The latest instalment comes from one of our Hope Readers Dave Cookson, who is exploring Nigeria… (if you want to catch up on any of our previous Readers of the World posts, you can take yourself on a mini round the world trip right here)

Nigeria has the 7th largest population in the world, and English is its official language, often used in educational settings and is used by many as a second language.

The diversity of Nigeria means there is a wide range of literature in a variety of languages. Yoruba is spoken by 20 million, with the first novel in this language (The Forest of a Thousand Demons by D.A. Fagunwa) published relatively recently in 1938. Hausa is spoken by 25 million and the language’s first novel emerged from a competition ran by Northern Nigeria’s Translation Bureau. The winner was Muhammadu Bello’s 1933 work Gandoki. Igbo is a language spoken by some 20 million Nigerians, and The Proverbs of Omenuko by Pita Nwana was the language’s first novel, published in 1933, when another famous Igbo person was just three years old: Chinua Achebe.

Despite his Igbo background Achebe wrote in English, producing one of the most highly-acclaimed and widely read African books in history: Things Fall Apart. The novel is fiercely anti-colonial whilst acknowledging the flaws of pre-colonial society, following the deeply-flawed protagonist Okonkwo as he tries to dominate the village of Umuofia and then prevent it succumbing to the English colonialists. Things Fall Apart clearly drew on the proverbial influence of the Igbo culture demonstrated in the very first Igbo novel and throughout its rich history of story-telling.

Achebe’s novels are examples of the power of good story-telling, but his own experiences of storytelling and its benefits are not limited to politically-tinged novels. In the essay ‘My Daughters’ he tells of a time when his two-and-a-half year old daughter, Nwando, would cry on the way to her new American nursery school, not speak to anyone once she was there and on the way back would seem ‘desolate’. What happened next was beautiful:

“In the end we struck a bargain that solved the problem. I had to tell her a story all the way to school if she promised not to cry when I dropped her off. Very soon she added another story all the way back. The agreement, needless to say, taxed my repertory of known and fudged stories to the utmost. But it worked. Nwando was no longer crying. By the year’s end she had become such a success in her school that many of her little American schoolmates had begun to call their school Nwando-haven instead of its proper name, Wonderhaven.”

Despite being a country with such a short history involving the English language Nigeria has consistently produced brilliant writers including poets Christopher Okigbo and Wole Soyinka; author of The Voice, Gabriel Okara; Booker Prize winning author of The Famished Road, Ben Okri and author of Half of a Yellow Sun, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

The frustrating thing about Nigeria and its rich literary history is that reports claim around half the country suffers with literacy problems. In a bid to combat this, President Goodluck Jonathan introduced the ‘Bring Back the Book’ initiative in December 2010. This was a national pledge to protect libraries, conduct readings of the country’s literature in educational institutions, research issues relating to reading and support organisations conducting reading-related activity. The ultimate aim of the initiative is to revitalise a reading culture in Nigeria.

BBB has incorporated numerous events into the initiative, with authors nominated for the Nigeria Prize for Literature being paired with children to read. However, the event took a surprising turn when an argument about witches erupted between a high school pupil and one of the nominees! At the same event a cultural activist claimed foreign cartoons were killing the folk tale tradition of Nigeria, and cartoons did no good to a child’s moral upbringing.

To take a nationalistic view of the merits of writing, particularly in English, Nigeria is a literary giant. If you’ve never read anything by one of Achebe, Okigbo or Soyinka then it’s about time you right that wrong.

From today until 7th February copies of six stories from former Children’s Laureate Michael Morpurgo’s Mudpuddle Farm series will be handed out  free with Happy Meals. Finger puppets of characters from the series will accompany each book to encourage parents to read with and bring the stories to life with their children.

The promotion is being backed by Harper Collins, who publish the Mudpuddle Farm series, and The National Literacy Trust, whose recent research revealed that one in three children in Britain do not own a book. Director Jonathan Douglas said:

We are very supportive of McDonald’s decision to give families access to popular books, as its size and scale will be a huge leap towards encouraging more families to read together.

