is not merely being able to read and write. It includes much more. It broadens our mindsets and helps us to balance out our social lives. It is a power tool that helps us create a more balanced and mindful lifestyle. The importance of literacy is the same around the world, as apparent from the semantic connection of the word “literacy.”

  • Kyungmin Lee says:

    When it comes to Korean, ‘literacy’ is defined as ‘ability to read and write. Furthermore, the term could also mean a practical ability. It was obvious that the connection between literacy and power was strong in the past when not all people in Korea could demonstrate their own literacies. Yet it has become individual choice for them to obtain the ability and therefore to reach a higher status in their sociey. In the same vein, people need the ability(in this case, ‘practical ability’) for each specific purpose in their field, just as we have chosen this academia voluntarily and have been working on focused reading and writing in liguistics.

  • Min Wu KIM says:

    As a speaker of Korean, there is a word ‘문해’ as an equivalent Korean translation for literacy which means ‘ the capability to read and writing’, but to be honest, that word is not really familiar with me at all, so I had to look up English Korean dictionary for it. Instead, a word ‘문맹’, translated as ‘illiteracy’ in English, is a more common word and something that Koreans could have heard at least one time. I found it quite interesting why there is a gap of preference between the two words even though they point at the same concept, and it’s probably oriented from the social practices where the government’s intense policy focused on the elimination of illiterate rate of the nations since Korean war because there was a high level of illiterate people after the war, and being illiterate meant a huge disadvantage in every corner of society, creating serious inequality. Fortunately, now, there are hardly cases where you can encounter someone who are illiterate in Korea, and the focus has moved on how literate someone is. In recent practices in Korea, writing seems to carry more power and reliance in linguistic transactions since a large proportion of authorized conversation is done by means of writing.

  • Min Wu KIM says:

    As a speaker of Korean, there is a word ‘문해’ as an equivalent Korean translation for literacy which means ‘ the capability to read and writing’, but to be honest, that word is not really familiar with me at all, so I had to look up English Korean dictionary for it. Instead, a word ‘문맹’, translated as ‘illiteracy’ in English, is a more common word and something that Koreans could have heard at least one time. I found it quite interesting why there is a gap of preference between the two words even though they point at the same concept, and it’s probably oriented from the social practices where the government’s intense policy focused on the elimination of illiterate rate of the nations since Korean war because there was a high level of illiterate people after the war, and being illiterate meant a huge disadvantage in every corner of society, creating serious inequality. Fortunately, now, there are hardly cases where you can encounter someone who are illiterate in Korea, and the focus has moved on how literate someone is. In recent practices in Korea, writing seems to carry more power and reliance in linguistic transactions since a large proportion of authorized conversation is done by means of writing.

  • Katherine Douglas says:

    I certainly agree that those who can read and write have a power advantage over those who do not. Catherine de Pizan (Medieval French writer) was taught to read and write while young by her father. She married at 15 years, had children, but her husband died when she was 25 years old (working for the king).
    Most girls of her time were not taught reading and writing, giving men power over women. However, because of her literacy abilities, Catherine was given a job, writing for the royal court – thus providing for her family, and becoming one of the first feminist writers to defend women from written attacks by men. Her literacy skills enabled her family to escape poverty, and for the gender imbalances to be somewhat lessened – paving the way for future feminist writers.

  • rajni jaishi says:

    This piece articulates the complexity surrounding the term ‘literacy’ and connotations of literacy and power is an interesting and thought-provoking topic.
    The picture of Pence serves as the best precedent to the ideas in the article. The instances in the article made me think about how literacy determines power domain in our country too. The ability to use words asserts a person’s ability, elevates his/her’s social status. So, here language is directly associated with power. In countries like India and Nepal, where so many languages are spoken; literacy certainly means gaining some command over or the ability to handle various situations. The written words can instruct, command us to act in a certain way. Here, this piece also reminds me of Foucault’s saying ‘knowledge is power’. I think the two ideas are similar on some level.

  • 44209150 says:

    Dear Professor Ingrid and classmates,
    I found this article interesting to ponder about the profound definition of literacy and the association between it and the power. Before enrolling the class of Literacies, what I knew about “literacy” was the ability to read and write. However, the name of the unit is “literacies”- the plural forms. Therefore, I reckoned that literacy is not exclusively knowing how to read and write. It also includes other types of related literacies as listed in the article. Moreover, the picture posted in this article reinforced my perspective of the meaning of literacies. Even though the sign “DO NOT TOUCH” is clearly visible, a vice-president of US does not care. Does it mean he is not able to read? As a high position in society, of course the answer “he is”. Nevertheless, his behavior is not literate indeed. In terms of the power of literacy, from my personal experience drawing from cinemas, news and daily life, people always appreciate the literacy of a person in any society. The higher literacy level he/she has, the more he is respected. Certainly, the literacy does not put an end at “ability of read and write”.

