There are many kinds of literacy. Reading, Writing, and Numeracy are common examples.
Here are 26 kinds of literacy I found digging around on the net.
Literacies:
literacy hits literacy hits literacy hits PLSNC totals
------------------------------------------------------------------ ----- -------
A Academic~ 3600 library~ 7300 research~ 959 L 12000
B Basic~ 38000 English~ 17000 language~ 28000 L 97000
print~ 1700 text~ 484
traditional~ 1150 reading~ 11000
C Cultural~ 17000 literary~ 120 personal~ ~500 L 18000
D Digital~ 7300 internet 10000 ICT~ 2400 N 20000
E Environmental~ 9600 green~ 64 enviro~ 1000 C 11000
F Financial~ 53000 economic~ 9900 consumer~ 649 P 64000
G Geographic~ 1800 geography~ 307 geographical~ 425 S 2500
H Historical~ 916 political~ 2000 voter~ 132 S 3000
I Information~ 130000 info~ 2900 informatic~ 10 N 133000
J Job~ 291 employment~ 593 document~ 1500 P 2400
K Critical~ 8100 analytical~ 36 intellectual~ 135 L 8300
L Legal~ 4500 civic~ 2200 citizen~ 212 P 6900
M Musical~ 1900 auditory~ 10 music~ 2700 N 4600
N Numeracy 376000 mathematical~ 4370 math/maths~ 3900 S 384000
O Orality 20000 oracy 5200 Verbal~ 518 N 26000
P Philosophical~ 47 ontological~ 1 epistemological~ 1 S 49
Q Quantitative~ 6700 Statistical~ 1700 risk/safety~ 522 S 9000
R Religious~ 1500 spiritual~ 967 bible~ 1000 P 3500
S Scientific~ 24000 science~ 23000 scien. & tech.~ 2600 S 50000
T Technological~ 20000 technology~ 47000 technical~ 3900 N 76000
electronic~ 3200 techno~ 419
U User~ 162 computer~ 259000 software~ 507 N 260000
V Visual~ 21000 multimedia~ 1900 television~ 553 N 25000
film~ 390 movie~ 21
video 274 tele~ 786
graphic~ 239 picture~ 56
diagram(atic)~ 12 pictorial~ 46
W Medical 222 physical~ 94 exercise~ 29 S 345
X Cross-cultural~ 478 multicultural~ 1000 intercultural~ 153 C 1600
Y Emotional~ 11000 psychological~ 84 social~ 1340 P 12000
Z Media~ 56000 metamedia~ 105 news media~ 79 L 56000
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total 55772 1260000
------------------------------------------------------------------ ----- -------
literacy 3110000 L 3110000
Notes:
- The numbers are the number of hits I got for each term in Google.
- Most of my searches were on 7/25/2002.
- ~ stands for 'literacy'.
Conclusions:
- There are about thirty recognized kinds of literacy.
- About two thirds of the time literacy is mentioned it means reading / writing.
- Basic, Computer, and Information Literacy and Numeracy are discussed the most.
- Philosophical and Medical Literacy are discussed the least.
- The concept of ICT means that many of these literacies overlap. ICT stands for Information, Computer, and Technology literacy
- All of these kinds of literacy are important.
- It seems that...
- Seven of them are 'new' kinds of literacy: Digital, Information, Musical, Orality, Technological, Computer, and Visual.
- Five of them are Textual literacy based: (L)
- Five of them are for practical living (P)
- Seven of them are subject based (S)
- Two of them are based on modern political correctness (C)
-- JonGrover