LANGUAGE - a system of conventional spoken, manual (signed), or written symbols by means of
which human beings, as members of a social group and participants in its culture, express themselves. The
functions of language include communication, the expression of identity, play, imaginative expression,
and emotional release. According to Henry Sweet, language is the expression of ideas by means of speechsounds combined into words. Words are combined into sentences, this combination answering to that of
ideas into thoughts. (Britannica)
GLOBALIZATION - Globalization is the spread of products, technology, information, and jobs across national
borders and cultures. In economic terms, it describes an interdependence of nations around the globe
fostered through free trade. It has created new jobs and economic growth through the cross-border flow of
goods, capital, and labor. On the other hand, this growth and job creation are not distributed evenly across
industries or countries. Globalization's motives are idealistic, as well as opportunistic, but the development
of a global free market has benefited large corporations based in the Western world. Its impact remains mixed
for workers, cultures, and small businesses around the globe, in both developed and emerging nations.
(Investopedia)
MULTICULTURAL - the view that cultures, races, and ethnicities, particularly those of minority groups,
deserve special acknowledgment of their differences within a dominant political culture. That
acknowledgment can take the forms of recognition of contributions to the cultural life of the
political community as a whole, a demand for special protection under the law for certain cultural groups,
or autonomous rights of governance for certain cultures. Multiculturalism is both a response to the fact
of cultural pluralism in modern democracies and a way of compensating cultural groups for past
exclusion, discrimination,
and
oppression.
Most
modern
democracies comprise members
with diverse cultural viewpoints, practices, and contributions. Many minority cultural groups have experienced
exclusion or the denigration of their contributions and identities in the past. Multiculturalism seeks the
inclusion of the views and contributions of diverse members of society while maintaining respect for their
differences and withholding the demand for their assimilation into the dominant culture. (Britannica)
CONTEXT - helps readers understand what they otherwise wouldn't be able to comprehend. It is a muchneeded assistant, helping readers define unknown words and make sense of outside information. In writing,
it is often necessary to provide new words, concepts and information to help develop a thought. For example,
maybe you need to include a fact to support your claim or a quote to better illustrate your analysis of a literary
work. Whenever you use a fact or quote from another source, it is important that you tell the reader a bit
about that information first. This is what we mean by context. You need to literally surround that piece of
information with text that illuminates its meaning and relevancy. That is why context, when broken down,
literally means 'with text.' It helps readers understand that which otherwise, they wouldn't be able to
comprehend. (Study.com)
Cross-cultural literacy has been defined as understanding how the culture of a country affects the way business
is practiced. Cross culture extends to body language, physical contact, and perceptions of personal space.
In cultures that adhere to strict religious standards, interactions between members of the opposite sex, even
in the business sphere, may be complicated. (Investopedia)
Competence - The mastering of oral and written skills as for instance reading, writing, and other subskills
such as the understanding and expression ideas and opinions, the solving of problems, the making of
decision, etc. using multimodal instruments. (IGI Global)
Innovation - Innovation is the practical application of ideas that result in different new types of new offerings,
like products, services, processes, and business models, intending to improve or disrupt existing applications
or creating new solutions. It doesn’t matter if you are getting the ideas from outside the organization,
through brainstorming, combining of existing ideas, or radical new thinking within your field. But it should be
at the heart of your business and it should constantly be done to ensure business survival.
(morethandigital.info)
Being literate in the 21st century means far more than being able to solely read and write print texts. In the
digital age of today to be considered literate you must have the skills, understanding, and open-mindedness
to innovation. Innovation and technology dictate our lives today and as a result of that they also dictate our
literacy. As the world and society we will live are constantly changing, our definition of literacy will also
constantly change. (Medium)
Interactivity - More advanced cognitive and literacy skills which, together with social skills, can be used to
actively participate in everyday activities, to extract information and derive meaning from different forms of
communications, and to apply new information to changing circumstances” ( Nutbeam, 2000 ).
Interactive reading skills allow readers to read and think at the same time. Readers build meaning through
the interplay of the details in the text, their own experiences and their knowledge of how skilled readers
think. In interactive reading instruction, teachers model these comprehension skills by reading and thinking
out loud for their students. Engaged readers then use the same interactive skills their teachers have
demonstrated to comprehend their own texts. (SeattlePi)
Synthesizing is one of the most challenging reading strategies for students to master, simply because
it requires students to use multiple skills and strategies together. In fact, the prefix “syn” means
together. Synthesizing a text is the process of pulling together background knowledge, newly learned
ideas, connections, inferences and summaries into a complete and original understanding of the
text. When students synthesize, they are made aware of how their thinking changes and evolves as
they read a text.
It’s important that we teach our students to synthesize. We want them to do more than just provide a
retelling of a text that they read. Instead, we want them to internalize it and grow and change as
thinkers because of the texts that they read. To do this, students need to stop often to evaluate and
reflect on what they are reading. Through synthesizing, readers form new ideas and opinions.
(The Classroom Nook)
Critical literacy refers to the process of becoming aware of one's experience relative to power relations,
often realized through reading and writing.
+This reading and writing-based learning process encourages students to accept, reject or reconstruct
ideologies presented in texts. It is a learning approach where students are expected to examine various texts
to understand the relationship between language and the power it can hold. Students critically analyze and
evaluate the meaning of texts as they relate to topics on equity, power and social justice. These texts are
then used to equip students with a critical stance, response or action towards an issue. (Top Hat)