Study tech and illiteracy

[RLSteve]

So, today in my sociology class, my sociology teacher mentioned that today in the U.S., 1 out of every 3 people are functionally illiterate. Basically, they can sign there name, they can read street signs, etc, but that's about all they can do.

I was mentioning this to my aunt tonight, and she was telling me, "That is why I love Study Tech so much! I can't think of anything better for teaching people to read!"

I don't think Study Tech teaches people to read, but I definitely think looking up MU's in dictionaries improves one's literacy and reading comprehension.

People say that it's common sense to look words up in a dictionary while reading... well, if that's the case, then why is the rate of functional illiteracy as high as one out of three people?

Should schools and teachers put more of an emphasis on looking up words in dictionaries and understanding what words mean?

[RLSteve]

[RLSteve]

There's was an argument out there that literacy has a lot to do with cultural literacy. Sounding out a word, looking it up in a dictionary don't always add to understanding context.

My wife learned English over the last 15 years. She reads about 2-3 books a week. She still has problem words, but most she can just look up. Some concepts need to be translated to words disconnected from their english meaning because the sum of the words do not translate to a correct translation.

If you speak a couple foreign languages, it's a constant challenge. Kids who grow up in Scientology are culturally ignorant for the most part, except as regards the vocabulary and general language skills necessary skills to communicate. I was one of those kids. I understood so little, and they didn't understand me.

I don't think these kids are generally so much illiterate as ignorant. Have them read regs and course work crap and they can fly through it. But many american's can read a book sprinkled with common german and french phrases and then translate what they read? What about latin? My mom went to a catholic school where latin is mandatory. I speak 5 languages and my wife speaks six. When it comes to latin though, we ask her for a translation. (word for word translations have many meanings.)

Are we illiterate because my mother and aunt can easily read stories full of latin? Is a Scientologist illiterate because he doesn't know how to interpret "pearls before swine." He can look up the words, but it doesn't give it the proper meaning without it's context.

During an Honors English class, I was asked to read the bible. I was in the tenth grade and just out of Co$. Needless to say, I wasn't interested, especially because it was summer reading that included Greek mythology and a bunch of what I considered crap at the time. My teacher convinced me to read it because she said all european and u.s. literature before 1940 always included some references to the bible, or the absence of such references was meaning full too. She told me I wouldn't understand much without that basis. So I did it. It's come in handy everyday of my life. I dislike christianity, but at least I know the crap they often quote to justify doing what they want.

My wife has never read anything about christianity. She grew in Yugoslavia religion free. (with the exception of Tito worship). Any references to Greek gods or greek mythology she gets. Anything christian takes hours to explain because it makes no sense till you have enough information to understand the fairytale. She still can't tell Peter from Paul, Elijah from Moses. Why should she?

Cultural literacy. It makes a lot of difference in your reading. That's why learning another language is more than just memorizing verbs and nouns and their meanings. Why should english be any different?

[Grundy]

Further, the slavery to a dictionary could, in my estimation, kill a kid's desire to read. "You must stop at every word you haven't encountered and look it up, with all its definitions and derivations." Fuck, if I had to stop in the middle of an exciting story to look up every damned word, it would have totally bummed my buzz on reading. There is this concept called "context" that I was fortunate enough to learn, starting in 2nd or 3rd Grade - it means you can figure out what a word means by the way it is used. Learning new words by context is vital to developing intelligence, and it vital to developing the ability to read quickly and well.

This concept of context is frowned upon by HubTards, but developing the skill is *vital* for a child. Stopping constantly and dragging out a dictionary kills the fun of reading.

Gus Cox
not my real name