  • lokendra khadka says:

    The global phenomenon “literacy” has different interpretations across the world where it is generally defined as an ability to recognize the syllables, words, sentences and texts. After going through this article, I came to know that literacy is not just related to reading and writing, but it unfolds the knowledge of different facets of our real life experiences. More than that, it has been increasingly becoming the milestone for human civilization to exercise their power. The competency in literacy holds many advantages to the people which enables them to gain knowledge about what’s happening in the world. The literal meaning of literacy in Nepal is to be able to recognize the written text. In Nepal, literacy was used as a matter of power center where middle class and lower class people, and other marginalized groups such as Dalits were mainly restricted from the access of education. Only the people from upper class used to go to school in the past decades. The hidden purpose behind this restriction is to deprive common people from the mainstream society. But, slowly and gradually, common people have easy access to the education as the literacy rate is growing annually. in the present scenario, many people are persuaded to get education which is supposed to enlighten their lifestyles.

  • Reem says:

    Dear professor Piller,

    I really interested in reading this article because I already have obvious understanding about what
    literacy means with regard to linguistics field. In Arabic world, literacy is known as the ability to ‘read’ from the prior prospective. For instance, the word ‘read’ is equal to the Arabic word ‘اقرا’. Then, the ability to write comes as a second prospective. So, the acquisition of competence is highly increased through reading and takes its way to be written down. As a result, the Arabic world reinforces both two skills to make people improve their knowledge. In other words, Arabic people are encouraged to practice literacy on their social basis. Therefore, they will interact with others in an appropriate way and achieve success throughout Arabian communities or even all over the world.

    Thanks.

  • X_C_X says:

    It is exciting to see the definition of “literacy” evolve all the way through and never stop. From the original meaning to the contemporary ones, from as linguistic competences to social practices, the sparkling changes suggest that the scope of this term is extended and its function is gradually widely strengthened. That is to say, being literate in the contemporary time is not only about being able to read and write but more focus is placed on the social application of the linguistic ability.
    People with whatever kind of literacy are able to use the knowledge to interact and even obtain success in a certain domain. Pablo Picasso won’t create such wonderful artworks without artistic literacy. Jack Ma won’t make Alibaba group famous around the world without internet-based business literacy. Donald Trump won’t be selected the president of America without financial and political literacy.
    This article really highlights the importance of being literate.

  • Brendan Kavanagh says:

    I speak Mandarin as a second language. In Mandarin, the best symbol to represent literacy is probably “wen”.

    It looks like this
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/307495907688a0aff0a6da737cc3de516be25d818cbb504db38a3f26c50076e2.png
    and originates from this:
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0f1388524c85c3f8a7ea00ab2de2150ec62d5db9bec5edfb35cca29a503c86f6.png
    As you can see, it is the image of a man with his torso made prominent. This really illustrates the idea of literacy being linked to social status.

    I think that as we move into the future, the most essential form of literacy will be the ability to interpret computer programming code. Those who understand this language will have the power to work at a faster and more efficient pace, as well as automate people’s work roles. This knowledge will be much more important than “correct spelling”.

  • Meera Panthee says:

    Majority of the people of Nepal conceptualize the term literacy as an ability to read and write at a specified age of 15 but my perspective upon literacy has changed after reading this article. The capacity to speak and write has crafted a strong link to the way people manage their social affairs and orchestrate their social lives. Let’s consider few people, veterans of Sanskrit language practise varied norms and conduct rites and rituals in many religious and social ceremonies and functions. People in the society consider them as the most knowledgeable persons, however they actually lack computer literacy, financial literacy, media literacy, medical literacy and so on. But the reality is, their life seems relatively better than that of others. This language-mediated competency is a tool of power. On the other hand, a big member of people acquire some level of dexterity from their seniors and are able to run their daily lives, for example mason, plumbers, carpenters. I suppose, along with literacy, skill is also significant for gaining power.

  • Phoebe N says:

    This article truly broadens my horizons about the term “literacy” in terms of the reason why it is considered as a tool of power in our social practices and especially its different derivations beyond the original meaning. When it comes to Vietnam, “literacy” could be defined and understood as the ability to read (biết đọc) and write (biết viết ), the same notion as in English.

    Though everything has changed significantly as the time flies, literacy has still played an essential role in Vietnam society. In other word, it can be able to govern one’s power and social status. Tracing back to a couple centuries ago, when Vietnam was under constitutional monarchy, only literate people were highly respected, appreciated and hence, assigned to high positions in the court. What’s more, at that time, to maintain the male-dominated regime in our country, females were forbidden from written language. Thus, there was an extremely bad punishment for those who tried to learn how to read and write.

