Almira A.

Delarmente
Bachelor of Secondary Education Major in Filipino

1. Enumerate the definitions/views of literacy mentioned in Keefe and Copeland, and

in Pilgrim and Martinez.

A. Definitions/views of literacy mentioned in Keefe and Copeland

- Their 1957 definition of literacy stated, “a person is literate who can with
understanding both read and write a short simple statement on his (her) everyday
life” (UNESCO, 2008, p. 18).
- The establishment of the Experimental World Literacy Program in 1966 used
what they termed a functional definition, “a person is functionally literate who
can engage in all those activities in which literacy is required for effective
functioning of his (her) group and community and also for enabling him (her) to
continue to use reading, writing and calculation for his (her) own and the
community’s development” (UNESCO, 2008, p. 18).
- PISA proposed a definition of “Reading Literacy” as “An individual’s capacity to
understand, use and reflect on written texts, in order to achieve one’s goals, to
develop one’s knowledge and potential and to participate in society”
(Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2006, p. 46). This
definition is based on the belief that, “literacy enables the fulfillment of individual
aspirations” (PISA, p. 46) rather than both the individual and community benefit
as cited in the UNESCO definition. The PISA definition does acknowledge that
one benefit literacy may confer is the ability to participate in society.
B. Definitions/views of literacy mentioned in Pilgrim and Martinez
- The IRA position statement reported that in order “to become fully literate in
today’s world, students must become proficient in the literacies of the 21 st century
technologies” (p.1)
- Information literacy is the ability to recognize when information is needed and to
have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information
(ALA, 1989).
- Multiliteracies refers to the multiple ways of communicating and making
meaning, including such modes as visual, audio, spatial, behavioral, and gestural
(New London Group, 1996).
- New Literacy is the use of new technologies to gather and communicate
information (Coiro et al., 2008).
- Digital Literacy is the ability to find, evaluate, utilize, share, and create content
using information technologies and the Internet (Cornell University, 2009).
- Web Literacy refers to the knowledge and use of specific skills needed to locate,
analyze, and communicate information found online.
2. Compare (similarities) and Contrast (differences) these definitions/views.
Upon reading the articles written by Keefe and Copeland and Pilgrim and
Martinez, what I mostly observed are the differences in definitions, views and focus of
each article. The article that was written by Keefe and Copeland focused on suggesting
definition on literacy that will not set aside the children with extensive needs. They
highlight that literacy is for all and should be experienced by every people, if a person
was able to share his/her knowledge to the community he/she is considered literate. On
the other hand, the article that was written by Pilgrim and Martinez, it was focused on
defining literacy in today’s time which is 21st century. The article explained that today,
the meaning of literacy is based on the level of the person’s ability to use technology in
problem-solving, collaboration and communication. Another difference that I observed is
that, in the article of Keefe and Copeland, they are more focus on defining literacy with
the back-to-basics just like reading and writing. While Pilgrim and Martinez’s article
focus more on relying on literacy with the use of technology and multi-media. But
despite those differences, I was still able to spot some similarities with the two-given
article, just like in the definition of PISA and Information literacy, they both have the
point that a person is described as literate if they’ll be able to understand and grasp
knowledge with the information that they read and apply it in real life. Another similar
thing that I’ve read with the two article is that, they both consider a person as literate if
they both can communicate or at least engage with other people with information, this
was seen in the definition of UNESCO in 1966 and in the various types of literacy under
the article of Pilgrim and Martinez