"Social Linguistics And Literacy" by James Paul Gee

Essay by face841College, Undergraduate April 2003

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In this report James Paul Gee (1996) from his book Social Linguistics And Literacy has given the idea that literacy is not just the ability to read and write but it is mush more than that. It is the knowledge of different "discourses" which are part of our personalities and the knowledge of the beliefs and values connected to these discourses. He also gives the idea of a liberating literacy which "can be used as a meta-language or a meta- discourse ( a set of meta-words, meta-values, meta-beliefs) for the critique of other literacy and the way they constitute us as persons and situate us in society."

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POSITION PAPER ON FREERE'S PADAGOGY OF THE OPPRESSED

James Paul Gee (1996) in his book Social Linguistics And Literacy has given the idea that literacy is not just the ability to read and write but it is mush more than that.

It is the knowledge of different "discourses" which are part of our personalities and the knowledge of the beliefs and values connected to these discourses. He also gives the idea of a liberating literacy which "can be used as a meta-language or a meta- discourse ( a set of meta-words, meta-values, meta-beliefs) for the critique of other literacy and the way they constitute us as persons and situate us in society."(p.144). This liberating literacy, according to Gee along with one's knowledge of failing to master fully the mainstream or the dominant culture is a strong "theory of the society and one's position in it, that is, a base for resistance to oppression and inequality."(p.147) Friere (1970) in Pedagogy of the Oppressed is making the same assertion as Gee that to remove oppression in any social context the oppressed and those...