According to Scribner, literacy should not be seen as an attribute of individual but rather a social achievement where culture plays as important factor in influencing one’s literacy. Literacy is needed for an individual to be socialized into a domain and for interaction to take place.
As literacy is an abstract concept, by using metaphor one hope to be able to allow others to see literacy in a more tangible way. To illustrate this concept, I would see literacy as a bridge. Firstly, since literacy should not be seen as an attribute of individual, indeed it should be seen as a product of social interaction. This means to say that if a person is stranded alone on a deserted island, the need for literacy is redundant as there is no social activity. However, if a person is illiterate and belongs to a social community, he/she might find him/herself alienated from the community due to the breakdown in communication. From here, I see literacy as on of the aspect of bridging communities in a society together. Another aspect of literacy as a bridge is when religion comes to play. As mention by Scribner, religion such as Islam has the Koran written in Arabic. And for someone to be literate in the language of the Koran, one is perceived as being holy and thus is respected by others within the same social group. This too, illustrates the nature of literacy functioning as a bridge that brings two different domains together.
Putting it into perspective in Singapore’s context, literacy here encompasses more than to bridge communication. Literacy here goes beyond the concept of writing and speaking. Literacy has evolved and now digital literacy is a prevalent in the country. Instead of the snail mail that we used to send to our friends, it has been replaced with emails, blogs and even networking websites such as facebook. Literacy now should be seen as a necessity that not only promotes communication but seen as a tool to live. With the evolvement, literacy is now the way of life and not just as a bridge!
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