Literacy

Literacy is the ability to read and write. The primary purpose of education is to impart literacy and numeracy.

Living in a world that is predominantly English speaking, English literacy is extremely important.

I spoke on the subject of literacy in my Competent Communication Prepared Speech Project 9 in the year 2013.

 

• Prepared Speech Projects
• Competent Communication Manual Prepared Speech Project 9 – Persuade With Power
• Date: 19 December 2013
• Speaker: Daniel Sun
• Title: Literacy

Imparting The Gift Of English Literacy

To those of you who are parents and to those of you who are not, just imagine. What do you think is one of the most important thing to impart to your children in order to equip them to live their earthly lives?

Money?

Money might just make them lazy and they would eventually fail in life.

In my opinion it would be the gift of a good command in the English Language.

I believe that most of you to certain degree would agree with me. Otherwise you would not have joined Toastmasters.

The Importance of English Literacy

Having a good command of the English language does not mean just being able to speak well but also able to read and write just as well. Someone who can speak, read and write well is invaluable as a person, revered and respected, feared and formidable as an enemy.

That is why whenever a totalitarian regime takes over a nation, their priority is to put away educators and the educated, they are either imprisoned or executed. 

Speaking Good English Improves Your Image

When you speak well, your image improves and subconsciously people will find you more credible even though sometimes you may actually be speaking nonsense. In fact this is the objective of my project 9 – Inspire Your Audience, even if you have to con them, you must. English literacy is a pre-requisite for good public speaking skills.

English Literacy Is The Key To Unlocking Knowledge

More importantly, if you can read, you have the key that unlocks every knowledge. If you want to know and learn something, read it! Why do most Mathematics teachers ended up as who they are? It is because they could not read, …. in English. Back during my school days, I could not understand History, Geography and Literature because I found the level of English language too difficult for me to understand. Even Science textbooks posed a challenge. As for Mathematics, I only needed logic and to know how to read and write numbers and symbols.

Education is fundamentally about literacy (reading and writing) and numeracy (numbers and logic). However I will not touch on numeracy today.

Do not be misled and misguided by the ministers and parents debating over what education in Singapore should become. All these petty debates are just excuses and a cover-up for an ultimate agenda.

The agenda to get their children into the school they want and let them get a degree after 15 to 16 years whether they have the real substance or just a hollow empty vessel.

So how are you as parents going to impart this invaluable gift to your children? Send them to a good school? What is a good school or should I say, branded school? Is it one where the ministers send their children to? Or is it one that the Ministry of Education ranks highly? No, instead you as parents should impart this gift of language yourselves to your children.

English Literacy Is Caught, Not Taught

Having been a teacher for decades, I have noticed that students who has a natural flair for language, need not learn them in class, nor can language be learned in class. At least not in the current system where the English language is taught. These students who have a good command of the English language come from families that speak good English. 

I do not know how and it is a mystery – children pick up languages from the environment they grew up with naturally without having to receive formal education. This is called “Child Acquisition Theory”. 

During my Language Evaluator Workshop with Distinguished Toastmaster, Mr Richard Sng, he spoke fondly of his grandson. He would bring him to toastmasters club chapter meetings and his grandson would be able to tell him that some people including some Language Evaluators were talking nonsense while some of us would have swallowed everything dished out to us hook, line and sinker. 

This was because Distinguished Toastmaster Richard Sng’s grandson have grown up in a family that speaks good English and his close association with Distinguished Toastmaster Richard Sng himself. 

Whereas for myself, I grew up in a Chinese speaking family and attended a Chinese speaking Kindergarten. When I joined an English stream primary school, I only knew the alphabet and understood some simple English words.

My classmates were low income Malays, Indians and dialect speaking Chinese.

I wish that I have studied in St Michael’s Primary School where the kids come from families that spoke good English. That would have given me a better environment for me to pick up the English language.

Begin Speaking Good English To Your Children

Being handicapped in English has been one of my greatest Achilles’ heel.

Looking back, my academic achievement during my school days could have been so much less painful and so much more accomplished if only my command of the English language was better. 

If not for my aptitude in Mathematics that had helped me accumulate enough points to attain an overall pass in my examinations, I could have been a school dropout.

The best gift you can thus give to your children is not money, but literacy in English. You can approach your children, look them in the eyes and say to them, “Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I thee.” 

Begin speaking intelligently in good English to your children.