[nb. I'm assuming that she is literate in her own language.]

There are a lot of tasks and techniques for practising learning to read and write that are suitable for adults.  Two that are fairly easy to explain, I hope, and which are both effective and easy to prepare are:

• Look, Say, Cover, Write, Check
• Circle the Common Word

Look, Say, Cover, Write, Check

You have a sheet of paper with 4 columns that can be folded along each column.  At the top of the first column it says. 

1. In the first column the teacher writes a word for the learner to practise, and says it aloud to remind the learner which word it is.
2. The learner looks at the word and says the word while looking at it. 
3. The learner folds the column back so they can't see the word.
4. The learner writes the word in the 2nd column.
5. They then unfold the first column and compare the teacher's version with their own, paying particular attention to any differences.
6. Go through each of these steps again to complete 3rd and 4th columns for that same word.
7. Repeat for 4 or 5 other words.

Particularly useful if:

• The words make up a common set (eg. hot, warm, cool, cold; car, bike, van, truck).
• The words feature a common spelling-pronunciation pattern (eg. she, shop, fish, crash). 
• The words feature a common pronunciation pattern but with two different spelling patterns, or vice-versa (eg. nice, never, know, knife; pink, fish, women)
• They are words that the learner has chosen for themself.

Circle the Common Word

Have a collection of one to three word signs in which one word is repeated multiple times.  The learner has to decide which word is most common and then circle each instance of that word.

1. Best example I've seen is of the word 'sale' - eight or nine shop or advertisement signs featuring the word.  (eg. "sale", "for sale", "sale - 95% off", "winter sale", "all goods on sale", etc).
2. Each example is in a different style or font (some in cursive, some in clear print, some all capital letters, come all small letters, some surrounded by boxes, some accompanying pictures, some with computerised 'a' and others with the usual handwritten or 'comic sans' version, some with outlines, etc).
3. Learner looks for similar patterns within all the words on the page.
4. When they think they've found a pattern, they tell the teacher, who confirms whether or not that is the most common word.
5. The learner then goes through and circles all instances of that word that they can recognise (the teacher might need to help with capital letters).

The teacher can say the word either before or after, or at the point when the learner has found the most common pattern but before they circle the others.




And don't forget tracing words or first letters that are written in dots or dashes beside a relevant picture!

 

HI

I have been teaching English as a second language for approx. 19 years and I find that teaching the alphabet in isolation doesn,t really have the same meaning for learners as teaching simple familair sight words and progressing on to simple sentences. If you are teaching speaking and listening it is important to teach the sounds of letters, vowels and letter clusters but I would still use simple words that are familiar and usefull to the learners. Lots of drill too.

 

When teaching reading and writing again I would use materials that are 'real' for the learner. I am curently teaching writing courses and one group are beginners so lots of basic exercises to incorporate all the letters and I encourage learners to practice writing single letters for homework and to write their name and address. This is useful as we all need to fill in forms at some time. I would then ask learners to read and say what they have written so they start to associate written and spoken langauge early on.

 

Look on Talent website for some good resources

Hope this helps

Margaret