Investigating the impact of intensive reading pedagogy in adult literacy

Reading is a crucial skill for participation in adult life. However, teaching those who cannot read or who have very poor reading skills is a complex process. This is particularly true for adults from a non-English speaking background, and when classes consist of learners with different reading abilities, sporadic attendance patterns and emotional impediments, such as a fear of failure or ridicule.

In this study, the authors introduced six adult literacy tutors to a particular reading methodology, known as Reading-to-Learn, and examined how this approach could help adult learners from non-English speaking backgrounds become efficient and independent readers. The Reading-to-Learn methodology is a commercial product developed by Dr David Rose and is primarily based on his work in the schools sector. It relies on very careful attention to the relationships between words in a text.

A further focus of the study was how well adult literacy practitioners can implement the Reading-to- Learn methodology in their classrooms. While this particular methodology has been used successfully in other educational settings, such as primary and secondary schools and universities, this is one of the first studies to test its usefulness for adult learners from non-English speaking backgrounds.

Key messages

• While this report is based on a very small sample, it suggests that the teaching strategies that comprise the Reading-to-Learn pedagogy are effective in helping adults from non-English speaking backgrounds to improve their reading and writing skills.

• The study also shows that use of this pedagogy can increase teachers' knowledge about language and reading processes.

• Using this method demands careful preparation of classes and requires teachers to 'unlearn' some common practices that amount more to testing than teaching.

• The successful implementation of the Reading-to-Learn approach in the adult literacy sector requires intensive professional development and additional financial resources.

• While the teaching resources associated with the Reading-to-Learn pedagogy are commercial products, a Good Practice Guide has been developed to complement this report and can be downloaded at no charge from http://www.ncver.edu.au/publications/2065.html.

Tom Karmel
Managing Director, NCVER

The process of writing is generally accorded a great deal of attention in adult literacy teaching, with the use of models for guiding writing also a feature of some programs. However, less attention has been given to the development of efficient and independent reading skills. As noted in Burns and de Silva Joyce (2000, p.x): 'Reading is often viewed as a passive, even mysterious language skill, difficult to observe and therefore to teach.' Most often in the teaching of reading there has been a reliance on reading tasks that involve text, with associated comprehension questions, in effect, tasks which assess rather than teach. The problem in such an emphasis is that reading tasks can become nothing more than exercises in differentiation according to existing levels of proficiency.

The goal of this research was to develop more effective ways for ensuring that all students develop the reading and writing skills required for gaining employment and undertaking training in the workplace.

A number of recent studies in the Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP) have supported the need for attention to reading pedagogy in adult language and literacy teaching, identifying student perceptions of and priorities for reading (Burns & de Silva Joyce 2000), along with the challenges to teachers in implementing more intensive reading support (Burns & de Silva Joyce 2005). A challenge highlighted by these studies was to identify ways to use reading pedagogies that were compatible with the structuring of adult literacy provision, and which were guided by the same underlying theoretical understandings of language that have shaped current curriculum models. That is, the strategies adopted had to be seen by teachers as integral to their programs.

In parallel to the interest in the teaching of reading in adult literacy is a growing body of evidence of success associated with the use of an innovative methodology referred to as Reading-to-Learn (Rose 2004, 2007). The Reading-to-Learn approach proposes a very systematic, explicit and carefully scaffolded approach to intensive reading. Significant success was reported in a range of other educational settings and sectors, including primary and secondary schools (McRae et al. 2000; Culican 2006), universities and Indigenous literacy programs (Rose et al. 2003; Rose et al. in press). The approach is premised on a theory of language as social and meaning-making, and a theory of learning as one of 'scaffolded' interaction. As such it is compatible at a general level with theories which have guided pedagogy in the field over the past decade or more. However, it offers much more detailed and specific guidance for teachers in how to scaffold; that is, how to guide and support students towards achievement of tasks, not just at a macro-level, but also at every micro-step in the process.

While the Reading-to-Learn methodology has been extended into many domains of literacy education in schools and tertiary settings, it has not been systematically applied in ways that would enable its potential to be investigated in adult literacy contexts. This research project was designed as an action research study, whose aim was to explore the potential for and impact of a more explicit and carefully planned pedagogy of intensive reading, while taking into account the difficult circumstances in which many adult literacy teachers work. The research involved a partnership between practising teachers and researcher - teacher educators with expertise in reading theory and practice. The project involved the selection of a group of teachers who were interested in exploring reading pedagogy. Six teachers from adult and community education (ACE) colleges and NSW TAFE nominated to be involved in the project, which involved familiarisation with the methodology, support for the teachers for the period of the application of the pedagogy, collaborative forums for identifying problems and finding solutions, and ongoing data collection.

