Ka 1 Duyen Ka English 1101 February 8, 2014 Professor Rieman Evolution of my Literacy When I first started composing this article,

it did not have a flow whatsoever. It was very unorganized/ choppy, and had a hard time trying to fit all my ideas together. I kept going with it but it wasnt until I seek help that I finally got some of my ideas organized. I feel like my paper could have been better in some ways. For example I could have elaborated more or used better vocabulary. My paper is not perfect but it has come a long way and I am proud of it. Literacy is an ongoing progression. I would like to see how my writing progresses as I write more articles for this class. The definition of literacy is just the ability to read/write was what I use to think, but as I matured I understood otherwise. Someone could be horrible at reading and writing but can be literate in other areas such as math, computer, science, etc. Those are all considered a part of literacy. Literacy is more complex than meets the eye. My Understanding of literacy will always have room to expand and accelerate. Throughout school reading and writing has always been two of my weakest points. I have always had a strong dislike for them for as long as I can remember. My distaste for it, however, doesnt change how big a part it played throughout my life. Through this article, I hope to show my progression of literacy. Memories of my younger literacy years are very choppy. My first experience of literacy was in Vietnam and my native language is Vietnamese. There I attended pre- k in which I learned the Vietnamese alphabet. I learned up to the letter t before my family immigrated to

Ka 2 the U.S in hope of better opportunities, may that be education, job or life in general. I dont remember much of the Vietnamese alphabet now though, because I speak English more. My English is also more dominant than Vietnamese. My life in the U.S. was drastically different. I now live in a country that speaks a language that is different from the one that I was originally taught/ learned, not only that but everything that I was used to changed as well. I saw tall buildings and city lights for the first time. America was and is way more advanced than Vietnam. We speak both Vietnamese and English in my household. I tend to mix the two without realizing most of the time. Learning English came easy for me because of my addiction of watching too much television. Like they say, monkey see monkey do. I imitated the characters dialogue in the shows that I used to watch and voila a new language. I often watched Dragon Tales, Arthur, Caillou, Barney, Dora, Clifford, Curious George, Zoom, Sesame Street, Cyberchase, Walker the Texas Ranger, Dragon Ball Z, Sailor Moon, Power Ranger, Pokemon and Teletubies. The list could go on and on. I spent 3 years just watching these shows in the comfort of my own home. Many of these shows were very educational. They mostly consisted of PBS Kids shows, and maybe the occasional James Bond with my grandfather. Educational shows like these somehow implanted their informational messages into my head; that is how my English came about. I started going to school when I was 8. Although I accumulated some English from watching too much television, I didnt know the basics, like how to read and write. I was put in a class called ESL (English as a Second Language). My class had only a handful of kids. Although I wasnt in the comfort of my home anymore, the atmosphere of that class wasnt that much different. The teacher I had was one of my favorites. She knew how to make a reluctant child like me want to learn. She often read us Dr. Seuss books. My favorite was Green Eggs and

Ka 3 Ham. I dont know many authors, but I will always remember Dr. Seuss. My teacher often rewarded us whenever we made new achievements. I always looked forward to those rewards and that kept my laziness to learn at bay. At that time I was also introduced to the English alphabet. It wasnt that much different from the Vietnamese alphabet. I got the hang of it pretty quickly. In that class I was also introduced to this bulky machine called the computer. I hopped to it whenever I had the chance to use it. It made learning fun. Learning English didnt seem so much of a chore anymore. Instead of just reading/studying the alphabet letters one by one and scribing it in a journal to memorize it; I had the choice to utilize the computer to listen to alphabet song instead. Computers contributed a lot towards my gradation of reading/writing and literacy in general. Computers back then wasnt advanced as it was now, but I remembered them to be the most enjoyable. I am thankful toward those technologies that I had the chance to come across. In some ways it helped my cope with my new environment. Although I didnt communicate socially with anyone, I still was able to learn many things through playing interactive games. It made me a better English speaker, and that gave me courage to start conversations with others in my class. I stayed in ESL from my first to third grade year. I In school I remember spending a lot of time learning how to be literate. We learned the alphabet, how to sound out each letter, how to uses these sound to create words, and eventually how to compile these words into full sentences. There were many activities of these in the workbooks that I used to do. My work at school was further supplemented by the readings I did at home. Education is very important in my household. My family members, especially my grandparents, always reminded me that I should take what I have for granted. They never had the chance to go to school or have a free education. They are the most hardworking people I know, and they worked their butts off to get to where they are today. As I was frequently reminded of

Ka 4 this, I made it a priority to learn. My literacy progressed from there. I caught up to the students in my class and made up for what I was lacking. In middle school I remember that we had to do AR reading, assessment software that monitors the progress of students reading and writing skills. I had to read a book that is my grade level or reading level and test on it every one or two weeks. I knew that being literate was an important attribute, but I never enjoyed reading. I thought that it was just a waste of time. I wasnt the type to sit around a read for a long period of time. I was the type that would gravitate towards watching a movie instead of reading for leisure. Although I didnt find reading enjoyable, I can tell that it contributed in my progression of reading skills. It improved my reading comprehension and made me a wiser test taker. My writing skills were never that great. I had a hard time understanding subject verb agreement and remembering most of the grammar rules. I wrote sentences how I felt that it should sound. My grades for my papers were always just okay, always in the 80s to mid 80s. My English teachers were always nitpicky with grammatical errors and also very vague with their criticisms. I felt very confused as to what I could have done to improve my writing. I specifically remember my 10th grade teacher the most because she wasnt very broad minded when it came to writing. She tried to teach everyone with a strict mannerism. She said that there should be a introductory paragraph and a thesis with three main points. We had to write a paragraph about each point and then finally conclude our ideas. I didnt like writing this way. I felt so imprisoned to it. Throughout high school I wrote her way of writing whenever I had to write important articles/essays for classes but I always found it difficult, especially when I had to expand the points from thesis sentence. Now I am in college and taking my first English course. I havent been in this class for

Ka 5 long, but I can tell that my teacher is different than other English teachers that I have had in past. She focuses more on the ideas that you try to present instead of your grammatical errors and format. She also gives back elaborative criticisms so I can improve in the certain areas that I struggle with. I feel like this way of teaching will help me become a better writer because I am freer and my mind feels more at ease instead of just focusing on my errors. My writing skills still have much to improve and I hope it does by the end of this class. My literacy has improved drastically throughout the years. I have television, computers, some amazing teachers, readings, and my familys encouragement to thank for that. I still have a lot to expand/ improve on. Literacy is an ongoing cycle. My definition of it will always change. It cannot be defined because literacy is educational experiences that are internalized to its own person.