Literacy

Abstract Objective: Health literacy is the capacity to get, process and realize basic information and services necessary to make proper decisions in the field of health. This study was conducted aimed at determining the relationship between health literacy and demographic variables of Yazd city citizens. Method: This study was a descriptive (cross-sectional) one the population included 385 people living in Yazd city. Data were collected using a researcher-made questionnaire whose validity and reliability were confirmed. After completing the questionnaires, the data analysis was performed using SPSS statistical software, Pearson correlation coefficient and Chi-square test. Results: the results indicate that there is a significant relationship between health literacy and age, gender and marital status. The highest correlation coefficient was observed in the relationship between health literacy and age. Conclusion: Due to the effective demographic variables, it seems that demographic characteristics-based interventions should be designed and implemented in order to improve the health literacy of citizens.

Visual literacy (VL), despite its significance, has not received deserved attention in EFL classes in Iran. Addressing this pedagogic and research lacuna, the researchers integrated VL practices into a General English course attended by female university learners, and examined the vision competencies developed by them. The analysis of the data collected through class observation, learner documents, and semi-structured interviews revealed that the learners developed the vision competencies regarding compositional, affective, and critical dimensions of visuals. It is hoped that the findings of this small-scale study encourage language planners, materials developers, and English teachers to pay heightened attention to the visuals’ potential and open more spaces for VL development in their curricula, materials, and language teaching practices. 

This analysis identifies the problem of the media saturation of people’s lives as a reason for developing programs teaching media literacy. It argues that the basic or foundational disciplines found in cultural studies, such as applied semiotics, psychoanalytic theory, sociological theory, and Marxist analysis, are the proper way to teach media criticism and media literacy (See Berger, A.A., Media Analysis Techniques, 6th edition, 2019). The methods by themselves are not adequate, which means that teaching media literacy also involves providing exercises and learning games that show students how to apply the theories they learn to their analyses of media texts (See Berger, A.A., Games and Activities for Media, Communication, and Cultural Studies Students,2004). Finally, it is suggested that media literacy should be taught at all educational levels.