THEME 1 ACADEMIC & PROFESSIONAL LITERACY: Language for Thinking and Meaning

In its broadest sense, literacy involves using language for thinking and meaning. It is helpful to understand literacy as having three different aspects (Green 1996).

Operational literacy is competency in the language, especially written language.

Cultural literacy is learning a discourse or culture: how to communicate in the language of a specific group of people or a subject. Understanding what to say and how to say it in Science, or understanding how to read a poem well in English, are two examples. Each subject is like a different country with a different culture. The culture of the Bachelor of Education differs from that of the Bachelor of Economics.

Critical literacy is understanding how knowledge is made and how it can be transformed. Reading newspapers in an informed and critical fashion is an example. Knowing how to look for beliefs and assumptions behind written texts is another.

Academic literacy is a combination of all three aspects.

Green, B. 1999, 'The new literacy challenge', Literacy Learning: Secondary Thoughts, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 36-46.

Source: Academic Literacy, University of New England, Australia