N.S.135

MOTIVATING ADULTS TO BECOME LITERATE

AN INDIAN EXPERIMENT IN LITERACY METHODS

AIDS TO PROGRAMMING UNICEF ASSISTANCE TOEDUCATION

*************** ** ** UPEL 2 J August 1983* ***************

By : D.V. ChickermaneDirectorResearch Centre in Rural EducationGokarn, KarnatakIndia

ORIGINAL : ENGLISH

Unit for Co-operation with UNICEP and WFP,Unesco, Paris

The views and opinions expressed in this paper are those of the author anddo not necessarily reflect those of Unesco.

ED-83/WS/95

MOTIVATING ADULTS TO BECOME LITERATE

I. THE FUNDAMENTAL PROBLEM

One of the major problems facing adult literacy classes is thatof MOTIVATION. Unless the adults are properly motivated to attendclasses and participate in its work diligently, the classes will notsucceed.

* ** ** ** Adults as a rule are not interested in literacy classes. *J They have their own full load of work. Moreover, they see £* no advantage in attending such classes. They equate reading J$ and writing with employment in government or mercantile *$ services and the illiterate adults in rural and peri-urban %* communities have no scope for such employment and have no J* ambitions in that direction. They usually complain of hard J$ work, lack of spare time, and disinclination to attend such %* classes. As a result, there are many drop-outs in adult £J classes, even when due to campaigns the initial enrolments $* seem encouraging. J* ** ** *

II. WHY ADULTS ARE NOT MOTIVATED?

Adults who continue are, however, bored by OUR METHODS OFTEACHING.

* ** ** ** *$ The methods usually adopted are those of the class-room. %J All the learners are treated as belonging to a single class %J and teaching is addressed to the class as a whole, without $J considering individual differences. But the adult class is JJ not a school class in the sense we think of. Owing to JJ frequent absences, interest and aptitude, there are varying %J levels in the class, ranging from those who barely acquire JJ an ability to read to those who advance quite satisfactorily. %J Since theve is no fairly uniform level, teaching to the class J\ falls flat on the adults who easily get bored. J* ** ** *

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Another reason for reduced motivation is the nature and qualityof READING MATERIALS.

* ** ** ** _ *J The reading materials presented for study should touch JJ upon the interests of adults. Many classes use reading JJ materials intended for children. The adults are not J$ interested in such materials. Their interests are centred *J round themselves3 their belongings and their work. In $£ addition, many, adults are interested in religious, sotries. £J Thousands of illiterate adults attend Vitohba's— fair in JJ Pandharpur regardless of heavy rainy weather. They would JJ like to recite poems of Vithoba, chant prayers and listen to JJ the stories of devotees of Vithoba. If such matter is *J presented for reading practice, the adults would not be bored JJ in reading, on the other hand, they would be stimulated. They\J would like to learn to read them by themselves. ** ** ** ** *

III. LOCATION AND MAIN FEATURES OF THE EXPERIMENT

An experiment in running an Adult Literacy Class to meet thesedifficulties was organised by the writer at Gargoti. The class was heldin the Community Hall of the Harijans— in their colony. The CommunityHall was specially built for the use of these Harijans. Most of theseHarijans were illiterate, but they were religious-minded and met in thecommunity hall for prayers frequently. They observed such popularreligions festivals as Rama Jayanti, Ganesh Chaturthi in the communityhall. When we decided to run the literacy class for these, we enrolledtwenty adults. Financial assistance for the purchase of an epidiascopewas given by the University Grants Commission, New Delhi. The hall wasfitted with electric lights so that the epidiascope could be used.

The programme of the Literacy Class was divided into threephases:

A. FIRST PHASE

The first phase was READING. We did not start with writingas is the practice in the literacy classes sponsored by the EducationDepartment.

W Vitohba - A deity much respected and worshipped in Maharashtra and lakhsof devotees attend his fairs at Pandharpur, where the templeof Vithoba is located.

2/ Harijan - The name given by Mahatma Gandhi to the untouchables. The wordis now commonly used for these people.

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* ** ** ** *J Writing letters one by one becomes boring and many of *J the adults hate the drudgery involved. But reading can be ** made pleasant with suitable materials. At the reading stage J£ from the beginning we emphasised on silent reading. In the %% first phase the adults learnt all the characters. But a *J novel method was adopted for learning the letters. ** *$ The class met thrice a week, Monday, Thursday and 1/ *J Saturday. The class was the concluding part of the Bhajans— J$ held on these days. The learners continued for an hour J$ after the Bhajans in the hall and took part in the class. $* ** ** ** *

Slips showing the names of adults in bold characters wereprepared and then projected on a screen with the epidiascope.Some of the common names were Babu, Ganu, Maruti, Hari, Balu etc.When the slip was projected, the name was read out and thelearner whose name was projected came forward. Thus for eachsitting three or four names were drilled in. Subsequent to theepidiascope show, the names were presented on a Black-Board andread by all the learners.

The third part of the lesson was the distribution of the slipsto be read by the learners as a part of individual study. Everytime before new names were taught, the old names were drilled.This work continued for a month when the learners could read theirown names as well as the names of all who formed the class. As apractical exercise, the class was asked to recognize any name thatwas shown on the screen.

** ** *$ The learners took personal interest in reading their own $$ names and those of others who attended class. $* ** *

Gradually the sphere of reading was extended to the names ofthe family members and later to their belongings such as their house,garden, bullocks, cattle, farm, implements as the plough, sickle,axe etc.

1/ - Bhajan - Prayers sung in a musical tone in chorus. One teachesthe song and others repeat.

