Defining new literacies

For my online PGCE course I had to read “Defining new literacies in curricular practice” by Ladislaus M. Semali, published in Reading Online (vol. 5, no. 4), an electronic journal of the International Reading Association.

In this article Semali debates the importance of having a definition of “new literacies” in a world where it is very difficult to predict what new literacies we will be exposed to in a few years. The author refers to “new literacies” as those literacies that have emerged in the post-typographic era. He advocates that schools have to change their curriculum in such a way as to adapt to the new literacies, which now include, alongside printed text, moving images and graphics.

Key points from the reading:

1) In most schools, education inside the classroom is print based, while outside the school, students interact with technology that requires different competencies than those acquired at school. Thus, the need for teachers and schools to incorporate new literacy skills in the curriculum.

2) The most frequent new literacies in post-typographic era are:
- computer literacy (ability to use computers)
- information literacy (“ability to create, disseminate and retrieve information quickly”)
- media literacy (“ability to access, experience, evaluate and produce media products”)
- television literacy or “teleliteracy” (ability “to read and interpret television messages”)
- visual literacy (ability to read and interpret visual messages)

3) Schools need to create “media literate citizens” that can not only access and read the new literacies, but also create content for them (as opposed to the “passive citizens”)

4) Creating an absolute definition to a term as wide as new literacies is unwanted in a world of constant change and evolution.

Issues raised from my own context

- The need of a curriculum that includes competencies for new literacies might be a hot topic in developed countries, but developing countries, such as Thailand, haven’t reached a high enough standard of education (primary, secondary and high school only) to think about new literacies. It is very difficult to make school administrators (and parents!) understand that English doesn’t mean only grammar, or science doesn’t mean only memorization of definitions.

- Another issue arises from the fact that my students are non-native speakers of English and, with very few exceptions, the only time they speak English is at school. At home they are exposed to multi-modal texts that are most of the time in Thai, their native tongue. Will my efforts of exposing the students to new ICTs (and teaching them competencies needed for new literacies) have any practical value as long as the instruction is in English?