Social Literacy

OBJECTIVES:
At the end of this chapter, you should be able to:

■ Develop understanding of the working definition of social

literacy
■ Explain the roles of parents and teachers in teaching social
skills in children; and
■Discuss and examine issues in social literacy
 Social Literacy
➤ Concerns itself with the development of social skills,
knowledge and positive human values that enable human
beings to act positively and responsibly in range of complex
social settings.

➤ It is the knowledge of how to behave and treat other people

in a way that is morally upright and just and equitable.
 Social Literacy
➤ The ability to communicate and voice opinions and thoughts,
as well as listening to opinions and thoughts of others, is
essential in learning.

➤ Peers and Schools play a formative role on the social skills

development of children. These social skills are often expressed
as consisting of three inter-related components: social
perception, social cognition, and social performance.
 Social Literacy
➤ Social skill is defined in literature as "the ability to interact
with others in a given social context in specific ways that are
socially acceptable or valued and at the same time personally
beneficially mutually beneficial, or primarily beneficial to
others.
 TYPES OF SOCIAL SKILLS
• These range from the ability to
initiate, maintain, and end a
conversation to reading social
signals to more complex skills.

★GREETING
 TYPES OF SOCIAL SKILLS
■INITIATING CONVERSATION

■This requires good listening and

attention skills, as well as the
ability to take turns and probe for
missing information

■Being a good conversationalist

requires turn-taking and
reciprocity.
 TYPES OF SOCIAL SKILLS
UNDERSTANDING THE
LISTENER

■Once the conversation is

initiated, it has to be
maintained.
■ A socially adept child quickly
and unconsciously recognizes
his listener.
■ Think the way they think
 TYPES OF SOCIAL SKILLS
EMPATHIZING

■One is able to feel what

other person feels.
Empathy allows one to
really connect with other
people.
 TYPES OF SOCIAL SKILLS
READING SOCIAL
CLUES

■ Cues_are the hints and

signals that guide us to
the next thing to say or
do. It can be verbal or
non-verbal.
 TYPES OF SOCIAL SKILLS
PREVIEWING OR
PLANNING

■Conversation also requires

that one previews or thinks
about what effect the words
or actions may have on the
listener before she says or
does to them.
 TYPES OF SOCIAL SKILLS
PROBLEM SOLVING
■ How one reacts to these
conflicts depends on how good
her problem solving skills are.
■ This requires negotiation
and compromise, give and
take that results in a situation
where all parties can live with
and help maintain
relationships.
 TYPES OF SOCIAL SKILLS
APOLOGIZING
■A person with good social skills is
confident enough to make a sincere
apology for her error.
■This is a courageous act and is the
quickest and easiest way to connect
a social blunder.
■Apologizing is a sign of humble
and mature character when commit
mistakes.
 THE ROLE OF PARENTS AND
TEACHERS IN TEACHING
SOCIAL SKILLS TO CHILDREN
• Parents typically play the major role in teaching children
skills social by modeling, role playing providing and
opportunities for their child to rehearse and practice skills.
• School in the place where children spend the majority of
their time with peers it is, therefore a natural and perfect
setting for children to learn and practice social skills
• Teachers do not have to teach a class in social skills they can
have take advantage of any opportunity to help children
improve their social skills. They should be alert to teasing and
bullying and aware of child that are rejected or ignore by their
peers.
 "ISSUES IN TEACHING SOCIAL
LITERACY"
• How children develop their social literacy is intrinsically a
contextual matter and is not something that can be easily traced
in a linear or developmental fashion.

• Children learn through social practices, both impicit and

explicit and become human through social interaction.
• Nevertheless, it is also the case that children engage in social
activity before they are taught it; in other words, children are
disposed to be social before they learn what sociability is all
about.
 Two distinct ways on how children learn to
live socially
• Normative and Communal- from their culture children learn
custom that provide them with a guide to act in ways that
minimize conflict.

• Pragmatic and Individualistic- the social order of children in

created by explicit and implicit agreements entered into by self-
seeking individual to avert the worst consequences of their
selfish instincts (Arthur, Davison, & Stow 2000)
• In this last view, social order is dependent on santion and
formal agreements. Rules are obeyed because they confer
personal advantage on a child.

• In normative children are persuaded of the moral force of

acting socially through their voluntary associations with others,
both in their immediate circle, such as the family, and in the
wider community, for example, through membership of a
church or club.
 SUBJECTIVE STANDARD MORALITY

✔The natural outcome of post modern philosopies is that truth

and morality are consider subjective and open to individual
interpretation. This can be seen in the current culture, where
action and behavioral patterns that were once considered bad
have now become acceptable.
 HUMAN NATURE

✔While we would like to believe that people are inherently good,

experience has taught us that the inherent goodness of
humanity is, at best unrealiable; Sometimes it is there, often it
is not. We are quick to champion the cause of moral
uprightness, justice.
 Situational Awareness in the Workplace
• Such behaviour demonstrates a lack of situational awareness
about what is appropriate to do in different social
circumstances.

• An ability to read social situations illustrates strenght to

employers.
 Social Intelligence in Technological
Communication
★Text-speak and technology use have affected many young
people's ability tp communicate.

★Text-speak has reduced student's ability to communicate using

correct grammar.

★Through studying particular communication genres and what

they demand, students can learn more about what individual
situstions demand in terms of of the formality of
communication.
 Social Intelligence in Traditional
Communication
• While email has taken over as the primary method of
communication, traditional modes of discourse still exist.

• An ability to craft these types of documents illustrates an

understanding of social expectation and denotes a level of
respect and appreciation