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* ** ** *J A count of the reading vocabulary acquired by the *J learners was kept to show how it increased, after each *J lesson. J* ** *

Small sentences were also included in the matter presentedfor reading, such as 'This is my house,1; 'This is my garden."

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After a month's time, the learners were able to readJ a fairly large number of words such as their own names, J$ those of their family members and friends and names of JJ their belongings. £* ** *

***J Our method of reading exploited the interest of the *J adults in their personal matters. The class learnt words,%J rather than letters. In most literacy classes, the *£ practice is to teach individual letters of the alphabet J£ for quite a long time before words are presented for *J reading. We further emphasised silent reading of the *J matter shown on the screen and on the blackboard. The *J interest of the learners was sustained throughout and J$ and there were few drop-outs. Those who could not come *J to the class on a particular day, could pick up the *

reading matter when the matter was read in chorus byall the members of the class. Gradually they acquired *

J the ability to recognise the individual letters of the JJ alphabet in the words and could distinguish their *J inflections. They could read also joint letters as the JJ names of some learners contained joint letters. %J Occasionally, the analysis of words was also taken to J$ enable the class recognize individual letters. ** ** ** *

SECOND PHASE

After the learners got proficiency in recognising their namesand other simple words, we started the second phase. This phasewas devoted to INDIVIDUAL SELF-STUDY.

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A series of lessons on the life of Rama— who is held ingreat reverence by the Harijans, was prepared. These lessons usedsimple language and the reading vocabulary was drawn from the wordslearnt by the learners. However, each lesson contained a few newwords for reading. They were underlined in red. The lessons werewritten on thick sheets of drawing paper so that they could standrough use. Each lesson was written on a single sheet and all thelessons were numbered. In all there were twenty lessons in theseries.

Each learner was given a study record card in which he had tonote the number of the lesson begun and the date of beginning.These cards were given to them for self-study. They were read outfirst to the class and later as and when the learners requiredhelp from the Adult Education Worker. The learners were requiredto study these cards individually during the class hours.

Fortunately it was possible to obtain a set of slides onShree Rama's life. These slides were in colour and of the size of80mm x 80mm. These slides were shown to the whole colony beforereading lessons started.

***£ The progress of reading the cards was slow. But the main *$ point was that it was individual work. There was no class- J* room teaching. The learner was guided if he had any diff- $* iculties in reading. The learners, however, sat in groups *$ for individual work and those who had earlier completed the ** card helped those who had taken up a new card. In this way *J the reading work progressed. The class-work attained *J considerable momentum and the learners were proud in *J declaring how many lessons they had completed. Sometimes J$ they gave demonstration of their newly acquired reading *$ ability to the whole group. But throughout silent reading $$ was emphasised as part of the study. Periodical testing of *J the adults in the skills they had acquired in reading was £$ organised. ** ** ** *

While the first phase for recognising the alphabet lasted onemonth, the second phase of practice in reading of cards tookabout three months. At the end of the second phase the adultswere able to read the cards very well and had also acquired ataste for reading general books of the same level of languagedifficulty as the cards.

1_/ - Rama - The name of a great hero in ancient Indian history, nowregarded as a deity.

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C. THIRD PHASE

The third phase consisted of PRACTICE IN GENERAL READING.For this purpose a set of thirty easy books dealing with the livesof saints as Tukaram, Ramdas, Namdev, etc. were collected andplaced in a cupboard in the community hall.

* ** ** *$ . The learners were told to read any book they wanted *$ from this stock when they met i>i the evenings in the hall.%J This set of books formed the nucleus for a library for *$ the adult education class. It was noticed that the ** learners used these books for developing their literacy *J skills. They completed reading these books in two $J months. The class ended with the phase. $* ** ** *

The entire programme ran in all for six months: one month forthe first phase of studying the alphabets, three months for thesecond phase of studying the 20 reading cards and two months forthe third phase of reading general books in the class library.

The Social Education Committee of the Bombay Govt. hadorganised literacy writers' workshops in which a number of bookswere written by competent authors. They were arranged in threegrades, as I, II & III. These books as well as other similarbooks written for adults were stocked in the library.

IV. FOLLOW-UP AND DIFFUSION

The programme was subsequently taken up by the Social EducationOrganizers who came for training at Gargoti and they continued the workon the same pattern, using the same materials and equipment and adoptingthe same three-phase method. As a result, all the illiterate men inthe Harijan colony have now become literate and some women also.

V. CONCLUSION

The experiment as run by us used some basic principles of adultliteracy classes. These may be summarized as follows:-

i. If the class is to be made interesting and attractive to theadult learners, reading should be taught first.

ii. Reading should be introduced through the word method. The wordsshould be shown to adults and drilled in so that a readingvocabulary is progressively acquired.

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iii. Words taught should be selected from the environmentfamiliar to the adult learners. Gradually, they may bebuilt up into small sentences.

iv. Visual methods should be used in teaching words, as it impliesassociating the written symbol with the spoken word and thespoken word with the object. Gradually the written symbolbecomes fixed with the object.

v. Silent reading of words and sentences should be practicedfrom the beginning.

vi. Reading practice should be continued through reading cardsin which the reading vocabulary of the adults will be graduallyenlarged. Cards should be used for silent self-study so thatthe adult learner can progress at his own rate. A record ofthe cards read should be maintained so that the learner canjudge his own progress, vis-a-vis, those of others*.

vii. When the learner has gone through the second stage of readingcards, he should be introduced to simple general books fromthe class library and encouraged to read these books duringclass and even at home if required.

* ** ** . *£ The success which the programme achieved in the brief JJ period of six months and the ease with which the Social JJ Education Organizers under training used the methods for *£ making all men and some women of the colony literate %J underscore the efficacy of our three-phase method. £* ** ** *