LITERACY IN LANGUAGE TEACHING

2.2 LITERACY IN LANGUAGE TEACHING

Literacy is also involved in creating discourse. To make clear the meaning of literacy, here is its basic concept. Literacy is the ability to read and write Holme, 2004. In a broad sense the definition of literacy is the ability to communicate orally, writtenly and actively involved. Not just that, literate people mean that they are not only able to read and write but also to listen and speak, as well as to do what they read, write, listen, and speak. Related to the statement above, Wilkinson 1965 in Corden 2000 coins that speaking and listening to be much more prominent and to be included in the conception of literacy. Based on the definition of literacy above, I can say that literacy is not only the ability to read and write but also the ability to listen and speak and how to apply them. In 2006 English Curriculum, whose the embryo is 2004 Curriculum, states that the goal of English teaching and learning process in senior high school is that by the end of the study the students are expected to be able to communicate in English with the level of literacy not only performative and functional level but also informational level. In the performative level, the students are expected to be able to read and write. In the functional level, they are expected to have ability to use the language for communication or for survival, such as reading newspaper they are interested in, etc. While in the informational level, they are expected to be able to access knowledge using English as they are prepared to continue to the university. Consequently, it is important for SMA students to develop the knowledge through their language by having skills on reading and writing as the basic knowledge if they want to continue to the university. Reading and writing from literacy perspective is the ability to interpret and create English text either spoken or written. In addition, Kern 2000 claims that “Instructional activities emphasize interpendence among four language skills such as: listening, speaking, reading and writing and focus on linguistics form, situational context, and communicative and expressive functions” The principles of literacy in the context of academic language teaching which is described by Kern 2000: 16 – 17. 1. Literacy involves interpretation. SpeakersWriters and listenersreaders take part in double acts of interpretation - the speakerwriter interprets the world, such as experiences, ideas, etc. The listenerreader interprets the speakerwriter interpretation in terms of his or her conception of the world. 2. Literacy involves collaboration. Writers not only write for the readers but also write for themselves. Their decisions about what heshe wrote and said are based on the need and their understanding of their audience. Readers in turn must contribute their motivation, knowledge, and experience in order to make the writer’s text meaningful. 3. Literacy involves convention. The people read and write text regulated by cultural convention that change through use and are modified for individual purposes. 4. Literacy involves cultural knowledge. Reading and writing function within particular systems of attitude, beliefs, customs, ideals, and values. Readers and writers were operating from outside a given cultural system risks misunderstanding or to be misunderstood by those operating on the inside of cultural system. 5. Literacy involves problem solving. Words are always embedded in linguistic and situational contexts; reading and writing involve figuring out relationships between larger units of meaning, and between texts and real or imagined worlds. 6. Literacy involves reflection and self-reflection. Readers and writers think about language and its relation to the world and themselves. 7. Literacy involves language use. Literacy is not only about writing system, lexical and grammatical knowledge but also requiring knowledge of how language is used in spoken and written contexts to create discourse. The seven principles above can be summarized into the macro principle of literacy, that is communication. It has important implication for language teaching, as it provides a bridge to span the gap that so often separates introductory communicative language and advanced ‘literacy’ teaching. In this case, the teachers should be able to develop the students’ ability to communicate in English, think and see the world differently. In line with literacy Wells 1987 claims that there are four levels of literacy, namely: performative, function, informational and epistemic Well 1991, Grant 1986, and Freebody and Luke 1990 in Hammond et al. 1992: 9 -10. To unfold the concept of literacy level above, it can be seen as follows: 1. Performative “The emphasis at this level is on the code as code. Becoming literate, according to this perspective, is simply a matter of acquiring those skills that allow a written message to be coded into speech in order to ascertain its meaning and those skills that allow a spoken message to be decoded in writing according to the conventions of letter formulation, spelling and punctuations. At the performative level, it is tacitly assumed that written message differs from spoken message only in the medium employed for communication” 2. Functional “This perspective emphasizes the uses that are made of literacy in interpersonal communication. To be literate, according to this perspective is able as a member of that particular society to cope with the demands of everyday lives that involve written language”. 3. Informational “At this level, the curricular emphasis is on reading and writing – but particularly reading is on the student’s use for accessing the accumulated knowledge that is seen as the function of school to transmit”. 4. Epistemic “At each for the preceding levels, but particularly at second and third, the concern is with literacy as mode of communication. However, to focus only on interpersonal communicative functions of literacy I fail to recognize the changes that reading and writing can make in the mental lives of individuals, and by extension, of the societies to which those individuals belong. The fourth perspective is to have available ways of acting upon and transforming knowledge and experience that are in general unavailable to those who never learned to read and write” Based on the statement above the English teachers must work hard to be able to mediate their students to accomplish their literacy level based on their academic development as stated in curriculum 2006. The SMA graduates must be able to accomplish the literacy level of communication not only performative and functions level but also informational level as they prepare to continue to the university. In the informational level, the students are expected to be able to access knowledge using English. In this case, the teachers should have skills to select material and execute learning activities appropriately in order that students can achieve the literacy level as stated in the curriculum 2006 well. According to English Curriculum 2006, language is developed based on either context of culture or context of situation. It is characterized by of field what is being talked or written about, b tenor the relationship between speaker and listener or the writer and reader, c mode whether the language is spoken or written, context of culture produces various kinds of text and this is called genre. In learning English the student are engaged in interpreting and creating those texts in English genre, which are not the same as ours. Consequently English language teaching stated in Curriculum 2006 for SMA and SMP is genre based. This curriculum suggests two cycles, that is spoken cycle and written cycle. Each consists of four stages. The four stages are building knowledge of the field, modeling of the text, joint construction of the text and independent construction of the text. The students learn English in the classroom from spoken cycle. Because of that, it is difficult for the teacher to develop students writing skill if they have not mastered the spoken language first. Written language is not oral language, which is written. They are different in certain aspects. Spoken or oral language consists of a lot of verbs complicated relation between sentences, various kinds of conversational gambits, fillers, etc; whereas written language involves lexical density and many complicated noun phrases, nominalization, etc. Regarding the statements above spoken language at SMA level is developed throughout more formal and complicated text including the use of gambits, modals, discourse markers and linguistic features, such as: mood, transitivity, etc. The written text is expected to be produced at grade twelve. Those who do not reach the written skill and spoken skill meaning that the teachers do not have an ability to mediate their students to reach the target language expected. To accomplish the literacy level stated by the curriculum during the learning process the teachers must be able to mediate the students to expose, to engage with spoken and written English in various contexts and to provide opportunities for their involvement during lesson. By the end of the twelfth grade, the students can reach the level of literacy in informational level as stated in the curriculum. In the teaching learning process, providing learning experiences for the student is the most important factor. The more learning experiences the student get the easier for the student to reach the target language, as Willkinson and Silliman 2000 say that students must be given moral chances to integral oral and written language in the classroom because these learning experiences will encourage the development of literacy. Therefore, as English teachers, we must be able to give number of exposure to the students in order to help and support students to accomplish the level of literacy expected in the curriculum. Even if with different background of the students, the English teachers should consider their ability in using their language and equip themselves with basic skills of teaching learning English.

2.3 DISCOURSE