Literacy And Literacy

This essay will be looking at how social background can have a direct impact on the acquisition of language and literacy skills, paying attention to how poverty can play a part in the development of early language skills and how these can have direct implications on how children develop literacy skills within both the home and educational settings.

To with begin a brief explanation of what is meant by literacy will be given, looking at the different models that are used to define the meaning of literacy. As well as the importance of these skills within society and how it can affect the individual and impact on society. Finally, there will be a look at how the welsh assembly governments different legislation, policy and ideas seek to ensure

This model explains literacy in terms of skills, these skills revolve around the technical aspects. The reading and writing of written text and the social skills that the language we use gives us. For these basic literacy skills to flourish the development of early language needs to be supported. For children to learn how to read or write a word they will first need to be able to speak it correctly. The basic model of literacy only focuses on the mechanics of this process rather that the reasons behind it. Consequently, basic model is a brief description of the skills that are used to become literate rather than an explanation of how or why we use them. What we can conclude from looking at the basic model is that when these skills are not developed it can have a detrimental impact on several different areas such as; the individual, cultural, environmental and social context of people’s lives. To understand these aspects further needs an examination of the other models.

The ‘functional model’ of literacy is a model that describes the literacy skills gained that lead us to function within society. The skills that can lead to us achieving goals such as higher education study, entering the world of work and becoming a contributor to the community. These are aspects of our lives that could be effected by having poor functioning language and literacy skills, leading to poor opportunities, limited socially mobility and an ethos of disengagement within certain communities. Considering these issues the great importance of understanding the effects of not gaining these skills can be