While a methodology of experimental design comprising the stages of pre-test, intervention and post-test might suggest itself as an obvious choice in evidence-gathering, several factors make such a design problematic. Due to the project timeframe it was necessary to workshop the methodology with teachers throughout the period of action research and data collection, rather than undertaking all the training at the beginning of the project. This meant that teachers were developing knowledge and skills throughout the duration of the project. Pre-intervention and post-intervention reading data were complicated in this regard. Part-time employment conditions, part-time provision, varied teaching spaces and resources, irregular attendance patterns, and students from multiple first-language backgrounds were also characteristics of the field. Rather than presenting factors to be controlled, these variables were seen as needing to be accommodated in the design. The aim was to consider the effectiveness of the Reading-to-Learn methodology in the context of current adult literacy provision, focusing on the impact on learner outcomes, as well as on the practicalities of implementation and resource implications. Multiple data sources were used, including regular, recorded and transcribed group discussions, classroom observations, teaching practice records kept by teachers, student feedback, assessment of student reading and writing performances, and audio-and video-recording of lessons.

Findings

The study highlighted that a number of characteristics of adult literacy contexts make the implementation of explicit, carefully planned methodologies crucial if students are to develop, during the time they have available to study, reading and writing skills sufficient to enable them to participate in social and work contexts.

While acknowledging that teachers are accustomed to adapting and making on-the-go decisions about what to do next in classrooms, the study emphasises the importance of maintaining the integrity of the Reading-to-Learn pedagogy. For their part teachers have developed a deep appreciation of the rationale for the steps that comprise the pedagogy. Reading-to-Learn relies on very careful attention to wording and meaning relations within texts and requires teachers to unlearn some common practices that amount more to testing than teaching.

The study highlights that the reading abilities of students are frequently underestimated. Initial reading assessments often - appropriately - begin with unchallenging texts. However, there is subsequently no move towards the use of more challenging texts to extend students sufficiently. Initial assessments therefore do not provide adequate data for indicating progress. There is also some reluctance to then draw on challenging texts in the teaching of reading. This appears to result from the dominance of reading tasks that essentially test and do not teach reading, and to a lack of confidence in teaching reading.

Initially it was observed that reading tasks were dominated by various kinds of read-and-answer-questions activities. Classroom activities did not build the relationships of words to meaning, either in terms of the way meanings unfolded in phases of texts, or at the level of wordings within texts.

At the beginning of the project the teachers involved in the project found it difficult to manage class time effectively, feeling a tension between finishing the sequence of tasks and being concerned that their students were losing the ability to concentrate. As the project progressed, however, teachers reported that their professional knowledge deepened and they developed a greater awareness of language and the implications of this knowledge for their teaching. This enabled them to improve their ability to select appropriate well-constructed texts, to identify key phases of texts, to prepare texts for reading, and to manage exchanges that enabled students to connect meanings and wordings. Over the duration of the project teachers also improved their planning processes, reported paying more attention to all students in the class, especially those for whom reading was most challenging, and found they were praising students more frequently.

The data collected indicated improvements in students' reading and writing, which in many cases had not been expected by teachers and which were significantly beyond those predicted in the syllabus outcomes. In addition, teachers reported that student responses to the pedagogy were generally positive, with attendance patterns improving significantly. In some classes there was a noticeable increase in peer support. The teachers also reported that the reliance of English as a second language (ESL) students on electronic dictionaries was greatly reduced, as students became familiar with the Reading-to-Learn pedagogy. The pedagogy extended the grammatical resources of students and increased their enthusiasm for talking about the language of the texts they were reading and writing.

Teachers also reported that the innovative focus on reading in their programs, through their participation in the project, impacted on the broader teaching and management staff in centres, with co-teachers and managers interested in knowing more about the pedagogy. DVDs of the teachers' application of the pedagogy have also become resources for ongoing professional development. The findings in this regard suggest that a more broadly based professional development model can benefit from the involvement of interested groups of teachers, who can then model and co-teach the pedagogy with and for their peers.

The professional development model implemented in this study incorporated periodic interventions by experts in the Reading-to-Learn method. It also included workshops for teachers and periods of application and reflection. While this is a resource intensive model, it is an effective way of introducing new approaches into classrooms.

Implications

Although the project was small, the interaction with the research team meant that a considerable depth of data could be collected over more than one course. The results indicate that the Reading-to-Learn pedagogy had a positive impact on student achievements in reading - their attitudes to language learning in general and to reading in particular. Teachers experienced positive outcomes in terms of their growth in professional knowledge, especially about language, with flow-on implications for day-to-day practice in systematic planning and teaching.

These gains were made on the basis of periods of intensive professional development input, sustained support through initial stages of implementation, and ongoing opportunities to share experiences and results. To introduce the Reading-to-Learn approach to the adult literacy sector will require commitment of time and funds and ongoing institutional support. It will also require the current professional development materials to be adapted to the adult literacy context, making links to adult literacy and language curricula outcomes.