  • Sara says:

    We can see that like all languages and its etymology, when I refer to my second language being Khmer, this language also borrows from other languages in it’s development. When we consider the year 1943, Cambodia embarked on the Romanization of Khmer where printing and making Cambodian typewriters were the most beneficial in this period. However, during the Khmer Rouge Policy, language was not a cultural heritage but an effective brain-washing device. For example, people had to learn and use all the new words and terms, this was because nobody dared to reveal their social status. This is enough to tell us about literacy in Cambodia as a social practice embedded in relationships of power. Therefore, literacy in modern Khmer today is still associated directly with power (socially classed its citizens), identity, respect and one’s ability to handle various situations.

  • Sara says:

    When we consider Khmer language, the etymology of the translation equivalents of “read” and “write” or/and of “literacy” is rather difficult to dissect using public resource. To thoroughly understand these words I was able to discuss this in light with a local Cambodian English speaker. Firstly, to dissect it, we should understand that the words that are used to refer to literature, administration, royalty, religion and specific subjects in the field of education are mostly borrowed from Pali and Sanskrit language.

    The Cambodian translation of “literacy” is “akkharokam” and the word for “read” is “an” and for “write” is “sarser.” The definition of “read” and “write” in Khmer language is ‘one’s ability to read and write.’ It was commonly used as a way to describe the less educated and for people in provinces not so much in the cities. It is translated as a way to measure Khmer language proficiency. It is apart of basic language skills for reading and writing. The word “akkhar” originates from the word ‘aksor” which is translated in English as “word.” The third syllable “kam” means “passive” in English, used to describe the people that are in the lower-social class that are the low knowledgable people. The word “kam” also means program, a program designed for people with low reading and writing skills. The three syllables together “akkhar/o/kam” where the ‘o’ is silenced translated in English means “wording-program.”

  • Sara says:

    When it comes to Khmer language, the semantic field for “literacy” is rather a sensitive topic and remains quite complex especially to the Khmer people. Literacy tradition dated back to the early 7th century. In terms of better understanding the origins of the second language I speak at home, this article allows me to explore it’s roots and broaden my knowledge of literacy in the past and in modern Khmer. Literacy until this day is thought to be as simple as the meaning to “read” and “write”, however this article helps convey a deeper meaning and appreciation of language origins, not only English but including my own spoken language.

    Much influence has been from other countries, such as the Indian influence in the vocabulary of Khmer where native Khmer words are either monosyllabic or disyllabic and the written system is syllabo-phonemic. From the 7th century AD for a period of time, Khmer and Sanskrit existed side by side, considered to be languages of stone inscriptions. From the 13th century, Pali took the place of Sanskrit, this was due to the spread of Theravada Buddhism. Also, Thai had inevitably influenced Cambodian language, literature culture and administration in the late 16th century AD where Thai had political supremacy over Cambodia. It was a kind of borrowing from the Thai which included much that the Thai had previously borrowed from Cambodia at the time of Angkor. When French arrived in Cambodia before 1950’s, there were three main languages used: Khmer (native language), Pali (language of Buddhism) and French.

  • Bindu pokhrel says:

    Literacy could be considered as a strongest asset for the exercise of power. We have a hand full of examples from the world history, in many instances literates rule over the illiterates. Literate people are wiser than the non-literates; sometimes they use their knowledge as a sturdy weapon to attack the innocent ones. The bitter truth is uneducated people are often cheated and manipulated by the so called educated ones.
    In the history of Nepal, the most powerful Rana prime minister Jung Bhahadur Rana was against educating the public. The school was not open to anyone except their ruling family and their nobles’ sons. The ruling system was autocratic and very strict about the people’s access to education because they wanted the power.
    In ancient Nepal, women were restricted to go to school and were limited to household activities. Men were given the main roles in a family and society, the decision making power and authority were male’s domains. Had women been to school they would seek for an equal status which was the biggest fear. Men were regarded superior to women which to certain extent exists even today. Women were kept away from education in order to rule them. They are the victims of abuse, human trafficking, domestic violence and other forms of exploitations. The relation of this issue with the topic is no knowledge, no power.

  • Gloria Christabel says:

    This is an extremely thought-provoking write-up. Before signing up for this unit, I had grossly underestimated the importance of literacy. Nevertheless, after reading this article, I could really relate to all that has been written. English could be said to be my first language as I grew up speaking it. Recently, during one of my phone calls with my mum, my career prospects came up. She mentioned how the job market for teachers is getting more competitive each and every day and the one thing that would make an employer choose to look through my resume and call me in for an interview, is my ability to draft an ‘attractive’ resume. It’s all about using words that appeal to the reader. Since I lack any formal experience in the field of teaching, the stakes are definitely higher and if I did not put careful consideration into the vocabulary that I use in my resume and cover letter, I could be in the running to say goodbye to a particularly admirable job opportunity.

