One of the greatest challenges English teachers and tutors have when starting to teach illiterate mature students and adults - who lack self esteem and confidence because of their limited literacy and language skills - is to convince them that they can learn to read, spell and write well like anyone else.

When a course begins, 4S recommends that, rather than initially and openly test a mature learner by asking them to say the symbols and sounds of the alphabet, the question should be asked as to which symbols they think others, e.g. their friends or associates, might have difficulty recognizing or remembering.

Many illiterate adults go to great lengths to cover up their reading and spelling problems and develop quite effective compensation skills. Deep down, however, many still see themselves as “losers”
and it is a key objective of 4S to make them realize and believe that they can be “winners”. The following suggestions will help to begin the process for achieving this very important goal.

(1) Explain that while many people think English is a hard language to learn, 4S is a method that makes it so much easier to learn to spell and to read. 4S teaches about symbol combinations in words. By using symbol combinations, it is so much easier to recognize, pronounce and spell words.

(2) With the alphabet and the symbol combinations, thousands of words can be spelled and read. Explain that except for the single symbol words, “I”, “a” and “O”, all words in English are made from a combination of symbols, e.g. for is not f+o+r, it is f+or, clock is not c+l+o+c+k, it is cl+ock and spill is not s+p+i+l+l, it is sp+ill.

Even a simple word like bed is best learnt as b+ed not b+e+d because if the “ed” combination is known, not only can bed be spelt, but also r+ed, f+ed, J+ed, l+ed, N+ed, fl+ed, sh+ed, shr+ed, etc.

(3) Write the combinations “ack, eck, ick, ock, uck”. Explain that “ack” always says “ack” just as “eck”, “ick”, “ock” and “uck” do not change the sound they make. If one knows the consonants and the blends, one can easily build hundreds of words just by knowing “ack, eck, ick, ock, uck”.

(4) Using the alphabet, (Primer P.4), and the combination “ack”, work with your student/s to build: back, hack, jack, lack, pack, rack, sack, tack, wack. Ensure that each word is talked about “in context”, e.g. “The footballer hurt his back in the tackle.” Now select “ock” and build cock, dock, hock, lock, mock, rock, sock. Now “ick”, “uck” and “eck” are used in the same way to build related, rhyming words.

(5) The next step is to build with the Blends, (Primer P.20). Repeat the procedure building black, flack, crack, track, smack, etc. Students quickly appreciate that they are building, spelling and writing dozens of words and that by knowing a word like “pack”, they can also make back and sack as well as packs, packed, packing, packer, package.

As it is the students who make the words, they therefore “own” them. Retention is thus enhanced through “ownership”.

(6) Explain that if one can read and spell “pack”, it also will not be difficult to read and spell peck, pick and puck because of the relationship or likeness that exists between “ack”, “eck”, “ick” and “uck”.

(7) Having built words using the “ack” combination group, other combinations can now be used in exactly the same way, e.g. “ill” - pill, fill, kill, mill, still, skill, etc. – “or” - for, fort, port, sort, sport, short, snort, etc.

N.B. This “introductory” session may take two to three hours but at the end, when the adult learners have “created “literally hundred words, the lift in personal confidence and self esteem will be remarkable. Motivation to learn will also significantly improve.

(The author Keith W. Wright is a former politician, an educator and the director of the Australian International Language Academy. He is currently working with the Active E-Learning Technology Foundation to improve the English literacy skills of the academe, studentry and the Filipino workforce.
E-mail questions to youth@mb.com.ph).