In James Paul Gee’s article Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics he writes that literacy is not only about reading and writing, but rather the concept that involves understanding and participating in specific social practices. After reading his article I never really thought that literacies would affect me professionally, but now I’ve come to realize it has and subconsciously I’ve been able to deal with it quietly. Growing up, there were different types of literacies that I learned from and most of it came from reading, writing, social media, cultural background, and information that I was taught in school. Each of those literacies has taught me how to speak and write to others, depending on who I am with. In a professional setting, I work in a daycare and when I have to speak to parents I don’t talk to them like how I talk to my friends. If there is an accident with a child I fill out an accident report and make sure I write it in “proper English”, meaning I wouldn’t write it like how I text my friends; no proper grammar and slang. When I’m around my friends not only does my behavior change, but the way I speak or how I write, when I text them, it’s a huge change. Even, the language changes because most of my friends are hispanic, we usually use code-meshing when we speak to each other. We’ll say a sentence in English and certain words in Spanish because we either forgot the word in English or we want to express that word differently. Literacies come in different forms and by understanding you can participate in different discourses that shape your life.
A Mutiple of Literacies
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