Having seen for ourselves how valuable just one book can be to children, and having reached so many with Our Read we think that such a promotion is a fantastic way to extend the reach of reading. Given that eight out of ten families with young children visit McDonalds at least once a year, it’s great to know that they’re contributing to getting more children reading.

American researchers have discovered that television can be a distraction not just for kids but for adults too, whether it is being actively watched or is featuring mainly as background noise. In particular the presence of the turned-on television has a considerable negative impact upon the flow of interaction between parent and child, which in turn has stark consequences for the development of children’s speech. Amongst a study of over 300 children aged between two months and four years, parents were found to have spoken significantly less to their children while the television was on; every hour of TV exposure translating to a loss of 500-1,000 words. Children who watched increasing amounts of television also said less and had fewer conversations with their parents – having an alarming impact on the progress of speech and social skills.

Conversely, regular reading sessions at home have been proven to have quite the opposite effect on child development as well as parent-child communication. In a separate study at Ohio State University it was found that while more time spent watching TV links with a decreased amount of communication between mother and child, mothers who read together with their children converse more and do so in a particularly distinctive way. When reading aloud to their children, mothers were found to use an active and engaging communication style which encouraged responsiveness from children, thereby stimulating greater amounts of conversation. Parents who read aloud also help to expand their children’s vocabulary by introducing them to words that may not be typically heard by children in everyday speech. One of the researchers leading the study, Eric Rasmussen said:

“Mothers who are responsive to their infant’s communication promote a positive self-perception for the child as well as fostering trust in the parent. Positive responses help the child learn that they can affect their environment.”

Yet more evidence that shared reading really does make a difference in a number of ways – and the earlier it begins the better…! Although, you may want to start with physical, pliable books before involving the Kindle or iPad, given that personal contact is privileged over excessive technological stimulation in the early years…

But, aside from the sadness I felt about a sizeable proportion of children missing out on the wonderful reading adventures I had as a child, perhaps I’m being a bit too harsh on texting. The medium has had its fair share of unnecessarily bad press, especially of late, and surely any starting point on the road to reading for children, no matter how seemingly rudimentary, is a good one. Last week a very important person in the world of poetry – the Poet Laureate, no less – stepped forward to defend the literary credentials of the text message, tweet or Facebook status.

Launching Anthologise, a new initiative in secondary schools which invites pupils to put together their own poetry anthologies and is designed to get them engaging with and reading more poetry, Carol Ann Duffy said that diverse and adapted ways of using language, such as is evident in text messages and on Twitter, can contribute greatly to poetic feeling, imbuing the various methods of technology with a greater depth than may previously have been considered. As well as that, the frequent composition of texts may even go on to encourage young people to become part of the next generation of trendsetting poets. Calling poems ‘the original text’, Duffy said about poetry:

“It’s a perfecting of a feeling in language – it’s a way of saying more with less, just as texting is. We’ve got to realise that the Facebook generation is the future – and, oddly enough, poetry is the perfect form for them. It’s a kind of time capsule – it allows feelings and ideas to travel big distances in a very condensed form.” 

So, far from being something to despair about, perhaps the proliferation of text messages is positive, sparking off creativity and encouraging an appetite for and greater comprehension of poetry amongst children and young people. Or maybe that’s jumping to an opposing set of conclusions…? We’re always happy to hear about any methods that will get the younger generation engaged with reading – the more inventive, the better – but we’d still hope that at least every now and then, texts will be swapped for Tennyson, SMS for sonnets and Facebook for Frost.

Without further ado, here is the fact of the week:

In Finland, literacy levels have been extraordinarily high ever since the 17th century, when couples were required to pass a reading test before marrying.

The idea of being motivated by love (or tax breaks) to learn to read really is quite fascinating. Obviously, we do not condone such a policy which by modern standards would be deemed a breach of human rights but it does make you wonder.

