[Sigiii-l] Plaza

[Michel J. Menou]

Wednesday, September 17, 2003, 5:46:58 PM, Sheila Webber wrote:
snip
SW> .../... Carrying
SW> over to one of my current professional obsessions, i.e. information 
SW> literacy, it has been pointed out by international colleagues that to 
SW> "be information literate in the information society" as well as being 
SW> *literate* you also need to be able to *speak English* in those 
SW> circumstances where there is a restricted amount of information on 
SW> the internet in your own language, where key textbooks and 
SW> journals are mostly in English, where you want to be able to 
SW> communicate with English-speaking experts to get information etc. 
SW> etc.

This is worth meditating.
I'd contend that information literacy requires more than speaking English for
non native English speakers. Speaking, or being able to grasp the key aspects of
any piece of information, in other major languages is not less important
especially with a view of South-South interaction. And of course native English
speakers, especially those leaving in the North, would be well inspired to do
the same.
The predominance of English language sources may to some extent reflect more the
unability of English speakers to use sources in other languages than the
scarcity of the former.

Michel