Hi Elida,

Your analysis is correct. When working with adult
learners in India, all the women asked for very
specific kinds of literacy. Things related to health,
politics (the elections were coming up), calculating
interest (paying back loans), their children's
education, writing petitions, all these were very
important. The reason that the Each One Teach One
Campaign did not work in certain areas was because
they had children teaching adults!!! I can understand
your father's dismay at having to learn in the same
way as kids do. All the literacy kits in India are
geared towards adults and have very practical
information.
regards
Ujwala

--- Elida Perez-Knapp <e_perezknapp at yahoo.com> wrote:


> 

> >From a strictly personal point of view, I certainly

> agree that reading material must be relevant and is

> a major tool for those learning to read. My father

> was one of the those that lost interest in attending

> Adult Education classes because of the lack of

> relevance. As an adult in the 60's, raising a large

> family, he attended classes to learn how to read.

> He knew this was the key to getting and keeping

> a job. My mother tried to teach him and he did learn

> how to sign his name but he never learned to read. I

> remember him coming home from the classes

> and sharing with mother how the class would practice

> out-loud the sounds of the letters, "b -- bird,

> bird". He would laugh and say how silly that was. 

>  

> One of the jobs he held was in construction and

> there was his interest. I believe that if the topic

> of the adult education class had been anything in

> relation to construction he would have had a totally

> different experience. My father was an

> intelligent, hardworking man who accomplished many

> things in life yet did not overcome the challenge of

> learning to read. I realize that the teaching

> methods in AE have advanced tremendously since the

> 60's yet I often wonder how much more my day would

> have accomplished if only he had learned to read. 

>  

> Elida Perez Knapp

>  

> 

> 

> *************************

> Courage does not always roar. 

> Sometimes it is the quiet voice 

> at the end of the day that says, 

> "I will try again tomorrow." 

> anonymous

> 

> --- On Sun, 1/11/09, Steve Kaufmann

> <steve at thelinguist.com> wrote:

> 

> From: Steve Kaufmann <steve at thelinguist.com>

> Subject: [EnglishLanguage 3314] Re: quantifying

> student interest in material

> To: "The Adult English Language Learners Discussion

> List" <englishlanguage at nifl.gov>

> Date: Sunday, January 11, 2009, 11:06 AM

> 

> 

> First of all, brain research has shown that we learn

> best from content that is relevant. Read Manfred

> Spitzer, the Human Brain and the School of Life. 

> 

> Second of all, the need for interesting material is

> greatest for people who do not read well in a given

> language. To give these learners content that is of

> no interest or relevance is an idea that strikes be

> as highly counterproductive. 

> 

> Third, someone in an academic or professional

> setting should already be a competent reader, and

> having made a choice of subject to study, or

> professional career, should be interested in what he

> or she is reading.

> 

> Steve Kaufmann

> www.lingq.com

> 

> 

> On Sat, Jan 10, 2009 at 12:32 PM, stephen

> churchville <schurchville at hotmail.com> wrote:

> 

> 

> Hi,

>  

> The idea that interesting reading material makes for

> more effective literacy instruction always sounded

> right to me, but now I am thinking about cases where

> that might not be true, and wonder if trying to keep

> it interesting is a disservice to students with

> academic or workplace aspirations, where we are all

> required to read and understand lots of

> uninteresting material.

>  

> Does anyone know of any reports or studies that

> measure how student interest in reading material

> influences outcomes? 

>  

> And how that then plays out in standardized tests? 

>  

> Thanks

> Stephen Churchville

> www.LessonWriter.com

>  

>  

>  

>  

> 

> 

> 

> Windows Live™: Keep your life in sync. Check it out.

> ----------------------------------------------------

> National Institute for Literacy

> Adult English Language Learners mailing list

> EnglishLanguage at nifl.gov

> To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings,

> please go to

> http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/englishlanguage

> Email delivered to steve at thelinguist.com

> 

> ----------------------------------------------------

> National Institute for Literacy

> Adult English Language Learners mailing list

> EnglishLanguage at nifl.gov

> To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings,

> please go to

> http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/englishlanguage

> Email delivered to e_perezknapp at yahoo.com

> 

> 

>       >

----------------------------------------------------

> National Institute for Literacy

> Adult English Language Learners mailing list

> EnglishLanguage at nifl.gov

> To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings,

> please go to

> http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/englishlanguage

> Email delivered to lalumineuse at yahoo.com