Kinds Of Literacy

There are many kinds of literacy. Reading, Writing, and Numeracy are common examples.

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Here are 26 kinds of literacy I found digging around on the net.

Literacies:

literacy hits literacy hits literacy hits PLSNC totals
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A Academic~ 3600 library~ 7300 research~ 959 L 12000
B Basic~ 38000 English~ 17000 language~ 28000 L 97000
print~ 1700 text~ 484
traditional~ 1150 reading~ 11000
C Cultural~ 17000 literary~ 120 personal~ ~500 L 18000
D Digital~ 7300 internet 10000 ICT~ 2400 N 20000
E Environmental~ 9600 green~ 64 enviro~ 1000 C 11000
F Financial~ 53000 economic~ 9900 consumer~ 649 P 64000
G Geographic~ 1800 geography~ 307 geographical~ 425 S 2500
H Historical~ 916 political~ 2000 voter~ 132 S 3000
I Information~ 130000 info~ 2900 informatic~ 10 N 133000
J Job~ 291 employment~ 593 document~ 1500 P 2400
K Critical~ 8100 analytical~ 36 intellectual~ 135 L 8300
L Legal~ 4500 civic~ 2200 citizen~ 212 P 6900
M Musical~ 1900 auditory~ 10 music~ 2700 N 4600
N Numeracy 376000 mathematical~ 4370 math/maths~ 3900 S 384000
O Orality 20000 oracy 5200 Verbal~ 518 N 26000
P Philosophical~ 47 ontological~ 1 epistemological~ 1 S 49
Q Quantitative~ 6700 Statistical~ 1700 risk/safety~ 522 S 9000
R Religious~ 1500 spiritual~ 967 bible~ 1000 P 3500
S Scientific~ 24000 science~ 23000 scien. & tech.~ 2600 S 50000
T Technological~ 20000 technology~ 47000 technical~ 3900 N 76000
electronic~ 3200 techno~ 419
U User~ 162 computer~ 259000 software~ 507 N 260000
V Visual~ 21000 multimedia~ 1900 television~ 553 N 25000
film~ 390 movie~ 21
video 274 tele~ 786
graphic~ 239 picture~ 56
diagram(atic)~ 12 pictorial~ 46
W Medical 222 physical~ 94 exercise~ 29 S 345
X Cross-cultural~ 478 multicultural~ 1000 intercultural~ 153 C 1600
Y Emotional~ 11000 psychological~ 84 social~ 1340 P 12000
Z Media~ 56000 metamedia~ 105 news media~ 79 L 56000
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total 55772 1260000
------------------------------------------------------------------ ----- -------
literacy 3110000 L 3110000


Notes:

1. The numbers are the number of hits I got for each term in Google.
2. Most of my searches were on 7/25/2002.
3. ~ stands for 'literacy'.

Conclusions:

1. There are about thirty recognized kinds of literacy.
2. About two thirds of the time literacy is mentioned it means reading / writing.
3. Basic, Computer, and Information Literacy and Numeracy are discussed the most.
4. Philosophical and Medical Literacy are discussed the least.
5. The concept of ICT means that many of these literacies overlap. ICT stands for Information, Computer, and Technology literacy
6. All of these kinds of literacy are important.
7. It seems that...

• Seven of them are 'new' kinds of literacy: Digital, Information, Musical, Orality, Technological, Computer, and Visual.
• Five of them are Textual literacy based: (L)
• Five of them are for practical living (P)
• Seven of them are subject based (S)
• Two of them are based on modern political correctness (C)

-- JonGrover

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