Gee’s “What is Literacy”

1.Literacy is control of secondary use of language and it has several different types.
Dominant literacy is control of a secondary use of language used in what I called above a “dominant discourse”.
    Powerful literacy is control as a secondary use of language used in a secondary discourse that can serve as a meta-discourse to critique the primary discourse of other secondary discourses, including dominant discourses. literacy is mastered through acquisition, not learning, that is, it requires exposure to models in natural meaningful, and functional settings, and teaching is not liable to be very successful-it may even initially get in the way.

2.After read this article, I felt author's understanding of literacy was a little different from my previous opinion. I thought literacy is a vague concept which only the ability of someone to read, write and understand. Nevertheless, the author give us more specific, powerful and compelling description of this word. It not just an abstract or general idea, it can be applicate in different areas, such as education, sociology and so on.