Unit Six

UN Decade for Literacy

Part One
What are some ways that United Nations agencies are bringing people the tools they need to learn to read and write -- even people in the most remote parts of the world? Sometimes books and other educational materials travel to these hard-to-reach places -- by elephant! In the rugged, mountainous terrain of northern Thailand, for example, elephants carry books, video players, television sets - and even teams of teachers - to the hill tribe people. The elephants arrive every month with their literacy teams and supplies.
With the official launch of the Decade for Literacy, (2003 -- 2012), the UN agency, UNESCO has been coordinating efforts like these and more to promote literacy and education programmes for people all over the world--even those in the most hard-to-reach places. 
Because two thirds of the world’s 860 million illiterate adults are women, the first two years of the Literacy Decade will be devoted to the theme, "Literacy and Gender".
In northwestern India, a non-governmental organization (NGO) named Lok Jumbish is encouraging literacy by setting up women's groups in every village where a literacy program has been implemented. The groups offer a chance for women to meet and discuss their concerns. They also provide them with professional training.

Laura Bush, Honorary Ambassador of the Decade for Literacy, told the story of Pampay, a woman in the Philippines, whose life was transformed by learning to read In her speech, she said: "Literacy gave Pampay Usman the freedom to become a better mother and citizen...Growing up in the Philippines, Pampay did not have the opportunity to go to school. After she married, she stayed home with her children. Although she could not read or write, Pampay managed a small market. It was hard and frustrating work. She couldn't write the names of her neighbors or the goods they bought on credit. She had to remember their faces and every item they purchased. She couldn't go to the market alone because she couldn't read the price of groceries or the street signs to find her way home.
The day Pampay joined an adult literacy class in her small village, her life changed forever. She learned how to write her name and address. She learned to read prices on groceries. Her business grew. She was able to vote in the elections and to write the candidates' names herself. Pampay said, "Literacy brings trust and confidence in my life."

Part 2

More than One English

The UN Decade for Literacy's aim is to open the door to providing greater access to language in its diverse forms - to people everywhere. By walking through that open door, people discover there are many "worlds" within one given "language-world". Just as each nation has its different regions, each with its unique character and flavour, so each language has its different dialects, each with its unique character and flavour.

The more we explore a particular language and the different "cultural worlds" it can include, the more curious we can become about its diversity of idiomatic and pronunciation forms-- just as the more we explore a particular country, the more curious we can become about its diversity of landscapes and regions that compose it. 

When people learn a language, they often just want to learn its standard variety. But perhaps that is a bit like going to a country and deciding to visit only its capital city. To really understand a country or a language in depth, we want to learn to appreciate the many diverse forms that compose it. The English language has countless varieties throughout the world; there is the African English, American English, Australian English, British English, Canadian English, Malaysian English, Singaporean English -- to name just a few. And within each of those "worlds of English" are many more dialect variations. The English of the United States, alone, has numerous forms, each telling a story about the world the native user comes from. People learning English sometimes ask, "Which is the best kind of English to learn?" Perhaps the answer to that question is, "Which world of English do you most want to explore?"

Part 3

Accents and Dialects: a new appreciation 

The growing influence of mass media has led to an "explosion" of appreciation for the variety of accents and dialects of the English language.

We can see evidence of this appreciation in popular song lyrics, which often contain grammatical structures of non-standard dialects (as in the Rolling Stones "classic", I don't get no satisfaction with its use of the double negative), and in television and film dialogue, which often use fast-speech forms such as "gona" (a reduced form of "going to") and fast-speech modal forms such as should-a, could-a, and would-a (reduced forms of the modal perfect forms, should have, could have, and would have). Such alternative dialect forms have long appeared in works of literature such as novels and poems. In recent decades, however, because of their wide use in the mass media, they are gaining legitimacy as alternative dialect forms. These days, we can hear such fast-speech and colloquial forms even in television news broadcasts.

Television networks broadcasting in cities and towns throughout the world are recognizing that newscasters who present the news with the local accent and "flavour" of a particular region often have a greater impact on viewers. If newscasters speak the dialect of the locale they are reporting on, their reports can even be viewed as more credible -- since their manner of speech indicates they know the region they are speaking about. In fact one irate viewer living in the northeast of the United States (a region called "New England") wrote to his local newspaper on the need for more local accents: "We need more regional accents on TV and radio news shows. At my local public radio station, everyone sounds like they come from the same city in California, never from New England, even though we have a multitude of local accents. There is a beautiful musicality to how people speak in New England. Accents vary from state to state, and within each state. None of this is reflected in what I hear on radio and TV. Indeed, old England's BBC has a wider variety of accents (and ethnic and racial groups) than New England's broadcasting."

So today, people not only accept, but sometimes even insist upon -- the use of regional accents.

Part 4

Another form of Literacy: Intercultural literacy

Another form of advanced literacy is intercultural literacy. Intercultural literacy is learning to "read" the forms and customs of a new culture, to go beyond the level of surface appreciation to a deeper understanding of another way of perceiving. 

To quote a paper on Intercultural Literacy presented at a UNESCO conference, "The concept of an open identity implies a readiness towards a wider perception of reality and makes one realise that there are different interpretations of that reality. Consequently, it allows for a dialogue with another culture... learners who consciously participate in the process of going beyond the limits of their perception of [beyond a first culture to a second culture] are aware that their identities are put to test in the whole process."

Sometimes, an artistic tradition of a culture can be a window to a wider perception of it. Some inter-cultural explorers do more than just look through the window; some enter through the window, immersing themselves in the new cultural form. Francoise is a French woman who made her entrance through one of the windows of Senegal's culture, via the traditional dance known as the Sabar. As Francoise says, "When I first discovered the Senegalese dance called the Sabar, I was completely fascinated. The dance seemed to capture all the colours, rhythms and fascinations of the Senegalese culture itself."