household survey it still provides a replicable method for developing literacy assessment in a classroom setting for adult learners from the Eatern Tamang and other indigenous
people groups in various literacy programs in Nepal.
2.4 Definitions of literacy
There are diverse definitions of literacy: traditional literacy, civic literacy, critical literacy, cultural literacy, functional literacy, inter-generationalfamily literacy, political
literacy, task-specific literacy, and workplace literacy Bhola, 1994:31-34. Bhola ibid.:28 adduces several reasons why literacy definitions are different:
1 the languages of literacy are different e.g., Chinese versus Hindi;
2 different levels and standards of literacy skills are possible;
3 people prepare themselves to read different kinds of subject matter e.g.,
historians versus logicians; and 4
people differ in their objectives for being literate e.g., work place literacy versus political literacy.
It is impossible to present one universal standardized definition of literacy because different definitions use different mixes of skills and subject matter depending
upon their needs ibid.:34. Bhola introduces various definitions of literacy defined by different scholars as
follows: 1 Gudschinsky
‘s definition 1973:5: ―That person is literate who, in a language that he speaks, can read and understand
anything he would have understood if it had been spoken to him; and who can write, so that it can be read, anything that he can say.
‖ 2 Keith Levine
‘s edition to Gudschinsky‘s definition Bhola, 1994:30:
―The capacity to acquire and exchange information via the written word.‖ 3 Bhola
‘s definition in terms of ―literacy marks‖ ibid.: ―The ability of a person … to code and decode, that is, read and write, a living
and growing system of marks – words, numbers, notations, schemata, and
diagrammatic representations – all of which have become part of the visual
language of the people … both the specialist and the non-specialist.‖
4 Paulo Freire ‘s criticalemancipatorytransformational literacy ibid.:33:
―Reading the world always precedes reading the word, and reading the word implies continuously reading the world.
… In a way, however, we can go further and say that reading the word is not preceded merely by reading the world, but by
a certain form of writing it or rewriting it, that is, of transforming it by means of conscious, practical work. For me this dynamic movement is central to the
literacy process. ‖
However, according to Bhola, all literacy is functional in the sense that ―literacy
always comes to find a ‗function‘ in the lives of people who become literate‖ ibid.: 2.
Functional literacy has been more specifically defined as one of the forms of adult literacy which combines the teaching of reading and writing traditional literacy and the
teaching of empowering knowledge, attitudes, and skills such as economic skills. Gray 1956:24 defined a functionally literate person as:
―A person is functionally literate when he has acquired the knowledge and skills in reading and writing which enable him
to engage effectively in all those activities in which literacy is normally assumed in his culture or group.
‖ Gudschinsky points out that the concept of functional literacy can only apply in the areas where literacy is indeed essential to adequate functioning in the
community, unlikely the preliterate one where there is no need for literacy within the community life at all, based on the following definition:
―Functional literacy is that degree of literacy which permits the individual to function fully within his community, meeting all the demands of the community
on his ability to read ‖ Gudschinsky, 1973:6.
The definitions of literacy proposed by UNESCO have been evolving over time
from a traditional view to more functional and pluralistic perspectives as shown in Table 9:
Table 9: The UNESCO definitions of literacy
Definition of Literacy Source
A person is considered literate, who can both read and write a short simple statement on his everyday life.
A person is considered semi-literate, who can read with understanding, but not write, a short simple statement on his everyday life.
UNESCO, 1957:18
―The ability to read and write in the mother tongue‖ cultural definition in the 1960s. Bhola,
1994:28 a A person is literate who can with understanding both read and write a short simple statement
on his everyday life. b A person is illiterate who cannot with understanding both read and write a short simple
statement on his everyday life. c A person is functionally literate who can engage in all those activities in which literacy is
required for effective functioning of his group and community and also for enabling him to
continue to use reading, writing and calculation for his own and the community‘s development. d A person is functionally illiterate who cannot engage in all those activities in which literacy
is required for effective functioning of his group and community and also for enabling him to continue to use reading, writing and calculation for his own and the community‘s development.
