Improving Literacy Through The Use of ICTs
by Jose Mari Almoradie Carpena, April 2022
Every April, the Philippines officially celebrates “National Literature Month”. Among other goals, the declaration pushes for the further encouragement of the development and consumption of literature. However, we must remember that in order for people to consume literature, they must be literate – even more so if they wish to create literature themselves. For National Literature Month, we will discuss how we can use technology to promote literacy among our fellow Filipinos.
What is literacy?
In the context of the Literacy Training Service Course I used to teach, we usually pertained to literacy as the “reading” kind. There are two kinds of literacy, at least according to the Functional Literacy, Education and Mass Media Survey (FLEMMS 2019) of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA): basic/simple or functional (PSA, 2019). As per the definition given by the PSA (2021), simple literacy is the “is the ability of a person to read and write with understanding a simple message in any language or dialect” (p. 12), and functional literacy is the “higher level of literacy which includes not only reading and writing skills but also numeracy skills. The skills must be sufficiently advanced to enable the individual to participate fully and efficiently in activities commonly occurring in his life situation that require a reasonable capability of communicating by written language” (p. 12). The reason why you’re able to read this is that you’re literate. One of the reasons why you’re able to use the internet is because you’re literate. Being functionally literate (therefore, numerate as well) allowed us to read menus in restaurants, understand movie synopses, count if the change given to us was correct, and so much more. Amidst the pandemic, being functionally literate allows us to be informed about what’s happening outside when we read news articles, use the applications we use for leisure and work, and the like. Many organizations and authors have put much importance on literacy as well, and it is not surprising why.:
- Literacy enables individuals to practice their right to education (UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, 2009). Without literacy, a student cannot study even the most basic of readings or textbooks. Imagine yourself being enrolled in a class, and not being able to read what is presented to you by your teacher
- For Gee (1986), literacy enables one to gain power within a society, as being illiterate makes one unable to function within a society which uses text. Think of it this way: an illiterate individual may not be able to read simple barangay guidelines, much less national laws. He or she would not be able to read the newspaper, or participate well in democratic processes, or even read contracts. If you would recall your history lessons, books and literacy were a privilege for the wealthy elite during the medieval times. This prevented the illiterate (mostly the poor) from reading written law, declarations, and official documents.
- From a more practical perspective, those who are not literate may not be able to understand information about medicines and treatments, thus adding an obstacle towards them getting properly informed (Napier, 2013). This is especially relevant given the pandemic.
According to the FLEMMS (PSA, 2021), an estimated 95.9% of Filipino males and 97.1% of Filipino females aged 10 and above had achieved simple literacy. While this is technically a high literacy rate, this leaves us with an estimated number of 2,998,905 illiterate Filipinos aged 10 and above. When we specifically look at the age groups, we can expect that the basic/simple-literate percentage of the population would be higher for younger age groups, as access to education became better as the years went by, and the data supports this, except surprisingly for the youngest age group. Only 98.0% of Filipinos aged 10-14 are literate, compared to 98.6% of Filipinos aged 15-19. The usual starting reading age of children is around 4-6 years of age, and children should likewise be able to write at around age 6.
Indeed, while there are efforts by the government and organizations to promote literacy among certain populations, it is arguable that we need to amplify our endeavors to help our fellow Filipinos become literate to improve their quality of life.
How can technology help promote literacy?
Here, we discuss how various authors have suggested how to use ICT in promoting literacy. A problem that we have to consider is that if an individual is illiterate, they would most probably not be able to use ICTs well. Therefore, individuals will still need guidance from a teacher, peer, or even a family member.
Educational Television
I’m sure you’ve heard of Sesame Street. There’s a particular segment in Sesame Street wherein Elmo and friends “showcase” the “Letter of the Day”. The letters are usually presented in an exciting and funny dialogue to engage the viewers. The show also presents words that start with the “Letter of the Day”, while emphasizing the letter. Another similar show would be “Word World”, which presented characters as being made out of letters. For example, the character
“Pig” was represented by the letters P I G which aesthetically resembled a pig.
The development of educational television programmes (or sometimes called “edutainment”) is sometimes based on the Entertainment-Education Model (E-E; Singhal & Rogers, 2004) which is heavily based on Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory (SCT; 2001). One of the major claims of SCT is that learning happens through social observation, while the E-E puts forward the idea that dramatic and affectively engaging shows engage audiences towards programs which could be educationally beneficial. Educational television programmes therefore make viewers emotionally invested in content which is sometimes overtly or subtly embedded into the script.
