James Paul Gee Literacy Analysis

In this paper, James Paul Gee states his opinion on the definition of literacy. He begins by redefining the word “discourse” and uses it frequently throughout the paper. Gee defines discourse as a group that you are socially linked to through your actions and thoughts. This group defines who you are in society. He then uses the beginning of his paper to continue explaining “discourses”. The main points he covers are that discourses are defined by history and culture and therefore, change through time. Also, he explains that one is involved in many different discourses. This might cause one to break rules or understandings of one discourse to align with a dissimilar one. For Gee’s idea of literacy to be clear, he also explained the differences

By redefining the word ‘discourse”, instead of using an already excepted word, he created many complications that made his paper difficult to read. The reader had to dig through the complicated phrasing to be able to understand Gee’s points. He also was forced to spend the majority of his paper making sure his audience understood what he meant by “discourse”, thus risking the possibility of the reader losing interest before he was able to make his main argument. Because he made this choice, he buried his main ideas. If he had used a word or phrase that was known to the general public, such as identities or social groups, his target audience might have been quite a bit larger. He most likely had a reason for doing so however. His motivation was possibly so that he would be able to use a word without any preconceived notions or connotations. Or perhaps it was because he was trying to prove his point- to be literate you have to be able to do more than only read and write, you have to be able to manipulate literature to your

The way he emphasizes the difference between acquisition and learning, brings a whole new level to education. Using this knowledge, we can develop an education system that will help our youth stay on track and understand what they’re learning and why they’re learning it. This could be particularly helpful with elementary education, when the children are still developing what it means to learn. By redefining the education system, we’ll be able to help our children reach their real potential. If we understand how to teach, it will be a million times easier to connect with the children. We can help our next generation become properly educated about the world that they’re