NewsTrust - Global Literacy - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Mainstream)

Why Bilinguals Are Smarter

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Yudhijit Bhattacharjee - Mar. 17 (Opinion) - Being bilingual makes you smarter and can have a profound effect on your brain. Speaking two languages rather than just one has obvious practical benefits in an increasingly globalized world. But in recent years, scientists have begun to show that the advantages of bilingualism are even more fundamental than being able to converse with a wider range of people. Being bilingual, it turns out, makes you smarter. It can have a profound effect on your brain, improving cognitive skills not related to language and even shielding against dementia in old age.

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'We Like Lists Because We Don't Want to Die'

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Der Spiegel - By Umberto Eco, Susanne Beyer, Lothar Gorris - Nov. 12 (Interview) - Italian novelist and semiotician Umberto Eco, who is curating a new exhibition at the Louvre in Paris, talks to SPIEGEL about the place lists hold in the history of culture, the ways we try to avoid thinking about death and why Google is dangerous for young people

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Gail Rebuck on adult literacy

Thu, 05 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - By Gail Rebuck - Feb. 05 (Opinion) - Adult literacy is a stubborn, apparently intractable problem that belies simplistic solutions. The government has spent £5bn on basic skills courses between 2001 and 2007, which will rise to £9bn by 2011. This money has had an effect and progress has been made: the Skills for Life target to improve the skills of 2.25 million adults by 2010 was reached two years early. But, as last week's all-party public accounts committee report into adult literacy makes clear, there is still a long way to go, with as many as 17.8 million over-18s reported as having poor levels of literacy. This is bad for the economy, bad for society, and - most important - bad for those who have their life potential blighted by an inability to read.

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Half of us are barely literate and it's getting worse

Sun, 01 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Daily Telegraph - By Alasdair Palmer - Feb. 01 (Comment) - The most graphic illustration of the failure of the British education system is the vast number of people who, despite 11 years of full-time schooling, cannot read, write and add up properly. The Government's own figures show that 5.2 million workers in Britain today are "functionally illiterate", and 6.8 million are "functionally innumerate". "Functional illiteracy" is not the same as the blank inability to read anything – but the bar for competence is not set very high. If you can't read the stories in The Sun, or the signs in a station indicating from which platform your train departs, you are functionally illiterate. Similarly, "functional innumeracy" involves such things as being unable to calculate the change you are owed, or how much you spend every month on regular purchases.

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Fighting Global Illiteracy

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Houston Chronicle - By DorisH - Jan. 29 (Opinion) - According to this International Reading Association 2007 study "The relationship of illiteracy and poverty is undeniable." Here are just a few facts culled from The International Reading Association. • The per capita income in countries with a literacy rate less than 55% averages about $600. • Teaching mothers to read can lead to a decrease in infant mortality of up to 50%. • 98% of all non-literates live in developing countries. • 52% of all non-literates live in India and China. • Africa as a continent has a literacy rate of less than 60%. • In all developing countries, the percentage of children aged 6-11 not attending school is 15%. In the least developed countries, it is 45%.

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Explorations

Wed, 18 May 1960 00:00:00 -0800

CBS News - By Marshall McLuhan - May. 18 (Comment) - Explorations – The World is a Global Village

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