    Another instance where literacies came into play was when I went for an interview for my internship with an insurance company. I was fresh after 3 years of pursuing my Bachelor’s degree in the English Language and I was ready to put my skills to use. Nevertheless, when I sat down for the interview, which was conducted by a representative from the Human Resources department and the Head of Corporate Communications, as I was briefed on the job and what it was about, I came to the realization that there were some things that I had not learnt in the course of my study, as I had a minor of Journalism but they were looking for a bit of Public Relations as well. However, I expressed my interest to learn and basically made sure my body language and my words were hopefully on par with their standards. I was then asked to do a sort of case study and write an essay about how I would handle that situation. I made sure to keep my essay interesting and made sure to use the right amount of jargons. Less than a week later I was called in to say that I had gotten the job. A friend of mine however, who came in a month later but interned with me, was a Public Relations major, but had a problem with speaking and writing in standard English. She would often get our colleagues to check her work to see if there were errors as she found it hard to make the correct translations from her mother tongue to the TL. She then explained to me, that she was told after her interview that she would get the call within a week if all goes well, but she only got the call after a month. She told me it was due to her command of the English Language. She found it hard to articulate what she intended to say. This shows how important literacy is. It holds the power to make or break a person’s career and reputation even.

  • HANIFA RAHMAWATI says:

    This article has raised my awareness of how the term literacy conveys further and deeper meaning of simply the ability to read and write- thanks, Ingrid! Though I’m an Indonesian, I find myself unaware of the historical definition of the word literacy in Bahasa Indonesia (literasi) but thanks to the post Danisa submitted so I now understand it better. In my viewpoint, to pinpoint the power of literacy, it is literacy that plays a large role in humans’ communication across time and space- we wouldn’t be able to perceive what happened in another part of the world years, decades or even centuries ago if humans didn’t put the essential information in writing- and the information wouldn’t be comprehended if they weren’t literate. It hence explains why literacy can’t be simply defined as the ability to read and write since there embed sociocultural and pragmatic factors indicating if the individuals are fully literate, as also exemplified in the picture of Pence.

  • Pizza says:

    It is interesting how various forms of literacies have developed overtime. You may be literate in a language, but illiterate in computer or emotional literacy. As ideas are preserved or have fueled exchanges of information, for example, the spread of religions, it is fair to say that the origin of words is an important aspect of gaining a better understanding of humanity’s beginnings and transformations.

    In the image of this article, “Do not touch” is a phrase even children would understand, however, power overtakes this assumption as there may have been a fear of upsetting an individual of higher status. We have been trained to not challenge someone of greater power and thus, whether one is literate or not is unfortunately, of lesser importance.

  • Tricia says:

    The Filipino translation of “literacy” is “karunungang magbasa at magsulat” (the ability to read and write). This confirms that despite the 21st century evolution of its meaning as it is appended to terms like “digital,” “financial,” “media,” etc., literacy is originally and innately tied to the two macro language skills of reading and writing. In the Philippines, the Literacy Coordinating Council (LCC) and the Department of Education (DepEd), through the Functional Literacy, Education and Mass Media Survey (FLEMMS), report the distinction between basic or simple literacy and functional literacy. The former refers to the “ability to read and write” while the latter is defined as the “ability to read, write, compute, and comprehend.” The former, as labelled, is the basic measure of literacy, whereas the latter is a more advanced form of literacy influenced by exposure to mass media, including TV and Internet. But whether basic or functional, literacy in my country is clearly understood as the power to read and write.

  • rajni jaishi says:

    This piece articulates the complexity surrounding the term ‘literacy’ and connotations of literacy and power is an interesting and thought-provoking topic.
    The picture of Pence serves as the best precedent to the ideas in the article. The instances in the article made me think about how literacy determines power domain in our country too. The ability to use words asserts a person’s ability, elevates his/her’s social status. So, here language is directly associated with power. In countries like India and Nepal, where so many languages are spoken; literacy certainly means gaining some command over or the ability to handle various situations. The written words can instruct, command us to act in a certain way. Here, this piece also reminds me of Foucault’s saying ‘knowledge is power’. I think the two ideas are similar on some level.

  • Dee says:

    In the Serbian language literacy directly translates to писменост ‘pismenost’. Pis is derived from the word пише piše which means to write.
    The German expression “nach der Schrift sprechen” (“to speak according to writing”) has reminded me of a similar Serbian expression; пиши као што говориш (write as you are speaking”). I only ever considered this expression literally as Serbian is a phonic language. This article has made me reconsider that expression. And additionally to observe that so many regional dialects are under represented in written form when such power codes exist.

