By Quynh Anh Dao Tran
Being literate is just the ability to read and write in any context in a specific language – or so people usually think. As a secondary school student, I kept this concept in my head. However, after a long time of study, I now view literacy as multiliteracy, meaning that my compilation of literacy skills is a result of all the activities and skills I have engaged in and acquired over the years. Therefore, I believe that gaining literacy skills is important and necessary in our lives.
In my country, when children go to elementary school, they learn how to write, spell, and finally read words fluently. That was no exception for me, and it was easy as pie. However, the ease did not last a long time. After that, when I could read articles fluently, writing descriptive paragraphs became my common assignment. At that time, these kinds of assignments were terrible to me. It really put me under lots of pressure because I felt it was difficult to express my thoughts when I was little. For example, the topic of a paragraph I was asked to write for a final exam was describing my pet. Fortunately, my parents are “pet-friendly” people, so they bought our dog, Leo, when they were married. I lived under our roof with him for 8 years, so we had so many valuable experiences together. Therefore, when I read the topic, the ideas came to my mind immediately. In the paragraph, I talked about every detail about him, as can be seen from this example:
“My pet is Leo, and he is a special kind of dog called a poodle. Besides, his eyes are beautiful jade-green, glittering like two marbles. On the weekend, he always assists my parents to take care of me. Whenever I wake up, he comes quickly to my mother and barks loudly like an announcement to her. When Leo moves and sways his tail, his big round butt looks so cute. On the weekend, my father also spends time training him. Whenever my parents said “Sit,” he would sit immediately. He is so sweet, smart and easy to train”.
Hence, I realized that when I wrote about the topics I liked and cared about, it made the process more meaningful and enjoyable. Although these assignments were tough, I have to acknowledge that they helped me build my literacy foundation.
In middle school, the literacy level required was much higher than before, but I gradually adapted to these criteria. First, I had to read the articles and then write an essay expressing my opinion. It was kind of a struggle for me because there were some hypothetical situations I never thought would happen in my life. For that reason, sometimes, I had to put myself in these situations and imagine how I would react. I vividly remember that one of the articles I read was titled The Elder I Am Grateful, and my next task was “talking about your most respected elder.” I enjoyed reading the article, but I had no idea how to do the next step – writing an essay. I held the pen for a couple of minutes. In reality, I did not have any experiences with my grandparents because they had already passed away when I was born. I continuously asked myself a question: “Who am I most respectful of?” Suddenly, in my head, the name of my old teacher, Andrew Lewis, appeared. When I studied with him the year before, he was always polite and listened to students well. Moreover, he spent time teaching poor children at home without any fees, which is the thing I admire most about him. Indeed, he never thought twice before helping someone. Therefore, I decided to take this opportunity to write about him. Although I did not get a high grade on this assignment due to some grammar errors, I still felt satisfied with my work because Mr. Lewis was truly a person I respect and I had a chance to talk about him.
At this time, reading many articles made me realize that there were many common words that I did not understand well. Moreover, some words have different meanings, so we have to depend on context to determine what the words mean. I remember learning this in my English class when we had the “polysemy” lesson. My teachers asked, ”How many meanings does the word ‘Sound’ have in English?” My best friend, Bella, quickly raised her hand and said loudly that there were two meanings. The teacher smiled and asked, “Does anyone think differently?” One said that the word had four meanings, another said that it had seven, and so on. At that time, other students started to discuss together because there was still no one answer. When my teacher said, “The word ‘Sound’ has 19 noun meanings and 12 adjective meanings,” my class exclaimed, “Oh,” and their faces expressed a jolt of surprise. Their eyes became round, and their lips were open. From this lesson, I realized that understanding the meaning of words in our lives is so important because it makes us communicate more effectively by avoiding misunderstandings.
After that, I tried to gain a profound insight into the meaning of words by reading books or using the dictionary more frequently. In fact, I think that they also contribute to my critical thinking. Moreover, at that time, I got a chance to get acquainted with computers in the classroom. I grew up in an average family financially, so computers were valuable to me. In Informatics class, I had to pair up to practice typing with someone because there were not enough computers for every student. Sitting in front of the screen made me so interested and curious. My first lesson was typing with 10 fingers on a Word document, a basic computer skill. Then, I started to enhance my typing speed and learned different kinds of software like Excel, which is used for organizing and analyzing stored data. From my perspective, this is also a literacy skill as it is the way of communicating between humans and modern technology.
Importantly, as a senior in high school, I did not just write argumentative essays, but I also had to present them in front of the class. Using voice effectively, making eye contact, and having good content are all important in presenting. I remember my first presentation was on a Friday, and I had to prepare it two weeks before. That morning, I woke up earlier than normal and wore the uniform that my mother ironed and hung on the clothing rack. My hair was neatly groomed with a matching hair tie. After breakfast at home, my father took me to school and said to me, “Do your best.” I quickly replied, “I can do it,” and rushed to class. To be honest, at that time, I was so nervous because I rarely talked in front of so many people, and I was worried they could potentially judge me. When the teacher said, “The next part is Quynh’s presentation,” it was so quiet I could hear a pin drop. Slowly, I moved step by step to the podium, and my hands were cold as ice. However, I thought about my mother’s advice that I should imagine there was no one to see me and put a smile on my face, which would make me comfortable and confident. In the end, I got an 8/10 on my presentation. As encouragement, my mother gifted me a new backpack.
However, based on my teacher’s feedback, I lost 2 points because I did not make eye contact frequently. Still, I feel grateful instead of regretting it because only 2 points gave me a valuable lesson about the importance of eye contact. Therefore, now, I never forget eye contact whenever I have a presentation. In real life, eye contact is an important factor in making your conservation more functional. Additionally, I gained more presentation skills when I studied ELSL I and ELSL II at UIC. I did so many presentations, so it gradually enhanced my confidence to talk in front of many people. Also, I knew how to take notes briefly and how to make PowerPoint presentations, which assisted my presentation more effectively. Presenting has truly helped me improve my pronunciation, which is an important part of communication.
I believe that all of my education throughout my whole life contributed to the development of my literacy, which I view as multiliteracy. It plays an important role in both my work and education because it is a compilation of all the activities and skills I have engaged in and acquired over the years, such as writing essays, reading articles, working on computers, and presenting information. Furthermore, multiliteracy helps me engage in diverse activities in our society and learn knowledge through different situations, different languages, and even different contexts. When I interviewed for and received a scholarship to UIC, my experience with presenting in high school made me more confident going into that interview. As I continue to study, my literacy will continue to develop and improve.