Defining Literacy in “Literate” Terms

Coming from Hispanic heritage where Spanish is my father’s native language, he often has difficult times phrasing his word choice in English through letters, emails, etc. I help proofread his writing and explain to him the mistakes he is making. Over time I have noticed that these mistakes are minimal, an awkward pause here and a missing comma there seem to be the most dire cases; yet he still claims he is not fully literate in the English language. What is this term literate? We incorporate our literacy of books, common sense, and knowledge into our everyday lives either through one language or multiple. Literacy occurs in all languages and one person may be able to read and write in different languages, but does that mean they are literate in all of them?

A person’s native language represents part of their identity and they associate themselves largely around it. They not only become affixed to their native language through learning new words, but they are able to fully immerse themselves into the language that they have an innate ability to shift their tone depending on their audience and backchannels that represent “cue-phrases” during dialogue—such as yeah and uh-huh. When speaking his native language, my father possesses this innate ability to manipulate his tone depending on the situation; such as when to pause to allow someone to finish their statement or to sound polite. However, it is when
my father tries to adjust his tone when speaking English that he seems to run into difficulties.

There have been countless times where he is having a conversation with someone who’s native language is English and they believe that my father is talking down to them simply because of his Spanish accent. It is not that my father is doing this on purpose; it is simply because he may not feel fully confident when speaking English or his accent is hindering him and making his English sound stern. When I analyze my father’s claim that he is not literate in English I not only look at this statement from his point of view, but from how native English speakers perceive him. My father views himself as not being literate in the English language, but I disagree with him. He is well-knowledgeable of how to read, write, and converse in English. It
is his slight misuse of the language that he believes is evidence for being illiterate. From a native English speaker they may claim that my father is illiterate due to his accent, but once again I disagree because a person’s accent does not need to meet the standard in order for them to be regarded as literate.

When I become an English teacher at the high school level I want to be able to convey to my students that being literate does not mean that a person has to speak the standard of English—the more favored dialect among English speakers. My goal throughout the year would be to create exercises that will allow them to feel confident in reading, writing, and conversing in the language. Public high schools currently contain several different ethnicities in a single class. This could make it difficult to create activities that are suitable for everyone, but I would
acknowledge each culture’s differences and use this as a starting off point.

To begin with, I want the students to first write about a time they may have experienced a feeling of inferiority. I want them to concentrate on a time where there may have been a language barrier or they did not feel confident to express their ideas because they felt their usage of English was not up to par of those around them. Since I want to utilize this type of activity in the beginning of the school year, students may feel shy and not want to express their thoughts openly for the class to hear. This is fine; at this point of the school year I just the students to start to have a different outlook on the term literacy, one that is created not entirely from the norm. We will defer our thoughts of the standard of English and concentrate on a person’s individual aspects that make them literate.

The next type of activity I would incorporate into my class would be to read short stories by authors of different ethnicities such as Sandra Cisneros and Zora Neale Hurston. This will provide students with the knowledge that others are also facing hardships and putdowns because of the way they speak English. When it comes down to it, all of us have accents. My future students will learn through reading and writing that this statement is true. I will have them keep a journal that they can write in when they experience an incident relating to their manner of speaking and also to write down their thoughts after they have read a short story. Towards the end of the school year, I will have the students compose a poem about their stance on literacy and what it means to them. It will be written on a poster board along with an illustration either hand-drawn or a collage of photos. They will present it to the class and it will be posted on a wall in the classroom.

Though there may be one dictionary definition of the term literacy, every person will create different definitions of this term. I have realized that mostly everyone is literate—they have the ability to read, write, and converse fluently in their native language, but it is when they transition to another language that their confidence level is lowered and they feel that they arehindered by the accent that originates from their native language. This does not prove they are illiterate because a person’s accent should not define them as being illiterate.