The academic production in Brazil about science communication, which cover the teaching of sciences, is largely based on bibliographic references in English. In the works that deal with the notion of "scientific literacy" predominate the choice by translating it as "alfabetizacao cientifica" and a much smaller proportion of the studies adopt "letramento cientifico". This article discusses the entry of the term "literacy" in the field of language studies of Brazilian academy, from where it was borrowed; then presents some definitions of "scientific literacy" in international studies of science communication and teaching of science; then confronts these definitions with works of Brazilian authors from the field of teaching of science, one that uses "alfabetizacao cientifica" and another that uses "letramento cientifico"; finally, this article propose a dialogue between the teaching of science and the journalism to explore the potentiality of the concept of scientific literacy.2268169186