Author: Judith Kirsh Date: January 2007

1. Author: Judith Kirsh Date: January 2007

2. Basic Literacy in ESOL module • Session 2: Working with whole texts The Skills for Life Improvement Programme is delivered on behalf of the Quality Improvement Agency by CfBT Education Trust and partners

3. Aims • For participants to: • develop awareness of different approaches for the teaching of literacy • make links between different approaches and their pedagogical applications. The Skills for Life Improvement Programme is delivered on behalf of the Quality Improvement Agency by CfBT Education Trust and partners

4. Learning objectives • By the end of the session participants will have: • examined the key role of context in basic literacy • related different approaches to different theories in basic literacy teaching • expanded their knowledge of activities and materials for use in ESOL basic literacy • related the sub-skills of literacy to the Core Curriculum and Diagnostic Assessment Materials.

5. Auerbach’s six principles • Focus on meaning rather than form encourages writing development. • Instruction should stress writing for real reasons, to real audiences. • Writing should be contextualised and content meaningful and relevant to learners. • continued…

6. Auerbach’s six principlescontinued • 4. Learners need some degree of overt instruction. • 5. Social and cultural variation in writing practices needs to be taken into account. • 6. All writing pedagogy reflects a stance about the learner in relation to the social order.

7. Quotation from Frater • “In short, Bernardo finds that a context of practical, identifiably relevant use is a necessary condition for acquiring literacy effectively.” • Graham Frater

8. Teaching skills in context • The importance of teaching knowledge, sub-skills and strategies in contexts of interest to the students: • work-seeking • recognition of key, whole words: • job titles, e.g. driver, cleaner • words on application form, e.g. Name, Address • copying/writing key, whole words: • e.g. name and address on application forms

9. New Literacy Studies • A socially situated view of literacy: • “Literacy is a social activity.” (Barton, 1994) • Literacy cannot be investigated outside its context • – thus reading and writing need to be taught in context. • “Literacy practices are the general cultural ways of utilising written language which people draw on in their lives.” • (Barton & Hamilton, 2000) • continued…

10. New Literacy Studiescontinued • Literacies rather than literacy: • literacy practices are diverse and dynamic • literacy practices change over time. • The ESOL curriculum is socially situated: • not just a set of technical skills • refers to the current literacy practices in the UK • written within a particular context (Skills for Life).

11. Language Experience video • Spend a couple of minutes thinking about what know you about language experience as an approach. • Watch the video of a short 1:1 language experience activity. • Jot down notes on the work being done at: • text level • sentence level • word level.