Literacies
Defining Literacy
Literacy is a human process of making sense of our world, binding our understanding and relationships to each other and our contexts. Literacy is found in the “relationship between human practices and the production, distribution, exchange, refinement, negotiation and contestation of meaning” (Lankshear & Knobel, 2007, p. 2). Within this process, there is reciprocity between practice and meaning-making, between context and language, between reading and writing (Lankshear & Knobel, 2007).Stordy (2015) examines literacy/literacies to create a taxonomy that encompasses a multitude of definitions and variations of relevant terms. This taxonomy includes both an autonomous perspective outlining psychological cognitive definitions and an ideological perspective relating to socio-cultural approaches that define literacy/literacies. Stordy (2015) differentiates these into those literacies that integrate no-or-few digital technologies (conventional), those that incorporate new technical elements (peripheral), and those literacies that assimilate new technical stuff with new ‘ethos stuff’ (paradigm), further described in the Taxonomy of Literacies image.
The taxonomy is grounded in literacy research and provides a working definition of literacies that “captures the complementary nature of literacy as a cognitive ability and a social practice” (Stordy, 2015, p. 472). While Stordy (2015) acknowledges the challenges of and limitations in this framework, and recognizes that the borders between these concepts are fuzzy and permeable, this taxonomy supports the reframing of literacies in a way that clarifies understanding.
Literacy terminology is frequently confused with notions of fluency and competency but these should be regarded as different conceptions. Fluencies is the ability to speak, read, and write in a given language quickly and easily, while competency is defined by having skills and abilities to do a job (“Competency,” OED Online; “Fluency,” OED Online). These definitions are not the same thing, but can be considered to be subsumed within the broader term ‘literacy’. This clarification is made here since research applies these terms interchangeably, yet they are distinctly different conceptions.