Reading literacy according to PISA

The PISA concept of reading literacy emphasises the ability to use written information in situations that students may encounter in their life at and beyond school. PISA 2009 defines reading literacy as: understanding, using, reflecting on and engaging with written texts, in order to achieve one’s goals, to develop one’s knowledge and potential, and to participate in society.

The definition is broader than simply decoding information and literal comprehension. It implies that reading literacy involves understanding, using and reflecting on written information in a range of situations. It also recognises the awareness of and the ability to use a variety of appropriate strategies when processing texts.

Students become literate as they develop the knowledge, skills and dispositions to interpret and use language confidently for learning and communicating in and out of school and for participating effectively in society. Literacy involves students in listening to, reading, viewing, speaking, writing and creating oral, print, visual and digital texts, and using and modifying language for different purposes in a range of contexts.

Literacy is developed through the specific study of the English language in all its forms, enabling students to understand how the English language works in different social contexts and critically assess writers’ opinions, bias and intent, and assisting them to make increasingly sophisticated language choices in their own texts. The English learning area has a central role in the development of literacy in a manner that is more explicit and foregrounded than is the case in other learning areas. Students learn literacy knowledge and skills as they engage with the Literacy and Language strands of English. They apply their literacy capability in English when they interpret and create spoken, print, visual and multimodal texts for a range of purposes.
- To further understand the PISA 2009 definition of reading literacy, each part of the definition is explained further:
- Understanding refers to the ability to gain meaning from what is read. This can include the meaning of words or it can be more complex in identifying the underlying theme of a narrative.
- Using relates to the notions of application and function (i.e. applying what has been read to an immediate task or goal, or using what is read to reinforce or change beliefs).
- Reflecting on emphasises the notion that reading is interactive, where readers make connections with their own thoughts and experiences when engaging with a text.
- Engaging with involves the reader’s motivation to read and is comprised of constructs including interest in and enjoyment of reading, a sense of control over what one reads, and reading practices.
- Written texts includes texts from a variety of media – hand-written, printed and digital. They can include visual displays such as diagrams and pictures. Written texts can be in a variety of formats, including continuous and non-continuous, and in a variety of text types, such as narrative and expositons.

 Text type has been classified into six categories:
- Description (e.g., process in a technical manual, catalogue, blog diary)
- Narration (e.g., novel, comic strip, report in a newspaper)
- Exposition (e.g., essay, entry into online encyclopaedia)
- Argumentation (e.g., letter to the editor, posts in an online forum)
- Instruction (e.g., recipe, instructions for operating software)
- Transaction (e.g., personal letter to share news, text message to arrange meeting)

Medium refers to the form in which texts are presented – print (paper) or digital (hypertext).
Print medium texts appear on paper in many different forms – single sheets, brochures, magazines and books. The static nature of the printed text is usually read in a particular sequence and the total amount of text is visible to the reader.
- Environment applies only to digital-medium texts. Two kinds of environment have been identified in PISA: an authored environment (in which the content cannot be modified; e.g., a web page) and a message-based environment (in which the reader has the opportunity to add to or change the content; e.g., e-mail, blog). While texts can combine both types of environment, individual tasks in PISA tend to draw on either authored or message based components of the text.

Situations
Situation refers to the contexts and purposes for which the text was constructed. Four situations are identified in PISA reading:
- Personal (e.g., letters, fiction, diary-style blogs)
- Public (e.g., public notices, news websites)
- Occupational (e.g., job advertisement in a newspaper or online)
- Educational (e.g., text books, interactive learning software).

These four categories overlap. For example, the purpose of a text might be for both personal interest and for instruction (personal and educational), though the practice has been to identify one over-riding category corresponding to each test item or task.