What is Literacy
A direct definition of literacy is the ability to read and write, but it is also defined as being much more than that. According to James Paul Gee from a linguistic perspective, literacy is defined as the ability to understand, interpret, and communicate effectively in specific contexts. According to the author it is not only about how people say things, “but what they are and do when you say them”. Every time people use language they must say or write things in the right way while they are playing the right social role and hold the right values, beliefs, and attitudes. The most important part is not language, or grammar, but the way of saying or writing, doing, being, valuing, believing combinations. There are more than one literacy involving primary, secondary, dominant, and non-dominant Discourses.
What is Discourse
Discourse is a kind of “identity kit” that includes instructions and the appropriate costume on how to act, speak, and sometimes write a certain way in taking on a role that others can recognize. Discourses are mastered by enculturation in social practices and not by over instructions, and this by having a sustained and scaffolded interaction with people who already master it.
Primary and Secondary Discourses
People develop two main Discourses in their life, a primary and a secondary one. The primary one is the one that people develop at the first place where they live, like their home. The secondary one is the one people develop once their start to socialize outside of their homes. The mastery of which at a particular time and place bring social goods such as money, prestige, and status is dominant Discourses. Non-dominant Discourses bring solidarity with a particular social network.
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