As I watched T.V. the other day, I noticed a lot of sports like golf, basketball, wrestling, etc. and realized that I don't know how to play any of them let alone understand how they are played. I took this picture at the Twin's home opener this year and it is the only sport that I understand completely. Literacy is crucial to the understanding of how a game is played. Without it, it would seem that a bunch a guys are just trying to hit a ball. Literacy is also needed in order to read the score of a game and to understand the statistics (in any sport).
I have never even thought about literacy in sports. I played softball all through high school so I understand the baseball concept completely, but other sports and sport terminology is another story. I actually just heard on the news this morning about the term "turkey" used in bowling. How did they come up with these strange frases? Literacy is needed in understanding how exactly to play a game as stated. Without literacy and trying to "understand" this language, the game would not be played right and people would look a little silly.
ReplyDeleteI had a graduate student last year who wrote an entire electronic book about the different slang terms used in baseball. You've probably heard of "ducks on the pond" to describe runners on the bases, but there are literally hundreds of funny, seemingly unrelated terms used in baseball to talk about the game. Ashley's comment about "turkeys" in bowling reminded me of that baseball book.
ReplyDeleteMy point is that while it's important to understand the mechanics of a sport, like baseball, in order to know if a strike is good or bad, how people score runs, etc., you might still be lost if people are using slang to describe what's happening on the field! Sports-related literacy is a great way to think about what it means to be literate.