Basic Literacy Related Activities

Click here for:

Literacy Related Activities and enabling strategies

• Speaking, listening and responding
• Writing to Communicate 
• British Sign Language (BSL)

Description of Literacy Related Activities

Literacy is the skill of communication through written, spoken or kinaesthetic language e.g. British Sign Language  (BSL). In the adult basic education context, literacy relates to a level of functioning in the abilities to read, write, speak and listen that allows the learner to engage in simple and familiar formal exchanges connected with education, training, work and social roles; specifically:

• as a citizen within their community;
• in economic activity, including paid and unpaid work;
• in domestic and everyday life;
• in education and training;
• in leisure and social pursuits.

Speaking, listening and responding

At the most basic level, adults will develop skills that allow them to:

• listen and respond to spoken language, including simple narratives, statements, questions and single-step instructions;
• speak to communicate basic information, feelings and opinions on familiar topics;
• engage in discussion with another person in a familiar situation about familiar topics.

At a more advanced level, adults will develop skills that allow them to:

• listen and respond to spoken language, including extended information and narratives, and follow detailed explanations and multi-step instructions of varying length, adapting response to speaker, medium and context;
• speak to communicate straightforward and detailed information, ideas and opinions clearly, adapting speech and content to take account of the listener(s), medium, purpose and situation;
• engage in discussion with one or more people in a variety of different situations, making clear and effective contributions that produce outcomes appropriate to purpose and topic.

Skills required for receptive language:

• processing sequences, sounds and words quickly;
• discriminating speech sounds and words that are similar;
• verbal comprehension;
• retaining a sequence of information e.g. instructions;
• extracting meaning from complex or abstract language and/or grammatical structures, e.g. passive voice, sentences with embedded clauses;
• understanding non-literal language, e.g. metaphor, analogies, 'figures of speech’.

Skills required for expressive language:

• organising and planning what to say;
• word retrieval;
• putting ideas into appropriate grammatical forms;
• 'holding' information in short-term memory while speaking, e.g. remembering what you want to say next;
• pronouncing words, particularly multisyllabic ones.

Being literate allows learners to engage effectively within a wide range of learning contexts. It requires learners to have skills such as:

• Manipulation (for writing);
• Attention;
• Communication;
• Information processing.

Enabling strategies

Text used should enable readers to get meaning from text without relying on images. Listening to a tape (paced appropriately) while reading can help learners follow the text. A piece of card placed under or above the line of text can help readers stay on track and not skip lines, or a line tracker can be used. If using activities where reading aloud is necessary, such as reading parts of a play, ensure learners have private and supported practice time before reading aloud, and that they are comfortable with the material. Ask learners to read in small chunks and check for comprehension at each stage. Sample activities such as skimming a selection of texts will be difficult, so allow learners more time to find information and accept that some may never be able to use skimming as a strategy to find information. An ‘electronic reading pen’ which will scan and ‘read’ individual words is an excellent aid for any learner whose difficulties may interfere with accurate detailed reading.

Click here for a checklist for accessible print

Writing to Communicate 

At the most basic level, adults will develop skills that allow them to:

• write to communicate information to an intended audience;
• read and understand a range of texts of varying complexity accurately and independently;
• read and obtain information of varying length and detail from different sources;
• write to communicate information, ideas and opinions clearly and effectively, using length, format and style appropriate to purpose, content and audience.

The writing process consists of composing, spelling and handwriting. Composing involves planning and expressive language skills, which include the following:

• the ability to formulate and articulate ideas (although this might be in a non-spoken form such as sign);
• the awareness of linguistic boundaries, e.g. a sentence;
• narrative skills such as sequencing, structuring;
• vocabulary to achieve expression purposes such as describing or explaining, including the ability to use language non-literally as in idioms, analogies, figures of speech;
• knowledge and use of syntax, including grammatical usage, use of complex syntax and linking words;
• the ability to categorise and classify.

Producing a piece of writing relies on putting ideas into a written form; that is, being able to spell and write by hand or produce all the words through some other form, e.g. by technological means.  Writing and spelling must be automatic in order for the writer to concentrate on expressing his or her ideas. If learners are unable to develop automatic spelling and writing, they will find it extremely difficult to express themselves on paper.

Organising and Planning Writing

Many dyslexic and dyspraxic learners experience difficulties with sequencing and organisation. They may perseverate on an idea, i.e. be unable to move on from one idea to another when writing. They may have problems organising paper; files and time, as well as writing. They often need specific help organising folders and planning writing.

