The concept of cultural literacy

Freebody (2007) and Salo-Lee (2007) argue that cultural literacy has many names in research literature: intercultural competence, intercultural awareness, intercultural sensitivity, intercultural adaptation, and intercultural effectiveness. The core of cultural literacy consists, however, of cultural awareness, knowledge, motivation and skills. For the purposes of this paper, it is preferred to use the concept of cultural literacy for intercultural competence as an important aim of discussion.

Culture can be considered from many different perspectives. In this paper, culture is understood broadly to include history, socio-economical factors and values which influence communication and behaviour, that is, what people say and do and how people perceive each others’ intentions and how they interpret the messages conveyed in the interaction (Salo-Lee, 2007; Freebody, 2007). Communication can be looked at from various perspectives. In the humanities and social sciences the focus is on meaning and meaning sharing. Human communication is social interaction which is affected by people themselves, their feelings, communication contexts and culture (Rosen, 2000; Nakamura, 2002). Cultural and language communication, albeit verbal and non verbal, is an essential tool for integration into a society since communication requires knowledge of a language (The New London Group, 1996; Smith et al, 2005).

Cultural literacy is defined as a process of understanding and valuing the importance of individual histories, values, and beliefs as it involves the ability to interact and share certain values, beliefs, and norms at various levels (Spring, 2008). Cultural literacy also refers to comprehension culture and its relevancy to literacy since this will only truly occur if it's relevant and presented in meaningful contexts (Street, 2003). Therefore, cultural literacy is an understanding of how people are connected through a developing global culture by constructing a unique cultural experience into organizational values and norms (Gross, 2011).

However, Salo-Lee (2007, p. 6) defines cultural literacy as “the ability to read, understand and find the significance of diverse cultures and to be able to evaluate, compare and decode the varied cultures that are interwoven in a place” since it enables people to do something sensitively and effectively in a world of differences”. Cultural literacy also refers to “the ability to converse fluently with each other informal and formal content that creates and forms a dominant culture” (Fleming, 2008, p 4). Hence, in the age of globalization, cultural literate is the capacity to develop global culture and integrate into a single global culture by creating an environment where subcultures can be collaborated.

Не знайшли потрібну інформацію? Скористайтесь пошуком google:

Генерація сторінки за: 0.004 сек.