This graph shows the results of the 2006 Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey. 15.1 million Australians aged between 15 and 74 were tested. Level 3 is considered the 'minimum required for individuals to meet the complex demands of everyday life and work'. On average, excluding numeracy, it was concluded that 54.4% of adult Australians do not have these skills. This is having a significant effect on my learners, and their reading and writing skills.
It does not look good. How does one change this?
ReplyDeleteI have found embedding critical thinking in some units enables students to start to think about their actions. It is more than just spelling and grammar, it is as UNESCO states 'Literacy involves a continuum of learning to enable an individual to achieve his or her goals, to develop his or her knowledge and potential, and to participate fully in the wider society.' This is the worrying part of our literacy problem, in that individuals may not fully develop their potential.
DeleteWhat do politicians say about the results? Are they worried? What solutions discussed?
ReplyDeleteThe federal and state governments are trying, but they do not seem to understand the issue. The federal testing (NAPLAN) becomes a status test for schools; instead of improving literacy, school teach students how to best answer questions. The State OLNA has only just started, but again, by the time a student is 15 it is too late to address literacy basics.
DeleteIn Sweden we are very concerned about the declining results in reading and writing skills. What do you think is the reason for the poorer results?
DeleteIncorrect speaking and writing is broadcast everywhere now, even through traditional channels such as TV and newspapers. Our local nightly news has, on average, 3 grammatical or pronunciation errors every 7 days. Newspapers are just as bad. Social media does not have any writing conventions so anything goes. There is little value placed on accuracy now, and that would make an interesting study, wouldn't it? Why is near enough good enough?
DeleteHow influential is the media and social media with your language skills?
I read that almost five percent of young people aged 20-25 years in Sweden has such a lack of reading and writing skills that they only handle the simplest literacy tasks in everyday life. So I guess we have the same problem in Sweden.
ReplyDeleteThe question is why? Imagine that the figure may be even higher in the age 16-19. My class with 30 students, it were 10 who had some type of difficulty like adhd, add. What can we do about it?
ReplyDeleteYes Cecilia, why? And what to do?
ReplyDeletePerhaps it is a new form of language revolution? The languages always have changed due to various reasons. The Swedish language have influences from German (17-18th century) French (18-19th century) English (20th century) and now from all over the globe such as Spanish, Urdu, Arabic, etc. In most countries the same thing is occurring. And at the same time we are using shorter sentences and abbreviations due to increased usage of smartphones and text-messages.
My guess is that we will have to accept that the languages are changing so much faster now days, so we might perhaps just accept a lot more spelling and grammar errors?