An Illiterate Adult's Struggles and Journey Towards Literacy Education

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Literacy is not part of the day-to-day lives of the common people. The illiteracy rate has become a prevalent issue in Asian countries. This caused today's educational policies to prioritize early childhood education as a way of liquefying the illiteracy rate among people. Consequently, a nation is hindered from developing basic literacy its people because of the wrong notion of some policymakers of investing only on early childhood education. In this study, the researcher highly emphasized the need for the acquisition and enhancement of every parent’s early basic literacy skills, enabling them to become functionally literate individuals not only for themselves but also for their children, their children's children, and the future generations as well.

METHODS

Using the qualitative method of research, a resident of a certain barangay in the District of Calaca was chosen as the subject of this case study. A face-to-face interview and unstructured observation were conducted. In these methods, the researcher immersed herself on the life and the daily experiences of the subject as a wife and as a mother. The researcher also conducted an emergent literacy assessment for determining the literacy knowledge of the subject necessary for successful reading instruction. Reading tutorial sessions followed after each assessment and the subject's progress was recorded at the end of the study.

RESULTS

This study revealed that the subject's struggle in acquiring alphabet knowledge and their corresponding sounds was rooted in the subject's native language, i.e. Bisaya, and her attitudes toward acquiring literacy knowledge. Intensive phonics instruction for diagnostic purposes must be applied to the subject since is already at the late post-reading instruction stage.

DISCUSSIONS

The subject experienced some difficulties in producing the sounds correctly but she was able to overcome it through time due to her positive attitude in learning the alphabet. The subject was observed having difficulty in memorizing the letters even in random order. As a result, the subject cannot repeat the alphabet aloud independently. The subject also has her own way of producing the sounds of the alphabet. Since she came from a city in the Visayas, her twang is somewhat rudimentary. Conclusively, her difficulty in memorizing the alphabet can be traced from her difficulties in producing the sounds correctly.