Literacy Skills

Multimodal Discourse is a theory of communication in multimedia. The notion of modes refers to semiotic resources which allow the simultaneous realization of discourses and types of (inter)action. Media are the material resources being used for the production such as music, language, and images. This study examined Iranian EFL learners’ perception of multimodal texts. The objective of the study was to examine how Iranian EFL learners utilized their general literacy practices and multimodal repertoires to develop their meaning-making process. The participants were 18 intermediate EFL learners attending Iran Language Institute (ILI), and were exposed to advertisement materials. They were asked to reconstruct their perceptions both visually and verbally. The participants’ responses were analyzed according to the social semiotics model suggested by Kress and van Leeuwen (2001). Results revealed that the participants made contextualized perceptions of the advertisement materials indicati...

Bu araştırmanın amacı okul öncesi eğitimin, ilkokul birinci sınıftaki okuma yazmayı öğrenme sürecinde etkisini sınıf öğretmenleri, okul öncesi öğretmenleri ve velilerin bakış açılarına göre tespit etmektir. Araştırmada nitel araştırma yöntemlerinden olan durum çalışması deseni kullanılmıştır. Çalışma grubu, 2016-2017 öğretim yılında Ege Bölgesi'nde bir ilde iki okulda görev yapan 10 birinci sınıf öğretmeni, 10 okul öncesi öğretmeni ve bu okullarda birinci sınıfta çocuğu öğrenim gören 10 veliden oluşmaktadır. Veriler görüşme yöntemi ile toplanmıştır. Araştırmaya katılan bireylere yarı yapılandırılmış görüşme formu uygulanmış, elde edilen veriler nitel araştırma teknikleri ile analiz edilmiştir. Araştırmada ilk okuma yazma öğretimi sürecinde okul öncesi eğitim almayan öğrencilerin daha fazla zorlukla karşılaştıkları bulunmuştur. Okul öncesi eğitim alan öğrencilerin bilişsel, duyuşsal ve psikomotor beceriler açısından hazır bulunuşluklarının daha yüksek olduğu sonucuna varılmıştır. Çizgi çalışmaları, örüntü kurma, dinleme ve ses çalışmalarını okul öncesi eğitimde alan öğrenciler okuma yazma sürecine daha hızlı adapte olmaktadırlar. Okul öncesi öğretmenleri kurumlarında şehir ve kırsaldaki fırsat eşitsizliğinin giderilmesi gerektiğini belirtmişlerdir.  Okul öncesi eğitim almayan çocukların velileri en fazla harflerin yazımında, hece oluşturma ve harf tanımada zorlandıklarını belirtmişlerdir. Elde edilen bulgulardan hareketle, okul öncesi eğitiminin ilk okuma yazmaya geçişte ve ilkokula hazırlıktaki önemi konusunda aileleri bilinçlendirmeye yönelik çalışmaların arttırılması ve okul öncesi eğitiminin daha etkili hale getirilmesi önerilmektedir.

Given the increased importance of technology in education, digital literacy (DL) is considered as a valuable tool for lifelong learning. It involves more than the ability to use technological tools. Given also the current effort, by the American University in Cairo, to produce and finalizing an updated curriculum mapping, including the DL skills, the purpose of this conceptual paper is to uncover the concept of digital literacy and to identify its skills recommended to be integrated in this curriculum to help Egyptian K-12 students effectively use technology, communication tools or networks to locate, evaluate, use and create information in a safe way. To accomplish this purpose, the current paper reviews literature and adopts the holistic conceptual model of Eshet-Alkalai (2004) for DL to study and analyze the concept of DL in order to, first, elaborate a preliminary list of DL skills in order to identify and offer the developers of the curriculum units the DL skills to choose what skills should be integrated in the curriculum units in order to help our students to function effectively and safely in a digital environment. Second, to use this list as an evaluation tool for examining the degree which the intended curriculum addresses the digital literacy.

