FREIRE’S LITERACRY METHOD

The course was developed within the framework of the projectYes We Can! 2019-1-PL01-KA204-065197

FREIRE’S LITERACY METHOD

EDUCATIONAL COURSE

The first stage is the study of the context. An investigating team examines the lives of people in a given area. Their common vocabulary and the problems confronting them are recorded and lengthyinterviews are held to discover their longings, frustrations, and hopes.

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Efforts are made to involve them as much as possible, even at this first stage, for Freire insists that the words used in literacytraining should come, not from the educator, but from the people.

The second stage of the method is the selection of the generative words. Words are “generative” for Freire if they have the capacity of leading learners to new ones. Three criteria are used in choosing these words:

They should contain the basic sounds of the Portuguese and Spanish languages;

When organized, they should enable the learner to move from simple letters and sounds to more complex ones;

They should be useful for confronting the social, cultural, and political reality in which the people live.

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Freire’s coordinators developed different lists of words for each area in which they worked.

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The third stage of the method is the actual literacy training.

In Brazil, literacy training was preceded by at least three motivation sessions in which the students analysed the concept of culture in order to see themselves as genuine creators of it, In Chile, these sessions were incorporated into the actual training sessions. The training sessions themselves consisted of discussions around the generative words and the pictures which illustrated them.

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Bach word was broken down into its syllables, e.g. favela (slum) was broken down into fa-ve-la. The family of syllables was shown: Fa, Fe, Fi, Fo, Fu. This was done with all the syllables, the learners were then 100 to create other words using these syllables and their families. When the second generative word was shown, the learners began to make combinations of its syllables and also combinations with all the syllables of the two words presented.

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At the same time that the students were de-codifying the word favela, they were also de- codifying the reality of the slum in which they were involved. For Freire, literacy training is no mere mechanical process for teaching a person to read and write. It is rather a process that should lead a person to critical consciousness. It should lead him to a greater awareness of the oppressive forces in his life and to the realization of his own power to denounce these forces in the name of freedom.

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At the same time that the students were de-codifying the word favela, they were also de- codifying the reality of the slum in which they were involved. For Freire, literacy training is no mere mechanical process for teaching a person to read and write. It is rather a process that should lead a person to critical consciousness. It should lead him to a greater awareness of the oppressive forces in his life and to the realization of his own power to denounce these forces in the name of freedom.

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A fourth stage has been added to the method which Freire himself has called “post literacy” or “political literacy.”

This is concerned with the raising of critical consciousness among those who are already literate. Rather than generative words, generative themes now form the basis of education. Pedagogy of the Oppressed shows how this form of education may be the preparatory stage of revolutionary action. Such themes as “oppression,” “domination,” “imperialism,” “welfarism” would serve as the basis for discussion and action.