Developing Functional Literacy

Developing Functional Literacy
THEO NAVARRO
METHODOLOGIST
STUDY INN
ASTANA
What is “Functional Literacy?”
Functional Literacy is the ability to manage

daily living and employment tasks that
require reading skills beyond a basic level
How is “Functional literacy” different from “literacy?”
“Literacy” refers to the ability to read or write at ANY level. An illiterate
person will not be able to understand or to produce ANY text at all.
“Functional literacy” refers to practical skills needed to live a normal life.
For example: an illiterate person may not understand the written words
“cat” or “dog”, may not recognize the letters of the alphabet and may be
unable to write their own name.
A functionally illiterate person will probably be able to understand these
things without any problems, however they cannot understand job
advertisements, newspaper articles, forms or posters.
Foreigners who cannot do these things in the language of the country they
are living in are considered functionally illiterate. In Kazakhstan I, myself,
am functionally illiterate.
Why is this something that we should be
worrying about in our classes? We don’t live in
an English-speaking country!
Your government is trying to position Kazakhstan to
be an international country. This means that the
citizens of this country will need to be able to
communicate with people from all over the world.
Also, more and more people from Kazakhstan are
going abroad to English speaking countries to study
and to work.
Okay, it’s important. So how can we
improve “Functional literacy?”
We need to select activities that practice real-

world skills. The ideal method is the
“Participatory Approach” as defined by Peyton &
Crandall (1995) and Huerta-Marcia (1993)
The Participatory Approach
The main goal of this approach is to have EVERY
student, as well as the teacher, actively participating in
the activities
This approach changes the role of the teacher. Instead of

us giving instructions and then stepping back to allow
students to work, the teacher works together with the
students.
This approach forces us to practice our micro-teaching

skills, as we help learners to accomplish the goals that
we set
We must use realistic materials, because
we are training students for realistic
situations.
For large classes it is IMPOSSIBLE to give

each student individual attention. So, we
have students work in pairs or small groups,
and give attention to the groups as a whole.
Our activities must also include extra-

textual components such as pictures,
logos or objects, to reflect the realistic
nature of the activities.
How does this approach help my students?
Because 100% Students feel Students must
02
03
01.
participation is more practice

communicating
the goal, this supported, as their problems, as
means that they are getting well as
every student time to talk to communicating
gets an the teacher possible solutions
opportunity to directly in a to problems,
practice more “private” which is a
priceless “real-
literacy skills way. life skill”
Students practice Finally, In real life they
Students
06
05
04
07
understanding the
develop the connections
students will encounter
between text and practice words or
tools to help things & images. understanding symbols they
themselves This is important things as a do not
, which is a because almost
EVERY type of whole instead understand,
huge step realistic text is of focusing on but the ability
towards accompanied by the meanings to understand
an image (e.g. of individual the whole
functional poster or
words or message is
literacy newspaper) or by a
images. what is really
thing (e.g. product
packaging) important.
Let’s summarize this so it’s easier to
remember:
• Every student, and the teacher, must participate
• We must help the students and micro-teach
• We need to use realistic materials
• We need extra-textual components

Now, let’s get some practice!
Developing Functional Literacy
THEO NAVARRO
METHODOLOGIST
STUDY INN
ASTANA

Developing Functional Literacy

Uploaded by

Developing Functional Literacy

Uploaded by

Developing Functional Literacy

Functional Literacy is the ability to manage

We need to select activities that practice real-

This approach changes the role of the teacher. Instead of

This approach forces us to practice our micro-teaching

For large classes it is IMPOSSIBLE to give

Our activities must also include extra-

participation is more practice

• We must help the students and micro-teach

• We need to use realistic materials

• We need extra-textual components

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