The Problem of Aliteracy

2237 Words5 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Value and nature of childrens literature

“The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them.” – Mark Twain

All children at a young age are taught to read either by their parent or at school. Then after some time the joy of reading books like Dr. Seuss “The Cat in the Hat”, or C.S. Lewis “Chronicles of Narnia,” and J.K Rowling “Harry Potter Series” becomes nothing but a distant memory. So the question that arises is are you aliterate? Unbeknownst to most people they have no idea of the word “aliteracy,” or think it is a spelling error for “illiteracy,” aliteracy is the disinclination to read, despite having the ability to do so (Oxford English Dictionary). Surprisingly most people, ranging from the young to the old are aliterate, but do not know. While there are programs to quell the spread of illiteracy, aliteracy has gone unnoticed for decades spreading rampant through out the United States. The thought of reading for pleasure is an unquestionable idea to most of the young generation who would rather spend their time with other faster stress relieving tasks, or they are a slave to their reading or homework assignments. Aliteracy is an unknown problem facing most young adults, but what makes a person aliterate is it having alternative methods of entertainment, or finding reading boring, and what are the reasons persons like to read, comparing previous and my own research, I seek to shed some light on a problem that lurks in the shadows. C.S. Lewis, J.K. Rowling, and Dr. Seuss are famous children authors, but what about them inspires children to read. Their books are filled with vivid detail enough for young minds to develop a creative imagination, and their words are rich, so children keep coming back to them time and...

... middle of paper ...

...Relationship Between the Electronic Culture and Voluntary Reading (1986). UNF Theses and Dissertations. Paper 56.

http://digitalcommons.unf.edu/etd/56

Gilbert, Julie, and Barbara Fister. Reading, Risk, and Reality: College Students and Reading for Pleasure. Vol. 72. College & Research Libraries, 2011. Print. 5 474-495.

Goodwin, Latty. "Aliteracy among College Students: Why Don't They Read?" ERIC – World’s Largest Digital Library of Education Literature. May 1978. Web. 23 Mar. 2012. .

"The Beginnings of the Empire: The Cat in the Hat and Its Legacy." Dr. Seuss. Ruth K. MacDonald. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1988. 105-146. Twayne's English Authors Series 544. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 29 Mar. 2012.

http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CCX1372000015&v=2.1&u=avlr&it=r&p=LitRG&sw=w

Show More
Related

  • Differentiated Instruction in the Area of Reading

    929 Words  | 2 Pages

    Fountas, I., C., & Pinnel, G. S., (2009). When readers struggle: Teaching that works. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

    Read More

  • How Teachers Make Children Hate Reading John Holt

    205 Words  | 1 Pages

    In the essay titled “How Teachers Make Children Hate Reading” written by John Holt and published in Reading for writers in 2013, Mr. Holt discusses why most children aren’t interested in reading. Mr. Holt spent fourteen years as an elementary school teacher. He believed classroom activities destroy a student’s learning ability. Mr. Holt never let his students say what they thought about a book. He wanted his students to look up every word they didn’t know. People can learn difficult words without looking them up in the dictionary.

    Read More

  • Elementary Reading Interest Survey Analysis

    461 Words  | 1 Pages

    On October 10th, 2017 at Springhurst Elementary School, I conducted a “Reading Interest Survey” and the “Elementary Reading Attitude Survey.” These surveys were conducted on a 1st grade student, Jax, to determine what his feelings are towards reading in different settings, what genres he prefers to read, and interests. It was found that Jax doesn’t mind reading, but prefers a few different topics. This was evident through his raw score of 30 on recreational reading, and a raw score of 31 on academic reading.

    Read More

  • The Phenomenology Of On-Screen Reading By Ellen Rose

    1075 Words  | 3 Pages

    The article “The Phenomenology of On-Screen Reading: University Students’ Lived Experience of Digitised Text,” written by Ellen Rose covers a multitude of themes in which Ellen Rose interviewed ten participants from the ages of 20-55 and utilized their answers in order to communicate her belief that reading on screen is much different than reading a physical book. Throughout the article she targets her audience on students and uses pathos, ethos, and logos persuasions in order to appeal to her readers and convey that she is credible, trustworthy, and logical. With a close analysis of Ellen Rose’s article “The Phenomenology of On-Screen Reading: University Students’ Lived Experience of Digitised Text” it is safe to say that Rose draws her audience

    Read More

  • Decisions: Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried

    1052 Words  | 3 Pages

    Students with Readings. 7th Ed. Roger Davis, Laura K. Davis, Kay L. Stewart and Chris J. Bullock. Toronto: Pearson, 2013. 234-236. Print.

    Read More

  • Integrating Music and Reading for Effective Learning

    1154 Words  | 3 Pages

    Pearson UK (n.d.) stated “Evidence suggests that children who read for enjoyment every day not only perform better in reading tests than those who don’t, but also develop a broader vocabulary, increased general knowledge and a better understanding of other cultures. In fact, reading for pleasure is more likely to determine whether a child does well at school than their social or economic background.”

