English Literacy

Ulysses is approximately 265,000 words in length, uses a lexicon of 30,030 words (including proper names, plurals and various verb tenses).

Teaching English literacy in the United States is dominated by a focus on a set of discrete decoding skills. From this perspective, literacy—or, rather, reading—comprises a number of subskills that can be taught to students. These skill sets include phonological awareness, phonics (decoding), fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary. Mastering each of these subskills is necessary for students to become proficient readers.

Literacy is the ability to read and write.The inability to do so is called illiteracy or analphabetism. Visual literacy also includes the ability to understand visual forms of communication such as body language, pictures, maps, and video. Evolving definitions of literacy often include all the symbol systems relevant to a particular community. Literacy encompasses a complex set of abilities to understand and use the dominant symbol systems of a culture for personal and community development. In a technological society, the concept of literacy is expanding to include the media and electronic text, in addition to alphabetic and number systems. These abilities vary in different social and cultural contexts according to need, demand and education.

The primary sense of literacy still represents the lifelong, intellectual process of gaining meaning from a critical interpretation of the written or printed text. The key to all literacy is reading development, a progression of skills that begins with the ability to understand spoken words and decode written words, and culminates in the deep understanding of text. Reading development involves a range of complex language underpinnings including awareness of speech sounds (phonology), spelling patterns (orthography), word meaning (semantics), grammar (syntax) and patterns of word formation (morphology), all of which provide a necessary platform for reading fluency and comprehension. Once these skills are acquired, the reader can attain full language literacy, which includes the abilities to approach printed material with critical analysis, inference and synthesis; to write with accuracy and coherence; and to use information and insights from text as the basis for informed decisions and creative thought.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) defines literacy as the "ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate and compute, using printed and written materials associated with varying contexts. Literacy involves a continuum of learning in enabling individuals to achieve their goals, to develop their knowledge and potential, and to participate fully in their community and wider society".

If you can read and understand what is above, you will have no problem following this work.

If you can't you should pursue a proficiency in English, obtaining knowledge and taking a test. If you live in Brazil, it might be what Cultura Inglesa does through Cambridge and União Cultural Brasil Estados Unidos does through Michigan State University. In Brazil, with this proficiency, if you do not have a B.A., which would be ideal, you can make a pedagogical complementing and legally become Professor of English.

Most countries in the Western World offers sollutions similar to that.

If for any reason you can't or do not want to follow this path, take a look at How Many Words do I Need To Know

Don't forget to check your motivation and why you might have some kind of fear

Even though it is for English speaking persons, it applies all the same to any language...

Take a look on a more accurate discussion on the subject in Literacy to read Joyce