ERIC Number: ED240298
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1984-Jan
Pages: 23
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Literacy and Minority Language Groups. Community Literacy as a Method and Goal.
Wallerstein, Nina
Problems facing literacy education include how to attract nonEnglish speaking and illiterate adults to the programs and how to reduce attrition and increase motivation for the students who do come to the programs. One method that could help to solve these problems is "community literacy," an approach to learning in which the curriculum is derived from the needs of students and in which students and teachers are actively engaged in the process of learning and community development. Community literacy could help overcome the learning barriers many literacy/English-as-a-second-language (ESL) students face, such as poor self-image or lack of relevancy of the curriculum to their lives. At present, many literacy programs unwittingly reinforce learning conflicts; for example, some ESL literacy tests have hidden cultural and social assumptions that stereotype the learners. Instead, such materials could be changed to correspond to the actual situations and life issues that students confront. With this new student-developed material, the teacher would use a five-step inductive questioning strategy, moving from asking students specific informational questions to exploring the nature of the problem presented in the text and considering possible actions to change the situation. Because literacy is only one of the many problems adults face, other supportive services should be provided; community sites for satellite centers should be developed; in addition, literacy instruction should be incorporated into existing community programs. (KC)
Publication Type: Opinion Papers; Speeches/Meeting Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: National Inst. of Education (ED), Washington, DC.
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A