  • Eleonora Beolchi says:

    yes, totally..unbelievable how many things we can find out if we just stop to reflect…

  • rajni jaishi says:

    This piece articulates the complexity surrounding the term ‘literacy’ and yet makes it so clear. The picture of Trump serves as the best precedent to the story. There couldn’t have been a better way to explain how written words command us to act in a certain way. The roots of the words we use now in English and the relationship between written language and power is a new concept I got to ponder over. This piece reminds me of Foucault’s saying ‘knowledge is power’.
    In India and Nepal’s context, language plays a major role in asserting someone’s status, ability etc. The choice of words and placing them carefully to denote the exact message can have such powerful impact.

  • Mustaqim Haniru says:

    This article gives me wider insight of the notion of literacy, particularly on the complexity of the concept of literacy and its association with power, as I used to solely define it as the ability to read and write. In Indonesia, the common notion of literacy, which is called ‘literasi’ in Bahasa is the ability to comprehend and write text properly, that is why people who possess this ability are called literate while those who don’t called illiterate. I personally agree with the notion of power, which is associated with literacy concept as it is evident that individuals who possess better literacy skills have more control of himself and others compared to those who don’t, at least in my hometown. In fact, the former typically have better jobs, status, and financial in social life compared to the latter.

  • Binisha Sharma says:

    In Nepali language, the equivalent translation for ‘literacy’ is Sakshartha “साक्षरता” which means to be able to read and write. In context of Nepal, especially in rural parts, majority of men are capable to read and write. As a volunteer, while working with PAC- Nepal, an NGO, I participated in different literacy campaigns to expand women empowerment. I still remember some instances shared by participants during the campaign. Few agreed on the fact that they were cheated by educated men while selling vegetables and even if they knew they were being cheated they couldn’t argue as they lacked confidence. Today, definitely, such literacy campaigns have helped them to read and write to some extent and improve their self-esteem.

  • Kaniz Rahman says:

    This article totally widens my knowledge. Previously i just thought literacy mean the ability of reading writing! How the way Dr Piller stated literacy as a tool of power is impressive. In my mother tongue which is Bengali literacy is defined as “sakkhorota” which means knowledge that is required to write name. However in real sense literacy is more than jusy knowing how to write name or sign. It is amazing to see how this little word can mean so much. It is related with demonstrating knowledge in real life.
    One more thing that caught my attention was how English words are rooted from different languages. Even in my own language there are so many words those are rooted from different languages like Sanskrit. It is interesting to see one everything starts from one point and makes brunches.

  • Thanks, Laura! It’s actually a really fascinating etymology: the Indo-European root ‘leg’ had the core meaning ‘to collect, gather’. It was later extended to include the meaning ‘to read’ in Greek ‘légein’, Latin ‘legere’ etc. The ‘legal’ meaning was added in Latin and has given us English ‘legal’ etc. The military unit ‘legion’ is also related, as is ‘lexicon’. And, when we meet again on Tuesday for another ‘lecture’, I’ll neither be ‘reading’ to you nor will I ‘lay down the law’ but it’s part of the tradition of the genre in which we’ll engage.

  • Ha Pham says:

    this article helps me understand how literacy is related to the demonstration of power. In Vietnamese language, this term “literacy” means “đọc” and “viết”. In many Vietnamese feudal dynasties, those who were capable of reading and writing were highly likely to pass the exam at all levels to become mandarins. When kings ratified a decree, they would finish it with a seal as a symbol of their national power.

  • ROSE GARRY says:

    This is impressive! It has been my “Wow” moments discovering some essences of literacy. I have learnt connections with English words that I never relate to their etymologies. As in the example from Latin word, scribere which could be seen in words like prescribe and proscribe which are written words closely connected to the enactment of power and written work equated to law. It was new learning for me to read Writ-runs. It is intriguing! I was thinking for many English words that come from Latin, how much easier or difficult for Latin native speakers to learn English as a second or other Language?
    Literacy in PNG, is referred to as the ability to read and write and be understood.

  • NAMI NARIMATSU says:

    Through this article, I can understand well how ‘literacy’ has a power in social practices and lives and the origin of ‘literacy’. In Japanese, literacy can also mean that not only the ability of reading and writing but also skills and knowledge relating to a specific field. The latter meaning seems to demonstrate how importantly and powerfully literacy in Japanese can be relevant to society. Personally, developing literacy in Japanese as well as other languages may contribute to the development of professional knowledge and skills. Therefore, in recent years, there are the wide range of ‘literacies’ in the world.

  • LAILY HARTI says:

    I couldn’t agree more with Dr. Piller’s statement “literacy is a tool of power”. To relate this to Bahasa Indonesia’s term for literacy ‘literasi’, which means basically the ability to understand and make use of written, spoken and visual mode with language as its basic, one illiterate person is considered less knowledgeable than of those literate ones. This difference, thus, inspires many people, started from artist, celebrities, politicians and even local organization to commit to literacy movement for everyone, from every region in Indonesia, especially those underdeveloped area. The notion “literacy is a tool of power” has the underpinning value that one literate person, at the very least is powerful for him/herself.

