– Dorothy – 27/3/97
“Literacy is one gateway to independence and escaping the poverty trap. A New Zealander, Emeritus Professor Warwick Elley, takes to new countries New Zealand methods of combating illiteracy.”
At the end of 1994 Professor Warwick Elley retired from his university post at the University of Canterbury. He had spent years researching methods of improving literacy in New Zealand and overseas. His plan for his retirement was to work on literacy problems in the Third World. The statistics on literacy levels show increasing gaps between rich and poor countries, and Warwick has a number of ideas on how to bring about change.
How did Warwick gain the knowledge and experience for this work?
Firsthand experience in the classroom He was born and bred in Auckland and after teaching at primary and secondary levels in Auckland and Christchurch he left New Zealand in 1956 for England and later Canada to continue his studies and gain further teaching experience. He taught at high schools in London and Vancouver, chiefly in English and mathematics, and gained his PhD in Edmonton, Alberta.
Continued research into literacy problems Much of his work in universities in Canada, Auckland, Fiji and Canterbury and at the New Zealand Council for Educational Research has focussed on assisting children with literacy problems and assessing their progress.
‘Book Floods’ While at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji Warwick conducted a number of ‘book flood’ projects in the area. Large numbers of books with high interest stories and eye-catching illustrations were issued to schools and teachers were trained in the most effective ways of sharing them with the pupils. Systematic evaluations of the results proved the effectiveness of this method and other schools were able to follow this pattern. Warwick remains in contact with those responsible for teaching reading in these areas as the technique is used in an increasing number of schools.
Reading stories aloud Analyses of the long term effects of listening to stories being read aloud have shown that all children, both weak readers and good readers, gain an increased vocabulary from this precess.
Work in the Singapore new English programme From 1985 Warwick assisted the Singapore Ministry of Education to use the ‘book flood’ method in teaching English to the first three grades at primary school. Teachers were trained in the New Zealand Shared Reading and Language Experience methods, and regular testing of the children showed that their reading and language skills improved with this type of tuition. The result is that the programme is used in all schools nationwide.
Testing literacy in thirty two countries The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (I.E.A.) Reading and Literacy Survey
Warwick became the chair of this survey in 1988. It was conducted in 1990 and 1991 and reported on in 1992. The investigation covered thirty two countries. Researchers investigated the standards of literacy in representative samples of nine and fourteen year olds in each country and compared the teaching methods used. 210,000 students were involved and 10.000 teachers, and these came from countries in every continent in the world. Warwick described as ‘a major challenge’ creating tests which ‘behaved’ in similar ways in each culture, and then achieving consistency in analysis and reporting procedures. Chairing an international enterprise of such scope requires tact, a diplomatic approach and a quiet sense of humour – qualities which Warwick possesses in abundance.
Amongst other things the I.E.A. report confirmed the size of the literacy gap between rich and poor countries, and showed the importance of access to good books.
Recognition of his work In 1992 Warwick was awarded the International Reading Association’s 1992 International Citation of Merit for his research on literacy. He has been acknowledged as a world leader in literacy research with a number of national and international awards.
A New Zealand initiative reaches out to Sri Lanka In 1995 Warwick worked with Wendy Pye Ltd, an enterprising book publisher in Auckland, and helped to distribute a hundred high-interest, illustrated story books to each of twenty disadvantaged schools in Sri Lanka, free of charge. He worked with the Wendy Pye staff to train the teachers of Grade 4 and 5 to use the books constructively to improve the children’s English. He worked with another international consultant from International Book Development (IDB), London, to evaluate the children’s growth in reading and writing.
Dramatic results The results were dramatic, even better that those he had found earlier in similar projects in South Pacific and South East Asian schools. Pupils in the Sri Lanka project gained in English reading and writing at three times the normal rate, and teachers were very enthusiastic. The Education authorities plan to extend the project to many Sri Lankan schools, once funding is in place.
South Africans test the programme in Black schools Meanwhile Warwick has been working with READ Eucation Trust, a Non Government Organisation (NGO) which operates in Black schools in South Africa. READ has put some four million books in disadvantaged schools, and trained the teachers with much the same methods that Warwick has promoted elsewhere. Again he has assisted with monitoring children’s progress in five provinces, and has found similar pupil gains to those of Sri Lanka, Fiji and Singapore.
He cooperated with Wendy Pye again in January 1997 to set up another project with six and seven year olds in twenty eight more schools in six provinces of South Africa.
Spreading the word Warwick has reported on his projects at a number of international conferences and has recently conducted a seminar at the World Bank in Washington with a view to extending
the “Book Flood” formula in other developing countries. He has collected a considerable amount of data which shows that a book-based programme using “shared reading” and “shared writing” methods has a consistent and impressive impact on pupils’ literacy in developing countries – where children are learning a language different from that of the home, and reading material is scarce – a situation all too common in most countries of the Third World.
The need to narrow the gap between rich and poor and change people’s lives by making them literate is urgent Warwick finds that change is very slow, but the needs are obvious – and urgent. Until people in these countries can learn to read and write independently, they will continue to have little control over their own destiny. The schools offer a possible way of breaking the cycle of illiteracy.
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