Enabling strategies

Use writing frames that clearly draw attention to and emphasis where and how points can be related. Make particular use of colour and cut and paste to sequence both physically and on a computer. Start with the main idea, then ask learners to write three or five sentences about it. Then write three or five sentences on each of these sentences to make three or five paragraphs. Teach learners how to write paragraphs explicitly e.g. WEE paragraph: What's your point; Explain what you mean; give an Example. Some disabled learners  may benefit from recording their ideas on a dictaphone before writing. Diaries, timetables and coloured file dividers may also be useful for general organising. Use spidergrams or mindmaps to plan work and show the relationship between the topic and paragraphs. The rounded format encourages learners to rethink the order of the paragraphs and the best links. Encourage learners to wait a day or so to proof-read, as they are more likely to identify errors than to see what they intended to write. Encourage learners to have their work read aloud to them as this also helps them to identify what is actually written down rather than what they intended to write. Provide checklists for all learners.

Spelling difficulties

Spelling is a sub-skill of writing; it is primarily a visual-motor skill. Reading relies on recognition whereas spelling relies on the recall of a precise sequence of letters. A good speller is able to see if a word looks right and will also have integrated the conventions of English spelling to enable them to suggest an alternative if it looks wrong. The motor memory is also important in spelling: a good speller can automatically, without thinking about the letters, 'feel' if their hand makes an error. Those who can use phonics will integrate sound with letter patterns, but good spelling is achievable without it: for example, profoundly deaf people can become good spellers.

Learners may have a range of difficulties with spelling:

• poor vision memory for words;
• sequencing and directional (e.g. b/d, d/g) confusions;
• omitting or confusing sounds because they cannot discriminate or hold them in short-term memory;
• poor motor integration or eye-hand co-ordination which results in omitting or repeating letters or syllables.

Learners with dyslexia and many with learning difficulties will have problems remembering and applying rules, as well as acquiring the conventions of spelling. Spelling conventions will also be difficult for Deaf learners whose first language is signing.

Enabling strategies

Learners will learn common spelling patterns more easily through words that are meaningful to them. Look for alternatives for breaking up words, such as words within words, strong visual patterns and lexical (i.e. structural) parts such as roots, prefixes and suffixes to help word recognition. Use software programmes, like textHELP, which give the meaning of words. Help the learner find mnemonics that are personal and create ‘mental’ pictures. Group key words in word families, on different coloured cards.  The learners can discard the cards once they gain confidence in spelling them. Make use of spell checkers but explain their limitations. They do not identify errors that form other words (e.g. form/from) or homonyms such as their/there. Remember that providing extra time for those with poor spelling is unlikely to be of any benefit.

back to top

How to identify learners with Dyslexia

For a user friendly self-assessment questionnaire that can highlight indicators of dyslexia, please refer to the Vinegrad Checklist

back to top

British Sign Language (BSL)

Many adults who were born Deaf will be using British Sign Language (BSL) as their preferred means of interactive communication. Some may have been brought up in Deaf families where BSL is the first language. Using sign language as the preferred or first language has implications for learning English, just as there are implications for learners whose first language is another spoken language.

BSL is not visual English, nor is it universal.  BSL is a language in its own right, systematic and rule-governed, different from English in its grammatical concepts and structures.  As with any other learner of English as a second language, there will be times when the concepts derived from the first language interfere with the learning of English.

From a basic skills teacher's point of view, some of the most common significant grammatical differences between BSL and English are:

• An English sentence is organised around the verb. Meaning depends on the word order of the other words in the sentence. BSL users begin with the topic and then comment on it;
• BSL does not use the auxiliary to be;
• BSL does not use the articles a/an/the;
• Word order can be markedly different;
• Verbs are inflected by changes of speed or placement;
• Modification of signs is also shown by changes of placement, speed or repetition and not by a 'word' ending;
• Prefixes and suffixes, e.g. -s, -ed, -ing, are signed in BSL, but they are not attached to the root word.

Sometimes, however, there are similarities of pattern that teachers can exploit. For example, BSL usually makes a distinction between you and yours and me and mine in a pattern similar to the English one but with a change of handshape.

It is always important to discuss with a BSL user how he or she expresses a particular idea or concept in BSL, and to make these linguistic differences part of the learning process.

Click here to view a simulation of difficulties experienced by learners with dyslexia, dyspraxia, autism, visual and/or hearing impairments. 

back to top

Challenges

• Cognition
• Hearing
• Information Processing
• Language/Comprehension
• Managing Anxiety/Stress
• Memory/Recall
• Motivation
• Motor/Manual Dexterity
• Organisation
• Speech
• Stamina
• Vision

Case Studies

• Literacy Related Activities and Dyslexia
• Literacy Related Activities and Learning Disability