Kinds Of Literacy

There are many kinds of literacy. Reading, Writing, and Numeracy are common examples.

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Here are 26 kinds of literacy I found digging around on the net.

Literacies:

   literacy        hits   literacy        hits   literacy        hits PLSNC  totals
   ------------------------------------------------------------------ ----- -------
 A Academic~       3600   library~        7300   research~        959  L      12000
 B Basic~         38000   English~       17000   language~      28000  L      97000
                          print~          1700   text~            484              
                          traditional~    1150   reading~       11000              
 C Cultural~      17000   literary~        120   personal~       ~500  L      18000
 D Digital~        7300   internet       10000   ICT~            2400    N    20000
 E Environmental~  9600   green~            64   enviro~         1000     C   11000
 F Financial~     53000   economic~       9900   consumer~        649 P       64000
 G Geographic~     1800   geography~       307   geographical~    425   S      2500
 H Historical~      916   political~      2000   voter~           132   S      3000
 I Information~  130000   info~           2900   informatic~       10    N   133000
 J Job~             291   employment~      593   document~       1500 P        2400
 K Critical~       8100   analytical~       36   intellectual~    135  L       8300
 L Legal~          4500   civic~          2200   citizen~         212 P        6900
 M Musical~        1900   auditory~         10   music~          2700    N     4600
 N Numeracy      376000   mathematical~   4370   math/maths~     3900   S    384000
 O Orality        20000   oracy           5200   Verbal~          518    N    26000
 P Philosophical~    47   ontological~       1   epistemological~   1   S        49
 Q Quantitative~   6700   Statistical~    1700   risk/safety~     522   S      9000
 R Religious~      1500   spiritual~       967   bible~          1000 P        3500
 S Scientific~    24000   science~       23000   scien. & tech.~ 2600   S     50000
 T Technological~ 20000   technology~    47000   technical~      3900    N    76000
                         electronic~     3200   techno~          419              
 U User~            162   computer~     259000   software~        507    N   260000
 V Visual~        21000   multimedia~     1900   television~      553    N    25000
                         film~            390   movie~            21              
                         video            274   tele~            786              
                         graphic~         239   picture~          56              
                         diagram(atic)~    12   pictorial~        46              
 W Medical          222   physical~         94   exercise~         29   S       345
 X Cross-cultural~  478   multicultural~  1000   intercultural~   153     C    1600
 Y Emotional~     11000   psychological~    84   social~         1340 P       12000
 Z Media~         56000   metamedia~       105   news media~       79  L      56000
   ------------------------------------------------------------------ ----- -------
   total                                                              55772 1260000
   ------------------------------------------------------------------ ----- -------
   literacy     3110000                                                L    3110000

Notes:

1. The numbers are the number of hits I got for each term in Google.
2. Most of my searches were on 7/25/2002.
3. ~ stands for 'literacy'.

Conclusions:

1. There are about thirty recognized kinds of literacy.
2. About two thirds of the time literacy is mentioned it means reading / writing.
3. Basic, Computer, and Information Literacy and Numeracy are discussed the most.
4. Philosophical and Medical Literacy are discussed the least.
5. The concept of ICT means that many of these literacies overlap. ICT stands for Information, Computer, and Technology literacy
6. All of these kinds of literacy are important.
7. It seems that...

• Seven of them are 'new' kinds of literacy: Digital, Information, Musical, Orality, Technological, Computer, and Visual.
• Five of them are Textual literacy based: (L)
• Five of them are for practical living (P)
• Seven of them are subject based (S)
• Two of them are based on modern political correctness (C)

-- JonGrover

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