Liley 1

Catherine Liley
Nancy Roche
Writing 1010-018
23 October 2014
Literacy as a social practice
David Barton and Mary Hamilton argue and support that literacy is a social
practice(Barton, Hamilton 1). Examining how a persons everyday literacy practices used
within their life, shaped by events and texts, it is discovered that this is what makes up
ones domains and discourses. Literacy can be practiced in many different ways: Barton and
Hamilton talk about the basis of how a persons domains and discourses are developed
through upbringing and social situations one is encountered with. Many components of
literacy rely on others in order to influence aspects of domains and discourses without
them there would be no knowledge to form social interactions. Literacy is constructed from
the way that knowledge of reading and writing is used to develop domains and discourses
for interacting with other people in their everyday lives.
Domains and discourses are important to every individual because theyre based on
culture and values possessed by every person while growing up. Barton and Hamilton
present a sub-argument that talks about the ways in which domains and discourses are
learned, usually through texts and the way each individual is raised. We begin with the
home domain and everyday life, (Barton, Hamilton 11) but additional discourses are
learned through community or through further education. The people encountered
throughout a lifetime as well as those an individual is surrounded with also play a role in
shaping discourses. Domains can be considered specific social groups such as a community

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or an organization one interacts with to gain new literacy skills; these groups encourage
and favor particular domains and discourses because they are more dominant then others.
Through specific situations that occur during a lifetime, literacy as evidence through
context or text is developed.
The way we practice our Domains and Discourses are when we come to a situation
in which the way we have used literacy and practice it plays a part. These are also known
as literacy events. This is another sub argument about literacy being a social practice
Barton and Hamilton introduce. When one encounter others or are put in a social situation
and use the literacy, one is practicing what one has learned all throughout their life and
maybe even picking up new discourses but one has to understand when encountered with
different people, different discourses are necessary. Even though spoken language plays a
huge part in this, texts are important to. Texts are a crucial part of literacy events and the
study of literacy is partly a study of texts and how they are produced and used (Barton,
Hamilton 9). Written and spoken context play a huge role in Literacy events because if we
didnt have multiple types of knowledge to know how to interconnect with others, there
would be no way to communicate. One cannot know only how to write versus speak or vise
versa. Written text and spoken language shape our events.
There are many ways in which literacy can be used in every day life and many
influences in which it can be learned from. Literacy practices are based on the discourses
developed throughout lives and the events that are encountered but the basis of this all is
the concept of learning. Without this, knowledge of literacy wouldnt be known. This is
what connects people together and can improve interactions between people even if one is
not familiar with a certain discourse. All these components link each other together and

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work together to make literacy discourses either stronger or weaker. Knowing this, Barton
and Hamilton have supported that literacy is a social practice. Without social interactions
there would be no way to practice literacies and to form or shape them.

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Works Cited
Barton, David, Hamilton, Mary. Literacy Practices. Local Literacies: Reading and Writing in
one Community. Ed. David Barton, Mary Hamilton. 2001. 6-15. Print