Redefining Literacy in the Digital Age

Technology and digital media are changing the meaning of literacy and creating new challenges for teaching and learning.

• By Ruth Reynard
• 01/10/17

The literacy challenge here in the United States has been with us for some time. Several sources indicate that the percentages of adult illiteracy have not changed in 10 years:

• The Huffington Post notes: According to a study conducted in late April by the U.S. Department of Education and the National Institute of Literacy, 32 million adults in the U.S. can't read. That's 14 percent of the population. 21 percent of adults in the U.S. read below a 5th grade level, and 19 percent of high school graduates can't read. The current literacy rate isn't any better than it was 10 years ago.
• According to the National Assessment of Adult Literacy (completed most recently in 2003, and before that, in 1992), 14 percent of adult Americans demonstrated a "below basic" literacy level in 2003, and 29 percent exhibited a "basic" reading level. Additional statistics from the Literacy Project Foundation reinforce the reality and extent of the challenge.
• Additionally, ProLiteracy provides a percentage breakdown of the areas of illiteracy and emphasizes the impact of unemployment and poverty on the issue.

While these statistics are powerful, it is important to realize two issues:

1. There are many challenges that impact illiteracy, not just general education; and
2. There are currently many different types of literacy and so the scope of the challenge has increased and is not being fully assessed or evaluated.

We hear K–12 teachers say on a regular basis that literacy remains a huge challenge for their students. We also hear college instructors talking about how current students seem to have graduated from high school and cannot read or write well. Often, college classrooms and online groups have to spend time addressing literacy skills as well as content. While there are many economic and educational factors involved, it is clear that a collision of conventional and digital literacy has both challenged and redefined what literacy should be and just how it must be taught in any curriculum.

Literacy Skills: Conventional and Progressive

As we likely all realize, the conventional idea of literacy concerns reading and writing. For generations, we have focused on the reading and writing skills of students through the entire educational process. More recently, though, linguistics has influenced the literature to include listening and speaking as key literacy skills (e.g., see the work of the Hanen Centre, a nonprofit organization focused on extreme literacy issues in children). As linguists (Krashen, 1987, 1988 and others) have made us aware, language skills must include all four of the literacy skills — reading, writing, listening and speaking — in order for adequate language "function" to be achieved. That is, the acquisition of language use is critical over the learning of passive grammar and structure. The accuracy of language is influenced still by reading and writing; however, listening and speaking are essential for fluency. Fluency in a language is influenced by all four skills and, in turn, it influences the overall understanding or meaning. Theorists have provided ample research data to demonstrate that understanding must be reached if language has been appropriately used: The innate reason for language is to exchange meaning (Chomksy, 1957, 1988). Additionally, if listening and speaking have been focused on more than reading and writing, then language accuracy is lacking.