Knowing what to do: using this resource

There are suggestions for teaching for each of the starting points in this resource. These are brief outlines only. Literacy tutors will need to develop teaching activities relevant to individual learners. Many of the activities in the supporting resources, Teaching Adults to Read with Understanding: Using the Learning Progressions and Teaching Adults to Write to Communicate: Using the Learning Progressions, can also be adapted for use alongside these suggestions.

ESOL learners

For some ESOL learners, it may be hard to know if their reading and writing difficulties are English learning issues or if there are underlying issues. As a general rule, if a person is able to read and write in their mother tongue, the starting points in this resource may not be appropriate for their needs although they may require support to develop phonological awareness in English. In other areas, the learning progressions (alongside continuing English language instruction) may be more suitable. If a person is learning the English language and has limited reading and writing in their mother tongue, this resource will provide you with support for meeting their literacy needs alongside their continuing ESOL instruction. Refer to the chart in Appendix A, which outlines the kinds of literacy knowledge that learners may have in their mother tongue and how this knowledge may affect literacy learning in English.

For detailed information about learners who are able to read in their first language and those who are not, see also the publications by Brod (2002), Silver (1998) and Roberts (2008). See also references for resources and curricula developed to meet ESOL literacy needs.