Cell phones are essential part of modern life style for every teenager and adults. People are depending on cell phones for accomplishing their professional and personal day to day lives. The growing distress about teeming use of texting threatening the standard of English language in Pakistan provoked the present research to determine the presence or absence of SMS features in the academic writing of the participants. The research is based on primary data. Questionnaires were used for data collection. Spelling and grammar have been found mutated and affected by the over use of textese while texting. Hence, this study suggests that young adults studying at universities should try to minimize the use of text abbreviations and slangs and must practice full linguistic system as being second language learners of English language.
The overuse of texting is damaging the way student writes formally in college premises and even in society. Students do not distinguish between times when they need to write formally without using textisms, and when they are writing informally. This study will discuss about the disadvantages of the over use of texting without observing language rules. Text messaging is spreading all over the world, so it is a universal application. Hence can be useful for linguists.
Key words (short messaging service SMS, textese, texting, English language, linguistic system)

Culturally Responsive Teaching and Bilingual Students’ Literacy Skills in the Middle East



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Farah Omar Habli
Saint Louis University
USA




Abstract
The Middle East is a region where educational programs are shifting from single language instruction to dual languages instructions. While working in many schools in the region, I witnessed many children at the elementary level who spoke fluent English, but when it comes to reading they are not equipped with the proper literacy skills to write or read a  complete sentence correctly . Western studies (Gay, 2010;  McIntyre & Hulan, 2013;  Palmer & Martínez, 2013;  Rueda & Stillman, 2012;  Sheryl & Suleiman, 1993)  offer many solutions to this problem, mostly emphasizing on equipping teachers with cultural awareness skills to help diverse students build and develop their literacy skills in their second language, that is in this case, English.  Most of Arab countries, specifically in the Arabian Gulf area, recruit native English-speaking teachers to teach English. However the question raised is how much these teachers are aware of the culture of the Arab students? This question initiates school administrators and stakeholders consider hiring foreign teachers that possess an awareness of the culture of their students. This is the main purpose of this paper is to present what the literature indicates regarding teachers with culture awareness skills. It investigates the characteristics of teachers that are culturally responsive and how these characteristics have a positive impact on developing English literacy skills in Arab students. It is a platform for new researches in the Middle East regarding the students’ acquisition of well-developed English literacy skills.
Keywords: bilingual students, Middle East region, culturally responsive teacher, literacy skills, English as a second language

The objective of this paper is to provide background on the conceptual convergence of literacy skills media and information literacy, digital literacy, technology literacy and development in all professionals. The aim of the paper provides sources and services with an awareness of the discipline's skills thereby help the users to locate and retrieve their need. It emphasizes that literacy skills and knowledge are essential in a global information environment characterized by change and innovation, a multiplicity of formats and media and an explosion in the amount of the information of variable quality.

Multimodal Discourse is a theory of communication in multimedia. The notion of modes refers to semiotic resources which allow the simultaneous realization of discourses and types of (inter)action. Media are the material resources being used for the production such as music, language, and images. This study examined Iranian EFL learners’ perception of multimodal texts. The objective of the study was to examine how Iranian EFL learners utilized their general literacy practices and multimodal repertoires to develop their meaning-making process. The participants were 18 intermediate EFL learners attending Iran Language Institute (ILI), who were exposed to advertisement materials. They were asked to reconstruct their perceptions both visually and verbally. The participants’ responses were analyzed according to the social semiotics model suggested by Kress and van Leeuwen (2001). Results revealed that the participants made contextualized perceptions of the advertisement materials indicati...

Becoming literate in this era is something urgent. Literate young learners are not the exception to realize. Along with their specific characteristics, young learners also need to be facilitated to develop their literacy skills to adapt themselves as early as possible to cope with their environment.

In the current information society, information and knowledge are the basic resources, and access to them is vital. Without the knowledge of ICT and information literacy skills, it is difficult to deal with the ocean of information and knowledge. The expression 'e-library' refers to information accessed through the Internet. Unlike traditional libraries, e-libraries are not limited by location or time. The primary goal of this study is to determine how the information literacy skills, especially among students of secondary schools, affect the use of e-library resources. For the present study a survey method of research and questionnaire were used for data collection. The questionnaires were distributed randomly to 120 students in the selected 2 schools-one government and one unaided-in Bengaluru. The purpose of the study is to find out the effects of information literacy skills on the use of e-library resources among school children in Bengaluru. The findings of this study call for well-integrated library instruction programmes and services to improve student information literacy skills.

Local literacy could be defined as a process of gaining skills for the recognition of local assets, historical sites, places and literary works, which are important for countries in a national and spiritual sense (historical, cultural, touristic, economic, etc.) in the areas where citizens live, being aware of the basic characteristics of the local habitat, and when necessary, reporting the gained knowledge and skills to other people through presentations appropriately prepared (Güven, 2019). This conceptual article discusses opinions and suggestions about the introduction of local literacy skills, which are considered very necessary and profitable for local governments, education and training institutions. It also discusses the contributions provided with the gain of local literacy skills to local governments. The article presents ways in which students can be supported to learn about and adopt the material and spiritual items with a certain value, the individuals and institutions that provide community benefits, sites, natural resources, and the richness around them. Local governments are also provided with some considerations and suggestions about local literacy, which is considered necessary for local governments, and their contributions to local governments as an incentive to invest.