  • rehan says:

    its really interesting to know that how the term “literacy” is used in every field or context. while reading this article i noticed a fact that despite the different definitions of this term they core concept of literacy is basically related to ‘competence’. literacy can be explained as a term which refers to the ability of every individual in doing something. Like many other students i belong to the part of the world where English is used as a second language. and the main role of this language is in the field of education. but literacy does not stick to language its about competence of doing something. it can be related to skills or knowledge. But in my context i believe that literacy is a verb which is derived from the word ‘literate”. A literate seems to be a smaller word but it has a very wast meaning. we take the concept of literate person as a person who is well mannered, well educated, has high morals, ethics, values etc, etc. we often say that you are an educated person we did not expect this from you. this reflects to literacy. so the term literacy can not be just summed up with the concept of ability to read and write. this definition can be useful in a specific discipline. but in every discipline it definition varies. as mentioned in the comments its true that the term literacy seems to be really very simple but its actually no that simple. as we go in depth meaning its a very fast field. and its also true that it definition varies in every field but somehow they all overlap each other.

  • Nhung Nguyen says:

    This post widens my understanding of literacy and helps answer my curiosity about the origin of literacy’s power upon the world. It is really impressed to see how the power of literacy is specifically illustrated here. Besides the arguments and specific examples presented here, I also think about the purpose of the invention of writing. Right from the initial time of its existence, two of the three main functions of writing were to serve the practices of state administration and religion (Gnanadesikan, 2009). Obviously, “power” indelibly exists in almost all social practices of these fields and perfectly becomes visible or tangible thanks to literacy. It is also worth noting that in the early age of writing revolution, only upper class people or dignitaries in religious organizations are eligible to learn and use written language. This situation seemed to have been consistent across regions and my own country is no exception although in our Vietnamese current system of written language, the equivalent translation of “literacy” is simply “biết đọc biết viết” which means “be able to read and write” which is close to our most popular, basic definition of literacy.

  • MeganLouise says:

    I really enjoy how the concept of literacy/literacies at first seems pretty basic and simple, but once you take a closer look it has a lot more to offer than just “the practice of reading and writing”. As someone who fluently speaks English, I always find it interesting to explore the literacies and words of other languages, to see where they derive their origins from, or on the other hand, look at other languages that also have their origins in Latin and to look at how different they are from the words we use. For example, in Spanish, the word for “write” is “escribir”, which (similarly to English), is derived from the Latin word “scribere”. Similarly, the Spanish word for “read” is “leer”, which is derived from the Latin word “legere”. As someone who understands basic Spanish who has a lot of friends who speak Italian, I have definitely noticed similarities in a multitude of words within the language (which is also demonstrated by the post Eleonora submitted), which I find interesting as it highlights the way in which different languages have derived different words from the same core language.

  • Thi Lam Tra DINH says:

    In Vietnamese, “literacy” conveys “the capacity of “đọc” and “viết” (“reading” and “writing”). The metaphors for these terms are “đèn sách” and “bút nghiên”(“candle lights, books” and “brushes, ink slabs”) respectively. The long occupation of the Chinese on Vietnam influence on language and writing. Like Korean and Japanese people, the Vietnamese based on the Chinese characters to adapt their script. Between the 10th and early 20th centuries, it was “chữ Nôm” (Nôm script) which was an adoption of Chinese in combination with Vietnamese factors. It has been considered a very complicated system. Nowadays, only some experts could read and write the script. It is obvious that being able to read and write seemed to be really tough to most of the population at that time. Therefore, literate people were highly appreciated and usually had high social positions in the feudal systems for their hard working.

  • S. J. L. says:

    In Korean, ‘literacy’ means ‘an ability to read and write’ but at the same time, it also contains a meaning ‘a competence in a certain field. Literacy as ‘the ability of reading and writing’ closely is connected to ‘the ability in a field’. For example, someone has just bought a brand-new cellular phone and the person wants to use every function of the phone. The fastest way to learn them is to read the manual. Otherwise, it takes more time for the person to use all the functions of the phone. So, I agree with Dr. Piller’s idea.

  • ALEXANDROS BINOS says:

    This is an interesting article about the power of literacy which can be considered one of humanity’s greatest achievements. It made me think about how the Greek work for literacy ‘αλφαβητισμός’ was formed. The etymology for the Modern Greek version firstly came via the French word ‘alphabétisation’ from the Latin alphabētum which came from the first two letters of the Ancient (and now modern) Greek alphabet ἄλφα (álpha) and βῆτα (bêta). These two ancient Greek letters originated from the Phoenician pictograms of an ox and a house which were taken from Egyptian hieroglyphics.