Indeed, a meta-analysis of Sesame Street viewership revealed that watching Sesame Street did actually increase viewers’ literacy (Mares & Pan, 2013). In an evaluation of an Educational Television program devoted to increasing Turkish language literacy, it was found that the programme was successful in significantly increasing letter recognition, letter writing, word recognition, word spelling, and sentence reading among the participants (Durgunoğlu & Kuşcul, 2008). And yes, the participants weren’t children! Educational television programs for literacy can also work for adults!
Interactive TV Plug-ins
The intelligent Literacy Tool is a Romanian language-tutoring system which could be connected to a television set, similar to a gaming console, but uses a tablet as an input device (Dobriceanu & Nicola, 2006). Instead of using a module menu made out of words, the menu consisted of pictures so illiterate individuals could navigate the system easier. Instructions were likewise given via pre recorded audio. After each module for a letter, the user is presented with a grid with letters in which they have to tick off the letter they have just learned. Another module is focused on words accompanied by pictures. This module can be modified so that the entities in the pictures are familiar to the learner.
Digital Game-Based Learning
Serious games, in addition to being entertaining, are games which are also designed to train or improve a specific skill (Dörner et al., 2016) or in the case of education, to teach a certain lesson. Likewise, game-based learning is the practice of using, or creating and designing a game itself, consisting of rules and competition, possibly giving rewards to those who successfully accomplish tasks or win (Plass et al., 2015).
Such games include the games developed by Catch Up (Clipson-Boyles, 2000, as cited in Holmes, 2011). On studying the perspectives of the children (and their parents’) who used the Catch Up Literacy Games, it was noted that the games boosted their self-confidence and sufficiently engaged in the educational process. In the case of serious games for literacy for adults, a study by Browne et al. (2014) found that the serious games they developed for literacy improvement increased adult participants’ engagement.
In AnimoSpace
Literacy courses in AnimoSpace can help beginning readers via the “Immersive Reader” Function. The “Immersive Reader” function reads the text in a page while highlighting the phrase being read out loud. This will allow the reader to learn how to read certain words properly. To learn more about the Immersive Reader, you can read this article.
Conclusion
As we can see, even if this is not an exhaustive list, various ICTs offer a myriad of ways to address the need for further efforts to improve literacy. In a country which has an estimated three million individuals who are illiterate, we should consider the myriad of ICTs which can allow them to read. Actually, going back to what I said earlier, it’s not simply teaching them how to read, it’s about letting them experience a better quality of life.
References
Bandura, A. (2001). Social cognitive theory of mass communication. Media Psychology, 3, 265-298.
Browne, K., Anand, C., & Gosse, E. (2014). Gamification and serious game approaches for adult literacy tablet software. Entertainment Computing, 5(3), 135-146.
Dobriceanu, O. D., & Nicola, S. (2006, May). Low cost literacy e-learning tool. Presented at the International Symposium on Power Electronics, Electrical Drives, Automation and Motion 2006. SPEEDAM 2006. (pp. 1483-1488). IEEE. doi:10.1109/speedam.2006.1650002
Dörner, R., Göbel, S., Effelsberg, W., & Wiemeyer, J. (2016). Introduction. In R. Dörner, S., Göbel, W. Effelsberg, & J. Wiemeyer (Eds.,) Serious games: Foundations, concepts and practice (pp. 1 – 34). Springer International Publishing Switzerland.
Durgunoğlu, A. Y., & Kuşcul, H. Ö. (2008). Providing access to basic literacy education with educational TV. European Journal of Open, Distance and E-learning, 11(1).
Gee, J. P. (1986). Orality and literacy: From the savage mind to ways with words. TESOL Quarterly, 20(4), 719-746.
Holmes, W. (2011). Using game‐based learning to support struggling readers at home. Learning, Media and Technology, 36(1), 5-19.
Mares, M. L., & Pan, Z. (2013). Effects of Sesame Street: A meta-analysis of children’s learning in 15 countries. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 34(3), 140-151.
Napier, J., & Kidd, M. R. (2013). English literacy as a barrier to health care information for deaf people who use Auslan. Australian Family Physician, 42(12), 896-899.
Philippine Statistics Authority. (2021). 2019 FLEMMS Functional literacy, education and mass media survey FINAL REPORT. Author.
Plass, J. L., Homer, B. D., & Kinzer, C. K. (2015). Foundations of game-based learning. Educational Psychologist, 50(4), 258-283.
Singhal, A., & Rogers, E. M. (2002). A theoretical agenda for entertainment—education. Communication Theory, 12(2), 117-135.
UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning. (2009). A review of LIFE, 2006 – 2009. Literacy initiative for empowerment. Author.
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