Four Roles of a Literate Person

Students need to be proficient in four interrelated dimensions of language use. Freebody and Luke (1991) identify the roles literate people take on as: code breaker; text participant; text user; and text analyst.

Code Breaker      'How do I crack this code?'
This involves being able to decode and encode language at an appropriate level of proficiency. It includes recognising and being able to speak and write words and sentences; it incorporates phonics and the use of accurate spelling and grammar.

Text Participant      'What does this mean to me?'

Students use their knowledge of the world, knowledge of vocabulary and knowledge of how language works, to comprehend and compose texts. Examples of activities that involve this role include: making a list of questions after reading a poem for the first time; comparing the worlds created in two science fiction films; predicting the style and content of a television program from the opening titles.

Text User      'What do I do with this text?'

Students understand how language varies according to context, purpose, audience and content, and are able to apply this knowledge. Examples of activities that involve this role include: creating an information leaflet for a sporting club; preparing a talk about new books in the library for an assembly; choosing an appropriate style for a letter or phone call thanking a visiting speaker.

Text Analyst      'What does this text do to me?' Students critically analyse and challenge the way texts are constructed to convey particular ideas and to influence people. Examples of activities that involve this role include: working out the beliefs about fathers implied in a range of picture books; looking at newspaper photographs to consider who is not represented and why this might be; re-writing fairy tales to present different ideas about gender or class.

Literacy educators such as Lo Bianco and Freebody (1997) caution against assuming that any one of these dimensions is a preliminary to the development of the others, or somehow more 'central' just because difficulties with one dimension may be more visible than difficulties with another.

LoBianco, J and Freebody, P, (1997) Australian Literacies: Informing National Policy on Literacy Education, Language Australia , Melbourne .

Read More: Four Resources Model of Literacy