  • Nadiah Aziz says:

    Hi Prof Ingrid,

    As English is not my first language, I had to google the meaning of the expression that you mentioned in your post; “THE WRIT RUNS”. From my understanding, the word ‘writ’ refers to legal documents, or some sort of written law and the expression is normally, figuratively used in relation to the powers of the king. I happened to come across another related expression; “DROPPING THE WRIT” on WIkipidea, which refers to the informal term for a procedure in some parliamentary government systems, where the head of the government, for example the president or the prime minister, goes to the Head of State (The Sultan, in the case of Malaysia) and formally advises him to dissolve parliament.

    I enjoyed reading the evolution of words that you highlighted especially the ones that were derived from Latin language and the first thing that came to my head when I read the word SCRIBERE (from Latin), I did not actually think of the words ascribe, describe, or prescribe, but I thought of the word SCRIBBLE instead which is, if you like, another way or form of using a language by writing.

    And then it dawns on me, that in Malaysia, especially among the older generations, they use words such as “Gostan” (to go back or to reverse a car), “Kona” (to take the left or right turn), and “Nijam” (these days or nowadays). What is interesting is that there is no formal form of written language even in Malay language to show the semantic representation of these words as they are used mainly in spoken language especially in the rural areas. I personally think that these words originated from the times when Malaysia (formerly known as Tanah Melayu or in English Malay Land) was colonised by the British, when they were officially involved in Malaysian politics back in the year of 1771. Have a look at the explanation of my new findings;

    GOSTAN —> go astern

    KONA —> from the word CORNER

    NIJAM (a short form of INI JAM which means ‘this hour’) or this time

    This reminds me of one of the readings I did when I was doing my Bachelor Degree back in UniSA, in Adelaide, where Shohamy describes language as personal and how it evolves over time which is related to the semantic representation of the word “WRITE” as u mentioned in your post how it originally means to carve or scratch and this is obvious if we go back to ancient times where language is being “written” in a form of carvings images or symbols on stones, rocks, or caves.

    One of the most prominent Islamic scholars who lived through the years 1100-1200s; Ibn Arabi, was responsible to preserve the books of the literalist schools was referred to as “The Greatest Master” by the practitioners of Sufism. It is no doubt that those who are very highly literate in any fields of literacies, in his case spiritual and religious literacies, are looked very highly upon in the sense that he gained recognition and respect from a particular social society, through the power of language that he used to convey messages to a particular, relevant institution.

    Thanks for reading ^_^

    Nadiah AZIZ
    APPL941

  • Thi Dung DOAN (Julie) says:

    In Vietnamese, the equivalent translation for ‘literacy’ is “sự biết viết, sự biết đọc” which is “the ablity to write and read “. I am not so sure about the etymology of the translation, nor can I explain why the combination of v-i-ế-t could make up the meaning of ‘write’ and ‘đ-ọ-c’ for ‘read’.

    As you can see, Vietnamese is Roman-based script and personally, I think this translation is simply the transferring of meaning. If we go further on getting the ideas of what “viết” and “đọc” mean, there will be some explanation like “write” means “drawing the lines to form words or presenting what you to say on paper”, etc.

    There are some other Vietnamese colleagues who are also taking the course, and I hope they will help me to discuss more about this.

    Julie

    • Nadiah Aziz says:

      Hi Julie,
      I have no knowledge on vietnamese but when I see the word “đọc” I can relate to an English word “document’, at least I guess the word in Vietnamese has some sort of semantic representation to me, that is somewhat related to one another ^^

      • Thi Dung DOAN (Julie) says:

        Hi Nadiah,
        It’s so interesting to see how you relate the words. It surprised me as well since I haven’t had the idea until I read your reply. Maybe I will do some more search about this. Thank you for you reply and hope you enjoy learning some Vietnamese as you really have something for it. (^_^)

        • Nadiah Aziz says:

          Hi Julie,
          I personally think that language learners can be very analytical when it comes to the language of ‘the other’ as compared to our own language that we acquired as L1, especially when the writing system differs greatly from what we already know or familiar with ^^ Thank you!!

  • GlobalMikeW says:

    I teach a Direct Entry Programme at a local university and it is interesting to consider the primary weight of focus our institution places on writing over speaking. I’d always thought it is because once students are accepted into their future fields of study, most assignments will need to be written and so the ability to craft essays is necessarily more important than other skills. But perhaps, as the author states, it is also related to a perception that the ability to write is the basis of academic literacy, and speaking is simply there to facilitate comprehension that will eventually be “scribed”. I do wonder sometimes how the international students feel about this overt focus on writing, and if they would prefer more emphasis on speaking and listening give it has a greater impact on the quality of their lives beyond that of academia.

