Building a literate nation to anticipate globalization

Building a literate nation to anticipate globalization

Helena I. R. Agustien, Ph.D, Lecturer, Postgraduate Program
Universitas Negeri Semarang, Semarang

Literacy education covers both the development of spoken language
(oracy) and written language (literacy), as both imply creations of
text in different modes of communication.

These two modes have a lot of bearing when it comes to
planning literacy education due to the fact that although spoken
language and written language share a lot in common, they are
different in some respects.

The different communicative purposes they serve and the
different communicative contexts they are created in give impetus
to the utilization of different linguistic features or resources
at the learner's disposal.

These differences can be substantially more significant than
many people think, although they may be aware that written
compositions are not simply spoken language written down.

This is what might cause extreme problems, such as "speaking
like a book" or "writing in a colloquial style".

If that is the case, then, the main goal of literacy education
is to ensure that language learners become proficient language
users in various communicative events. The question is: how do we
plan such a literacy education program?

One way of answering such a question is by examining what some
experts have to say regarding how children normally acquire
language in a natural setting.

Cameron (2001) is one of the authors who suggests that it is
difficult, if not impossible, for a child to learn to write in a
language before he learns the spoken form.

This coincides with our common experience that children learn
their mother tongue by imitating adults around them and writing
comes only when they start school.

Consequently, it would be rather irrational if we expected
children to express ideas in written form before they were able
to speak the language.

Even if they do speak the language, there is no guarantee that
they can automatically write well without sufficient training
because the two modes imply different uses of linguistic
resources.

It follows from here that if we want our children to be
competent users of the Indonesian language, spoken Indonesian
should be given the first priority in the early years of
schooling.

If they are to be introduced to the written form at all, the
introduction should be focused on handwriting, spelling, basic
reading and so on.

This approach can also be used in the teaching of English or
other foreign languages in this country.

The reason why we need to pay special attention to oracy is
that because, so far, many people think that when we learn
Indonesian, our target is to speak or to write the "correct and
standard" Indonesian.

And by that, many people understand it as the standard written
form.

A truly competent user of a language is the one who can carry
out language communications in different contexts and modes,
including carrying out casual conversations in which "spoken
standards", characterized by features such as gambits, slang
etc., are used.

A competent speaker knows what words to choose when he speaks
to his peers or to someone older or respectable; he knows how
short or lengthy interactions are structured; he knows how to
give a monologue to explain things etc.

For example, when a person asks for information regarding
where he can find rubber bands in a supermarket in Indonesia, and
a shop assistant gives the information, the person simply leaves
upon receiving the information, without thanking.

It is not that the word "thanks" is not available in the
language; it is, I suppose, because the structure of such a small
interaction and other small interactions, often escape the
attention of materials writers or teachers, who might have
thought that such interactions were not important.

The structure, "Asking, answering and thanking", is often
disregarded and not many people remember the thanking part when
communicating with other people, especially, of a lower social
status.

Many do not realize that failing to comply with a simple
structure can have a serious impact on how people think about a
person.

Being a polite communicator is not only a matter of choosing
the right words or grammatical structures; knowing what moves
should be made to create a desired interaction structure is also
a significant part of politeness strategy.

Thus, being orate means being able to participate in the
constructions of various spoken texts covering many different
interaction structures.

Our children need to be made aware of and exposed to different
interactional experiences, starting from the early years of
formal education, if we want them to be competent and confident
speakers.

The pedagogical implications are obvious: language education
needs to be placed within a literacy perspective in the sense
that language education prepares learners to become proficient in
participating in various communication events.

This starts from the development of oracy to make learners
effective listeners and confident speakers and gradually moves to
literacy to make learners effective readers and proficient
writers.