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2. English and the Multilingual
Challenge
Since the term and concept Information Literacy was developed by
researchers from anglophone countries such as the United States
and the United Kingdom, the language used to record, describe,
announce, publish and communicate information and messages
concerned with the concept, its practice, and so on, was primarily
English. Because English is used so universally in the world today,
many researchers and practitioners alike are reluctant to author,
record, publish and disseminate their materials in their own native
languages despite the fact that they use their own native language
to communicate verbally and in simple text form with their close
peers, family and friends. Moreover, if we are honest, when a
professional, academic, businessperson or government official
visits a foreign land, the only practical way s/he can communicate
(unless s/he happens to also know the native language) is to use
English (or in some countries French, Spanish or other widely used
world language) or to use the services of a qualified translator. But
outside that office, conference, university or similar professional
setting, there are millions of ordinary people who do not speak,
read or write English at all, or speak it very poorly but can neither
read nor write it, and/or are embarrassed to use it even if they
speak it poorly, because they feel they are not sufficiently fluent.
And then there are large swaths of the world population with high
illiteracy rates even in their own native language. Are we, then, to
forget, disregard or ignore those ordinary citizenswho are literacychallenged
when it comes to learning even the basic principles
and tools of Information Literacy?
In summary, English is very widely understood and used by Library
and Information Science (LIS) professionals, as well as by
Communications and Media professionals worldwide, and most
Overview of Information Literacy Resources Worldwide |24