  • Eleonora Beolchi says:

    This post is so fascinating because it gives us so many prompts to think about our own language and more broadly about the origin of languages and how sometimes they have elements in common or, some other times, how hard it is to see the interaction between languages over the centuries. In Italian “literacy” is translated with “alfabetismo”, which derives from “alfabeto” (lat. alphabetum). Semantically “alfabetismo” is connected to “scrivere” (writing), which has a clear derivation from the Latin and “leggere” (reading), which again comes from the Latin lĕgĕre. Literacy was a privilege for the oligarchy, therefore related to power.

  • Wonghoi says:

    Literacy skill is also very important in the Chinese language learning progress.(in simplified form) Recently one of my friends from UIC is working on a projec with Renming University to set up a corpus to improve the literacy skills of high school students from mainland China, which reminds me how important it is to change this situation in the future.(Esepically about essay writing skill and fast-reading skill)

    In the simplified Chinese style:读(read)写(write)

    Since JZzzz has explained the etymology of those two words in traditional Chinese, I think his explaination is very clear. Except for the idea about the right part of “读”, and personally I would like the interprete it as “to sell something to someone”.

    As you mentioned “nach der Schrift sprechen” in German language, I can not agree with you no more about this concept. This is also a key point when I was in the Chinese class of middlehigh school. Only by developing a full-scale literacy plan for our students, they could get more benefits from it. Last but not least, power code is highly connected with our educational experiences through the whole life.

  • JZzzz says:

    I am fascinated by the illustration of the power of literacy in English language, which makes me consider literacy power in Chinese language. “Literacy” in Chinese is also translated as “讀” (read) 寫 (write)”. Take “讀” (read) as an example: the left part “言” means language or text and the right part “賣” means pausing in a sentence. It means people who can read have to know where to pause while reading since there are no punctuations marks in ancient Chinese texts. These people are mainly literate people who have received well education. This also reflects a close relation between literacy and education in social practices.

    • Nadiah Aziz says:

      Hi there! I remember my Chinese friend taught me to write the word “House” in Mandarin and it was interesting as the character actually does look like a drawing of a house! 舍 I’m not quite sure if it was this character but I remember it has a roof and to me it represents the roof of a house ^^

      Nadiah AZIZ

      • Thi Dung DOAN (Julie) says:

        Hi Nadiah,
        I am Vietnamese but I speak Mandarin Chinese, so I think I could help. It is pronounced ” jiā ” which is its pinyin and the character is 家 . Hope it is what you meant.
        Julie

      • JZzzz says:

        Hi, Nadiah! Yes, I agree with you! And thanks to Ingrid’s fantastic lecture today, I think I can explain more. To be more specific, the reason why 舍(house) looks like a house is that it comes from ideographic writing, although it also has a modification giving pronunciation (phonogram) information, which is the lower half “舌” (tongue), telling people that 舍(house)is pronounced similar to 舌. Please correct me if I am wrong. 😉 Thanks!

        • Nadiah Aziz says:

          Ooh! Thanks JZzzz ^^ Yes, it’s pretty similar to Ingrid’s explanation on the word “mother” in mandarin, the word female on the left is pronounced like the word “horse” ^^

    • gab88 says:

      Literacy is a very powerful tool, especially in modern society. It is embedded in power relations by means of education and knowledge. Modern society has high expectations to go to university in order to progress along a career path (not all but most). Along with this, it is essential to communicate by means of reading and writing. Anything important these days has to be in writing either by email or letter to show evidence. From my basic knowledge of Italian the word to ‘write’ = ‘scrivi’ similar to scribe which is write things down in English and ‘read’ = leggere which is similar to English as legible being able to understand.
      The word for literacy I had to google and it was translated as “alfabetizzaione” which looking at and reading it, sounds sometime like alphabet. It’s not a coincides that these terms are similar across languages. The root of both these languages is Latin. Way back when, the two most powerful organisations (religion and government) used Latin and those who could read and write it, were in power and considered knowledgeable.

      • ABC says:

        Hi gab88,

        In a similar way to the example of Italian you mentioned, the word in Spanish for “literacy” is “alfabetización” which comes from the verb “alfabetizar” meaning ‘to teach reading and writing’ which in turn, comes from “alfabeto”. The translation equivalents of “read and write” in Spanish are “leer” which comes from the Latin “legere” that originally meant “to choose”. Regarding relationships of power we can find many words related to “law” that come from Latin and share the same root with their equivalents in Spanish such as “legal” and “legislate”. As for “escribir”, it comes from the Latin “scribere” which similarly to the English etymology of “write” and means “to carve or scratch” as mentioned above in the article.

        ABC

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