by Joan Inong

Created on: May 01, 2009

Being literate is more than just about being able to read. Literacy consists of three parts: reading, writing, and comprehension. A person who is not successful in all of these, at a moderately average level, is not literate.

When schools and educators discuss literacy, they are quick to point out how students are not able to read. Educators focus on reading as the key to literacy, but in doing so, they misjudge the equal importance of the other two parts to literacy.

For, reading is important only in that readers are opened to the way others use the language. Language is, like literacy, more than just about reading, too. Students who learn a new language cannot learn that language by merely reading books written in that language. In this case, where emphasis is placed on reading because it is the "key" to literacy, students miss out on the other two which make complete literacy possible.

Writing is equally important to literacy as is reading. Writing, unlike reading, offers one added benefit that reading often ignores: the person who writes about a book, concept, or personal idea is more likely to comprehend that idea or concept well enough. Thus, this literacy goes beyond simply knowing how to read words and convey them vocally. True literacy is about taking those words, picking out the important ideas, and then using one's own language to try to tell others about those ideas. It is the action of understanding that is important in literacy.

Comprehension of texts is also vital to having complete literacy. Without this middle step between reading and writing, the reader is forced to write about what he or she doesn't fully know. This is the trap that many writers fall prey to. But also, comprehension is more than just simply understanding. In order to prepare for writing, the reader must be able to take basic ideas from a text and apply them to real-life situations. This gets the reader involved, in such a way that requires more than academic thought. This is what people have done with the Bible over human history. They "exegete" passages, stories, and psalms, and they formulate their understandings of the text while at the same time making it universal. Essentially, it is a higher level of comprehension.

Therefore, if literacy were to be simply explained by being able to read well, then everyone should be literate. But, this is not the case. Most people have trouble with just the first part of literacy (reading) and in short, they do not have access to the other two parts. As a result, they are illiterate. But, for those of us lucky enough to have gotten the first part successfully, we should remember the other two in order for us to have true literacy.

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