Literacy and the ability to make sense with words.

Literacy means, to me, the ability to read and write. The most literate people are those who use the language well. Somewhere between 10 and 40% (depending on definition) struggle to read and write well.

Literacy skills are very closely related to professional success in a society. Some people cannot decode letters either because they did not learn to do so at school or because they have a learning disability. This is the minority. Most poor readers simply do not read enough.

We know from cognitive science research that the brain learns from experience and example. For most people with poor literacy skills, simply reading more is the best way to improve reading skills. Mostly this requires the motivation of the person involved.

We know from experience that it is easier to read content that is of interest and where the context is familiar. We also know that we can read words that are totally misspelled and jumbled if we have heard these words before, know them, and are familiar with the context. Research has shown that there is a close connection between listening and reading. From an evolutionary perspective, our brains have been listening a lot longer than they have been reading.

So, it seems to me, for the vast majority of people with literacy problems, making available a large library of reading material for the learner to choose from, and making audio files of that material available, will be an inexpensive way to improve literacy skills. Some efficient way to look up new words, and to keep track of them, would also help. Dare I mention LingQ?

Most language skills are acquired independently of teachers. However, many teachers would prefer to be in charge of language learning. Here is part of a discussion of literacy amongst teachers, and a link to a paper on literacy education called Postpositivist Scientific Philosophy:  Mediating Convergences, for those who are interested.

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Perhaps Sally’s work on Kegan’s ideas, George’s work based on Popper’s
ideas, and David’s interest in technology will provide solid evidence-based
approaches to adult literacy education in the future. If there already are
such studies available I would be interested to learn about them. Perhaps
references could be posted on the discussion list from which we all could
learn.
 

Hi Tom,

In my paper on postpositivism, I linked Popper's concept of "verisimilitude," approximation to the truth (and he uses the lower case t word) to recent work on balanced reading theory.  Clearly in that paper I did not provide an evidence based research report in that the paper is intentionally theoretical in design.  However, toward the end of the paper I laid out a 19 point hypothesis, which could serve as a basis for a more grounded book-length research study, linked in turn to an examination of the underlying precepts of the recent research on balanced or integrated reading theory.  The 19 thesis statements are grounded in the following four categories

 

1.      Literacy facilitates knowledge acquisition in the grappling with and mastery of print-based texts.

2.      Literacy is enhanced to the extent to which individuals gain the capacity to read and write print-based texts.

Growth in literacy is experienced to the extent to which readers progressively comprehend and draw meaning from texts and appropriate them into their lives.

4.      Literacy has a technological component in the mastery of reading, writing and the comprehension of texts and a metaphorical dimension that resides in transactions between the reader and the text in which meaning making and significance lies beyond the text into that of appropriation, however variously that may be defined.

 

These are further detailed here.  For the purposes of further reflection on the earlier note on Popper on the centrality of theory as a basis for grounding instruction, these hypothesis emerged in my mind as a result of grappling with theory.  While they certainly exist independently of any theoretical postulations in my mind, they were stimulated  in the very process of grappling with theory based in part on the following paragraph:

 

Whether learning to read or learning to learn is, or should be the central focus of adult literacy education, is a matter of some dispute, which has not been resolved within the literature of the field.  There is substantial middle ground within these perspectives via the medium of balanced reading theory and a context-derived educational program that focuses on employment, family education, civic literacy, and lifelong learning (Stein, 2000).  Nonetheless, tensions between the operative assumptions of the New Literacy Studies and advocates of phonemic-driven approaches to reading are particularly sharp in their articulation of competing definitions of literacy.  In moving toward a dialectical resolution that incorporates balanced reading theory within a context-based adult literacy framework, my working hypothesis, much clarification is required.

etc . etc.

Comments

[ed]

"etc etc" is right.

I have been turned off by so many "professionals"
in education who seem to have lost the basic fact that teaching is largely about listening to students as individuals.

THe truth is they are motivated by what amounts to the opposite of being committed to the needs of individuals--- the search for a framework that will be adopted as policy in the public sector or in a large private institution.

THis motivation is quite natural and rational if you are self-interested person, although most such people would be far better rewarded in business, law and the like.

Personally I think the goals of most professionals in education are radically misalligned through a lack of insight... or something.

[reineke]

What a diarrhea of words and constipation of ideas.

Main thought: "Literacy facilitates knowledge acquisition..." Brilliant, simply brilliant.

..."in the grappling with and mastery of print-based texts."

prrrrrrr...

If