This study from four administrative districts in Ghana suggest that early parental involvement in their children’s literacy practices is likely to predict better effects on these children in basic reading skills. The benefits of parental involvement and support as predictor of literacy and educational achievement are enormous. They go beyond early academic achievement in pre-school. Early exposure to reading with parents from the homes predisposes children for formal basic literacy instruction. Indeed, early involvement of parents in their child’s reading is found to be the number one critical factor contributing positively to language and emergent literacy. Home reading activities in which parents are involved significantly influence achievements in reading as well as in language comprehension and expressive language skills. This report also points to possible link between educational background of parents and children’s reading achievement at the pre-school: the higher the parenta...

Multimodal Discourse is a theory of communication in multimedia. The notion of modes refers to semiotic resources which allow the simultaneous realization of discourses and types of (inter)action. Media are the material resources being used for the production such as music, language, and images. This study examined Iranian EFL learners’ perception of multimodal texts. The objective of the study was to examine how Iranian EFL learners utilized their general literacy practices and multimodal repertoires to develop their meaning-making process. The participants were 18 intermediate EFL learners attending Iran Language Institute (ILI), who were exposed to advertisement materials. They were asked to reconstruct their perceptions both visually and verbally. The participants’ responses were analyzed according to the social semiotics model suggested by Kress and van Leeuwen (2001). Results revealed that the participants made contextualized perceptions of the advertisement materials indicati...

This paper presents the results of literacy-proficiency projections using a microsimulation model that simultaneously projects future demographic, ethnocultural and socioeconomic characteristics of the Canadian population. Factors linked with literacy skills of the working-age population are analysed for both native-and foreign-born Canadians. The projection results show that literacy skills are likely to slightly decline between 2011 and 2061, as the positive effects of increasing education are cancelled out by the important skill gap between native-and foreign-born Canadians. Results of the simulation suggest that plausible changes to immigrant selection policies could prevent against the associated literacy skill decline among the Canadian working-age population.

In this study, the effect of Family Supported Pre-Reading Program developed for 6 year olds attending nursery
school on children’s reading success in the future was examined. In order to fulfill this aim, reading skills of
25 primary school first-grade pupils who participated Family Supported Pre-Reading Program were compared
with another 25 primary school first grade pupils who attended nursery class. In the study, Basic Reading Writing
Skills Scale, Reading Comprehension Scales, Mechanic Reading Skills Observation Form and Writing Skill
Scales were used to determine pupils reading success at primary school. The scales were administrated to
primary school first graders both in the middle of the first term (December) and in the middle of second term
(April). As a result of the study, it was determined that children attending Family Supported Pre-Reading Program
had higher reading success.

This paper discusses a collaborative curriculum development process undertaken by a cross-disciplinary team comprising of academic staff from Industrial Design Engineering and the Learning Skills Unit (LSU). The collaboration has led firstly to the development and implementation of an innovative Academic Literacy Skills Resource Book. Secondly, Academic Literacy Skills were incorporated into the Design and Engineering curriculum offered by the School of Engineering at one Australian university. The collaboration started in 2003 and continues into 2007.
The Industrial Design academics mapped and prioritised the graduate attributes and skills that students need across their university career and identified the most appropriate subjects in which to locate these skills. They identified the need to develop a comprehensive academic skills experience for their students as well as the academic skills required for successful completion of each subject and the major final year project.
Perhaps one of the more significant aspects of this collaboration with the LSU was the embedding of academic skills within the discipline rather than being taught as generic skills the students then need to transfer to specific subjects. In 2004, the academics from the LSU and Industrial Design jointly piloted the program with a first year core subject delivered within the Industrial Design and Design & Technology courses.
In 2005 and 2006, the relationship between LSU and Engineering and Industrial Design academics was further developed. This collaboration led to the development of a first year core subject Engineering and Industrial Design Practice (EIDP) with a comprehensive academic skills resource book, integrated guest lectures and the training and monitoring of peer mentors for the compulsory peer mentoring component of the subject as key aspects of a subject focussed around a team project.