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• Literacy


  The ability to read and write at a level that allows a person to survive in a society that uses writing extensively
• Definitions of literacy


  • No definition tells what literacy is; definitions only tell what some person or group motivated by political commitment wants or needs literacy to be
  • Literacy affects classroom instruction, community services, and the literacy opportunities offered to students and adults with extensive needs for support
• International definitions of literacy


  • A person is literate who can with understanding both read and write a short simple statement on his (her) everyday life (UNESCO, 2008, p.18)
  • A person is functionally literate who can engage in all those activities in which literacy is required for effective functioning of his (her) group and community and also for enabling him (her) to continue to use reading, writing and calculation for his (her) own and the community's development
  • Reading Literacy: An individual's capacity to understand, use and reflect on written texts, in order to achieve one's goals, to develop one's knowledge and potential and to participate in society
• The United Nations believes that individuals who do not have the ability to read and write conventionally should be excluded from the right to literacy instruction
• Types of literacy by Knoblauch


  • Functional Literacy
  • Cultural Literacy
  • Personal Growth Literacy
  • Critical Literacy
• Functional Literacy


  The ability to read and write at a level that allows a person to survive in a society that uses writing extensively. Allows one to fill out job applications and perform activities from written instructions. The minimal ability to read and write allows survival (a job at McDonalds), but also keeps those who are functionally literate at a low level of power (economic and social). The functionally literate, who can barely read and write, will not become managers or leaders who challenge the status quo and promote change in society. This definition accepts and preserves the existing distribution power in society.
• Cultural Literacy


  Reading and writing, at a level above survival. Careful reading of certain kinds of writing preserves our cultural values. Include a belief that other ethnic heritages should be assimilated (melting pot where others become "American") and if they refuse to give up their ethnicity they should be denied power (marginalized). To be literate in this way we should read and write about the classics not movies or Mtv. Cultural literacy preserves a purity (the good old days) and distribution of power and argues that even more power should be given to the "truly" educated and highly cultured.
• Personal Growth Literacy


  Reading and writing are a means to self discovery by developing our imagination and lead us to be more accepting and better people. Literacy helps us become "well rounded". Expresses and exercises our imagination. Are broad acceptance of many cultures and ethnicities with the hope that we can live together even if we are different. Seeks to change attitudes on the personal level (e.g. promoting multiculturalism) without changing institutions ("the system").
• Critical Literacy


  Writing, and thinking at a level that allows critical analysis of social and cultural issues and that equips writers to advocate to change the status quo in institutions ("the system") where necessary. Seek to evaluate the fairness of social and cultural norms (the status quo), sceptically evaluate the distribution of power, and through writing and speaking contribute to attempts to change and improve "the system".
• The ability to read or adequately interpret and comprehend the meaning of various levels of text for the purpose of being able to successfully participate in and navigate modern society
• Educational attainment


  Brings subsequent and meaningful employment
• Educational attainment


  Leads to adequacy and stability of economic wealth on families
• Educational attainment


  Leads to good health and longer life expectancy
• There is a reading ability on a range of cognitive tasks, including measures of orientation, visual and verbal memory, visuospatial ability, attention, language, calculation, and praxis
• Workers without a diploma earn, on average, far less than what their degree bearing counterparts
• Inadequate literacy leaves the economic fate of many citizens in a precarious situation
• Inadequate literacy has implications for future employability, especially during economic recessions
• Inadequate literacy leads to poorer health and shorter life expectancy
• Inadequate literacy leads to negative interactions with the legal system and plays a role in the decision making that leads individuals down a path to eventual incarceration
• Factors affecting literacy development of urban and rural learners

  • Urban: Read newspapers, magazines and brochures; Charts for nursery school on walls; Alphabet with sets of words and pictures; Read labels on food and medicine packs; Visit public libraries, borrow and read the books; Read and write messages (parents, phone, callers)
  • Rural: No evidence of newspapers, magazines and brochures; No charts or pictures on the wall; No food or medicine labels to read; No libraries (public or home); Hardly any written materials and they don't watch their parents read and write anything
• Factors affecting literacy development of urban and rural learners


  • Urban: Revise their notes or do other homework; Do homework given by the teachers and more is organised by the parents; Make, cost and use shopping lists; Some write letters to friends and colleagues; Children go to theatre and watch plays acted in English and/or Luganda; Watch TV and films and listen to the radio
  • Rural: Only in a few homes is homework done; Sometimes children only have to read and interpret their reports for their parents; Children have to help with chores when they come home from school so there is not much time to listen to folk stories; Rarely listen to radio
• Factors affecting literacy development of urban and rural learners


  • Urban: The urban children engage in 'debate' with the parents, teachers and/or with other older and more experienced people over various issues; Discuss their academic work with peers and parents; Play 'mind' games like scrabble and work with word puzzles
  • Rural: Occasionally discuss their academic work with peers, but rarely with parents
• Home Language (HL)


  The first language or mother tongue acquired from infancy and developed throughout schooling and adulthood
• First Additional Language (FAL)


  The second language, also known as a First Additional Language, that can be acquired from infancy but is learned as a school subject much later in a child's life
• How children learn language


  1. Listen to the language

  2. Assimilate the sound system and meaning of words

  3. Attempt to verbalise it

  4. Read pictures and words through association

  5. Formal reading of words
• FAL acquisition is not automatic, but requires a conscious effort on the part of the learner to acquire and develop it
• The pace at which a FAL is learned is much slower than the pace of the acquisition and learning of the child's first language
• Home Language (HL) objectives


  Assume that when learners come to school, they are able to understand and speak the language
• First Additional Language (FAL) objectives


  Assume that learners do not necessarily have any knowledge of the additional language when they arrive at school
• EFAL environment


  • Provide numerous opportunities for listening to the language before learners are expected to respond orally
  • Expose learners to the language, label objects, provide books in English, and speak a good deal of English
• how do children learn language
• English as First Additional Language (EFAL) teaching in Grades 1–3 is a phenomenon the whole world is grappling with
• Second language teaching can become problematic if the second language replaces the first language as the language of teaching and learning
• Factors based on cultural and linguistic differences between the second language learners' background and the new language are the source of challenges for EFAL learners to acquire proficiency in English
• The solution rests in the ability to see differences and commonalities between home language or mother tongue (first language) and English as a new language (second or additional language)
• Principles of language acquisition are the same for the home and additional language learner
• Principles for teaching phonemic awareness in the home language hold true for English as FAL learning
• EFAL teaching requires more repetition than teaching the first language
• New words should always be taught within context for meaning to dawn upon learners
• First language or mother tongue


  Acquired from infancy and develops throughout schooling and adulthood