How is literacy taught?

I struggled through the alphabet as if it had been a bramble bush, getting considerably worried and scratched by every letter.

- Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

How is literacy achieved? What does a country do when it wants to launch a literacy campaign?

Both questions are crucial to the success of the International Literacy Year. The answer is that the methodology of literacy campaigns varies greatly from country to country. The commonality is that there are three phases to a literacy drive: pre-literacy, literacy, and post-literacy.

The stages

Pre-literacy: Examining what will motivate potential learners is a key element before the drive begins. The target population is studied and its needs analysed. For example, if the target group is rural women, the campaign must consider the aspects of their domestic life. Incentives to participate need to be incorporated into the process. Public information is essential.

Teaching of literacy: This stage is the actual implementation period. Learners are instructed according to a national or regional plan, usually within a specified time period.

Post-literacy: Essential for retention of newly-gained literacy skills. Reading materials should be provided to the now-literate population. People must be able to utilize their new skills. Local libraries should have useful materials, including those relating to wage-earners.

'In the classroom'

Literacy is taught in numerous venues: an actual classroom, a field, a mosque or church, a private home, a community centre, or at work. Conditions and hours may vary greatly depending on target populations. For example, some literacy programmes include child care centres for training of women with children. In the United States, the 25-year-old Head Start programme now runs family literacy programmes in pre-school centres for some 450,000 children three to four years old and their parents.

The constituent parts of sentences and words are analysed in literacy classes with vocabulary often geared to the needs of target groups, for example, agriculture, industry and handicrafts, and home economics.

Word and sentence training in books is supplemented by posters and audio-visual materials, including television and radio. In the post-literacy phase, brochures and leaflets on specific subjects are distributed; films, slides and newspapers are provided.

In many countries, literacy must be taught in more than one language. The UNESCO Experimental World Literacy Programme (1967-1973) found that literacy is best taught to people in their mother tongue.

The next wave

Literacy training and primary education for hard-to-reach populations are likely to incorporate modern technologies such as the transistor radio, video-cassette recorders, television, and the personal computer.

Radio is one of the most cost-effective communication methods, particularly when no formal schools or teachers are available.