UNESCO, 1978:
―Literacy is the ability to read and write with understanding a simple statement related to one‘s daily life. It involves a continuum of reading and writing skills, and often includes also basic
arithmetic skills numeracy.‖ employed in the Education for All 2000 Assessment UNESCO,
2004:13 ―Literacy is the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate and compute
using printed and written materials associated with varying contexts. Literacy involves a continuum of learning in enabling individuals to achieve his or her goals, develop his or her
knowledge and potential, and participate fully in community and wider society.‖ formulated during an international expert meeting in June, 2003 at UNESCO
UNESCO, 2005:21
―People acquire and apply literacy for different purposes in different situations, all of which are shaped by culture, history, language, religion and socio-economic conditions. The plural notion
of literacy latches upon these different purposes and situations. Rather than seeing literacy as only a generic set of technical skills, it looks at the social dimensions of acquiring and applying
literacy. It emphasizes that literacy is not uniform, but is instead culturally and linguistically and even temporally diverse. It is shaped by social as well as educational institutions: the
family, community, workplace, religious establishments and the state. Constraints on its acquisition and application lie not simply in the individual, but also in relations and patterns of
communication structured by socie
ty.‖ UNESCO,
2004:13
―The notion of ‗plurality of literacy‘ was advanced to stress the social dimensions of literacy in relation to both acquisition and application. Therefore, literacy is seen as comprising diverse
practices embedded in socioeconomic, political, cultural and linguistic contexts, acquired in school and outside of school. It also involves family and community contexts; the media in
various forms of technology; skills for further learning; and the world of work and life in general. Thus, this concept of literacy emphasizes the literacy challenge as making societies
literate and not simply as making individuals literate.‖ UNESCO
–UIS, 2009:13
Street 1984:1 points out that the traditional or conventional definition of literacy is the ability to read and write as
―a neutral technology that can be detached from specific social contexts.
‖ He challenged the conventional view, a view he characterizes as the ―autonomous‖ model of literacy with an examination and critique of various theories
about the role and place of literacy in social, political, and economic practice. He also posed the
―ideological‖ model of literacy as the countering conception, contending that ―what the particular practices and concepts of reading and writing are for a given society
depends on the contexts; that they are already embedded in an ideology and cannot be isolated or treated as
‗neutral‘ or merely ‗technical‘.‖ In his 2001 publication, Street asserted that ethnographic research was
―more concerned with attempting to understand what actually happens than with trying to prove the success of a particular intervention or
‗sell‘ a particular methodology for teaching or management.‖ He emphasized that only an ethnographic approach to the study of literacy uses and practices could focus on the local
meanings of literacyliteracies Malone ‘s book review of Street, 2001. This ethnographic
view of literacy indicates that the whole process of developing a literacy assessment should be based on local human resources and practical contexts as well as the local
experiences of external experts. According to UNESCO 2004:12, the operational definition of literacy one
embraces influences the goals and strategies to be adopted and the programs to be designed by policy makers as well as the teaching and learning methodologies, curricula,
and materials to be employed by practitioners. UNESCO also noted that one ‘s definition
of literacy determines how progress in overcoming illiteracy is monitored and assessed. A definition of literacy guides the whole process of the development of literacy
assessment, and provides the ideas of what to assess and how to interpret the result of the assessment. Wagner 1990:118 noted that any literacy assessment procedure required an
operational definition of literacy to use as a yardstick. As mentioned earlier in section 2.3, the YALS, the U.S. DOL Literacy Survey, the IALS and its successors, and the
NALS and NAAL adopted the same, if not similar, definition of literacy as follows: ―Using printed and written information to function in society, to achieve one‘s
goals, and to develop one ‘s knowledge and potential‖ Kirsch and Jungeblut,
1986:3. ―The ability to understand and employ printed information in daily activities, at
home, at work, and in the community – to achieve one‘s goals, and to develop
one ‘s knowledge and potential‖ Wagner, 2004:26.
Along with this definition, the SQC model adopted the 1978 UNESCO definition: ―A person is literate who can with understanding both read and write a short
simple statement on his everyday life … A person is functionally literate who can
engage in all those activities in which literacy is required for effective functioning of his group and community
…‖ UNESCO, 1978. The LAMP adopted the following UNESCO operational definition of literacy
particularly for measurement purposes: ―Literacy is the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate,
compute and use printed and written materials associated with varying contexts. Literacy involves a continuum of learning in enabling individuals to achieve their
goals, to develop their knowledge and potential, and to participate fully in their community and wider society‖ UNESCO, 2005:21.
The Government of Nepal, in an effort to draw from Street ‘s ethnographic
perspective of literacy and UNESCO ‘s cultural view of literacy, defined what a ―literate‖
person can do on the basis of daily life and his basic function in it in the context of Nepal as follows:
―A person who is able to read and write short and simple sentences related to daily life in hisher
mother tongue or national language with understanding and
who is able to communicate with others and perform simple tasks of calculation ‖
UNESCO and ACCU, 2003.
2.5 What are literacy skills?