    Read More

  • The Negative Effects Of Technology In The Shallows By Nicholas Carr

    1338 Words  | 3 Pages

    First, he provides an overview of the history and development of the book as well as the development of reading. Carr analyzes and explains the effects of these developments on the individuals. Furthermore, he notes that the Internet recreates and alters a medium’s content by the use of hyperlinks, which ultimately distracts readers, and by separating the content into organized chunks. These characteristics make the content “searchable” which stimulates skimming behavior or superficial reading. As a result, readers retain less information due to the lack of deep, analytical reading. In addition, online texts often incorporate opinions, beliefs, or skewed viewpoints of certain topics, which can have negative effects on readers. Carr also addresses that some opponents believe that hardcopy reading was a result of “impoverished access” (111) and that the desire to use the fast paced web is a result of a quickening pace of life and work over the past few

    Read More

  • A Love Affair With Books

    520 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ever since I was a child, I've never liked reading. Every time I was told to read, I would just sleep or do something else instead. In "A Love Affair with Books" by Bernadete Piassa tells a story about her passion for reading books. Piassa demonstrates how reading books has influenced her life. Reading her story has given me a different perspective on books. It has showed me that not only are they words written on paper, they are also feelings and expressions.

    Read More

  • The Closing of the American Book by Andrew Solomon

    701 Words  | 2 Pages

    In “The Closing of the American Book,” published in the New York Times Magazine, Andrew Solomon argues about how the decline of literary reading is a crisis in national health, politics, and education. Solomon relates the decline of reading with the rise of electronic media. He believes that watching television and sitting in front of a computer or a video screen instead of reading can cause the human brain to turn off, and lead to loneliness and depression. He also argues that with the decrease of reading rates, there will no longer be weapons against “absolutism” and “terrorism,” leading to the United States political failure in these battles. The last point Solomon makes is that there is no purpose behind America being one of the most literate societies in history if people eradicate this literacy, and so he encourages everyone to help the society by increasing reading rates and making it a “mainstay of community.” Solomon tries to show the importance of reading in brain development and he encourages people to read more by emphasizing the crisis and dangers behind the declination of reading.

    Read More

  • College Admissions Essay: How Books Influenced My Life

    760 Words  | 2 Pages

    My dad taught me that books could be my teachers, my mom taught me that our backyard could be my classroom, and my sister showed me that you could bring books into the swimming pool. I did not know it when I would spend hours in the pool reading a book that my parents weren’t encouraging it in vain, but my family life, for good reason, was centered on books. We were the planets orbiting around one sun that was the bookshelf. Little did I know that books would be the catalyst to academic success in my early life, and I owe it all to my family. Although a life with a book in your nose might seem boring, I was never bored. Living through the characters vicariously, I explored Narnia with Lucy, attended Hogwarts with Harry, and rode dragons with Eragon. Of course

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Literacy Deserts

    1717 Words  | 4 Pages

    In Raksha Shetty’s CBS News article, “Hugh Decline in Book Reading.,” he interviewed, Dana Gioia, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), about the decline in students reading for fun. Gioia states that “what we’re seeing is an enormous cultural shift from print media to electronic media, and the unintended consequence of that shift” (qtd. in Shetty) There has been a huge increase in technology available to today’s youth. Now, as a nation, the issue of those who can read and can not it no longer an issue of can not read but will not read. According to Gale Harrington, a ninth grade College Preparation English teacher in Solano County, “younger generations are just more focused on social networking than most other things,” when asked about the decline in her students reading (Harrington). The youth of today has access to more technology than any other generation before them and they are using it avidly to the detriment of their literary drive and abilities. They will instead spend hours each day watching television and movies, play video games, or even “surfing” the world wide

    Read More

  • Cathleen Schine's 'I Was A Teenage Illiterate'

    1418 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ever since I became literate, literacy relied on as an important life skill to the point where I would challenge other kids to see who appeared smarter. But I've grown up to learn that obsessing over intelligence has not and will not make me any smarter. This relates similarly to one scholar, Cathleen Schine, who claims she is an illiterate to the world due to her poor choices of obsessing how smart she is, but she learned to control and outgrow the phase while she had the chance to in her article “I was A Teenage Illiterate”. Cathleen would carry intelligent and authentic books, but she only understood 10% of a classic novel and ended up developing into the 90% as she grew up (“I was a Teenage Illiterate”). This goes with the fact that as

    Read More

  • Work Force

    1411 Words  | 3 Pages

    reading across the curriculum. Laurence Behrens and Leonard J. Rosen. Eleventh Edition. Longman, 2011. 214-220. Print.

    Read More

  • The Hunger Games By Junior High School

    460 Words  | 1 Pages

    When I was younger, I didn’t like reading much at all. I always questioned my teachers what was the purpose of reading; I never got an answer from either teacher until I was in the seventh grade. Starting junior high school was different from elementary. In seventh grade, we were in our reading class for two hours a day. I asked the teachers why didn’t we have the privilege to stay in our other classes for two hours; I never received an answer from my teachers.

    Read More

  • My Love Of Reading Essay

    1111 Words  | 3 Pages

    Reading has been a part of my life from the second I was born. All throughout my childhood, my parents read to me, and I loved it. I grew up going to the library and being read to constantly. Especially in the years before Kindergarten, reading was my favorite thing to do. I grew up loving fairy tales and thriving on the knowledge that I could have any book I wanted, to be read to me that night. Having no siblings, my only examples were my parents, and they read constantly. Without a family that supported my love of reading throughout my childhood, I wouldn’t appreciate it nearly as much as I have and do now.

    Read More

More about The Problem of Aliteracy

Open Document