By: Alissa Damiano
James Paul Gee on Literacy Studies
According to Gee, much more goes into the term “Language” than just knowing and understanding grammar. Many people understand how to use the grammar of a specific language but not many people know how to properly use the language in different contexts. Gee calls this Discourse. Discourse is described as a way of being within the world while integrating appropriate words, beliefs, attitudes, gestures, attitudes, body language, etc into your everyday life. Gee also states that to fully be a linguist, you must speak, act, and think like one. You must have the full package and dig deeper past just your basic knowledge of the language. When it comes to teaching discourses, there is no way to properly teach someone how to be a linguist. This is a skill they must master on their own through prior linguistic knowledge and integrating social settings into their everyday lives to understand how and when to properly use linguistics. In the case studies explained on page 2 of the text, the women both have good grammar usage and dialect in the interviews but do not fully answer the questions being asked to them since they cannot dig deeper past what they have learned and are not “fluent” enough to talk about their own personal experiences. The women take the question very literally, making their responses general and not specific to themselves, causing them to not dig deeper past the language they have learned.
Hawisher and Selfe‘s Beliefs on Computer Literacy
The authors discuss how understanding computer literacy in today’s society is super important since technology has taken over our workplaces, homes, schools, communities, etc. It is not only important to understand how to use a computer but to also dive deeper into it and understand how a computer works on the backside of what we see. In order to properly use a computer, you need to learn the basics of how to turn it on/ off, what each key does, where to go when you need to find information, etc. All of these skills fall under computer literacy but being able to use this knowledge and further research or fix a problem on the computer takes fluency, which branches out from the foundation of computer literacy that is originally built. In the article, the authors discuss Melissa and how she grew up not using computers since she felt as though only skilled people used them and she was not worthy of using one herself. After she enlisted in the military, she was forced to learn how to use one for her job and for her own benefit. Melissa used her prior knowledge of her dad learning army manuals that she watched him read to educate herself on computers. Eventually, she took this information further and created her own online portfolio for future job interviews, meaning she developed a sense of fluency and a deeper understanding of computer literacy to benefit herself and others.
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