Whose fault that we read less well today?

http://www.lingq.com/

Literacy is declining. Or is it? In any case literacy levels have a lot to do with how well we do in society. How can we improve literacy levels? How does reading affect language learning?

Category:

Education

Tags:

• literacy
• functional
• illiteracy
• Stephen
• Krashen
• extensive
• reading
• language
• learning

[ulmo]

It seems really interesting to me that many of your ideas are so simmilar to those of Rubem Alvens.

Thank you for the great vid, Steve!

[lingosteve]

I am a great fan of Rubem Alves. I have listened to his audio books as a part of my Portuguese learning, and I have read the transcripts that I found on the web. He is a great educator, and a wonderful story teller.

[zzukizzz]

Thanks God for Harry Potter then. It made millions of English-speaking children (and not only children) to rediscover reading and millions of people from other countries to learn English in a pleasurable way.

[templje]

I, an avid reader, remember that in HS there was usually only 5-6 "good" readers in a class. When someone who was a poor reader was called to read aloud, the teachers would just sit patiently and wait for them to struggle through. Never did they seem to be shocked that a person in 11th grade was reading at a 4th grade level. I think a huge help would be showing students the benefits and joys of reading.

[TheRealCaptainCarrot]

Great video. I've appreciated and enjoyed it very much. ...And have an awesome trip!

[sk8tertater]

I don't see how. I read a crap-ton of books in college. High School is where literacy starts to decline, because in my experience middle school and below I read a lot of books as part of the AR program

[zocurtis]

If you show a kid that you actually care about them, trust me, they will respond. This is not rocket science. People have problems and alot of kids are coming from broken homes. Your attempts to teach them should be coupled with caring.

[acromel]

You're assuming that:

the students care about learning;

the schools have the power to enforce progress.

Sadly, the delinquents are usually those that don't care about learning. Lead a horse to water etc.

I'm not suggesting that corporal punishment should be brought back, but some form of inducement needs to be available to the schools - whether it be carrot or metaphorical stick.

Teachers seem to have their hands tied whilst being under pressure to archive targets - whatever they mean.

[kkNEURO]

Me and my friends are going to go on a road trip next summer, around France, Spain and Portugal. I'm going to pick up some improve my French and Spanish and maybe pick up some Portuguese. I'm also going to bring a stack of French books, and a dictionary, and work through them.

[zocurtis]

You're going to spain and portugal! I'd like to go one day!

[langhopeful]

I completely agree with u about the school system

[ulmo]

É uma enorme pena que Mestre Rubem seja muitas vezes visto com maus olhos pelos educadores brasileiros, que tomam suas lindas idéias a respeita da educação como se nada valessem.