Did illiterate couples accept that marriage would be an impossibility, at least in their home country? If one was literate, would they teach the other to read? Did they read to their partners? Did anybody cheat? (On the test, you cynics!) Would grooms lie about their literacy so they could revise for their tests as an excuse to avoid wedding preparations? There’s probably a really good film to be made on this subject. There’d be a cheesy Hollywood moment where the learner struggles with dictionaries, textbooks etc. and then when they read a love poem they instantly get the reading bug. Richard Gere would probably be in it.

If we have any Fins reading could they fill us in on what they know about this?

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The author of War Horse, The Butterfly Lion and Shadow called for parents and teachers to pass on an enthusiasm for literature to their children. In his introduction Morpurgo said trying to inspire a love of literature was either ‘very energising and postive’ or ‘very depressing’.

Which way it goes depends on the quality of teaching and whether there is a flourishing library. That books are available is a right of every child, and his or her way to access the literature of their country. But it is also critical to have people who can pass on the passion for reading to them. On this we are patchy.

Through our work with schools and looked after children, The Reader Organisation has numerous project workers/managers who are the people Morpurgo is calling for, and what’s more he’s met two of them – our Young Person’s Project Manager, Sam Shipman and Project Worker Anna Fleming.

Along with other project workers, Sam and Anna have read with plenty of children who were reluctant to read, but have completely revolutionised their outlook. Not only has our young person’s team encouraged children to enjoy reading, they have read some of Morpurgo’s very own books including War Horse, Private Peaceful and Mr Skip.

Michael Morpurgo went on to criticise the way reading is employed in schools:

They [teachers], through no fault of their own, have been encouraged by this Government and the last to use literature as a tool in the Key Stage testing system. The culture is skewed for results, but if you teach with that aim there is little space for children to become inspired with a love of what they are reading.

Although we read with children, The Reader provides a friendly, relaxed and completely non-academic environment without tests or demanding questions. We facilitate the shared reading of enjoyable texts which really capture children’s imaginations. It seems again, we are providing what Morpurgo is calling for:

You need teachers who enjoy books for themselves, who have been encouraged to become readers while they were training, so that they can pass on the love of good writers to children. And you need time in the curriculum to enable teachers to share their love of a great book or poem, a storytelling at the end of every school day for half an hour. No comprehension test afterwards, simply enjoyment.

Morpurgo’s article follows a series of articles in the London Evening Standard documenting the high rates of illiteracy in the city, with one in three children not owning a book of their own and 80% of parents “struggling to find an opportunity to read with their children.” This is something The Reader strives to correct in our attempts to introduce a reading revolution.

Jane Davis joins Lord Graham Tope, Judy Friedberg (Guardian), Jonathan Douglas (Director, National Literacy Trust) in a panel discussion chaired by the New Stateman‘s Spencer Neal about how changes to the literacy landscape under the new Coalition Government could enable us to rise to the literacy challenge.

This event is one of a series of fringe debate events the National Literacy Trust are holding at each political party conference this autumn. The events, kindly supported by Starbucks, will give the panellists the chance to explain their ideas for how we can create a more literate Britain. Given the wide range of specialisms among the speakers the discussion will focus on a number of areas surrounding the literacy landscape including libraries, schools and early years settings.

For further information about these events, click here.

The researchers, led by neuroscientist Manuel Carreiras, recruited a group of ex-paramilitaries who could read less than five simple words on a Spanish reading and writing test, and compared them to a similar group who learnt to read and write from an early age.

The research team use MRI scans to compare differences in brain structure between the two groups to allow an insight into how brain anatomy changes to accommodate reading and writing.

While it is possible to do this with children, it is almost impossible to separate out which are the brain changes due specifically to acquiring literacy and which are just part of the massive changes that constantly take place as children develop.

Here’s the link.

Posted by Chris Routledge

Today one in five adults is still not literate and two-thirds of them are women while 75 million children are out of school.

Since its foundation in 1946, UNESCO has been at the forefront of global literacy efforts and is dedicated to keeping literacy high on national, regional and international agendas. However, with some 776 million adults lacking minimum literacy skills, literacy for all remains an elusive target.

UNESCO’s literacy programmes aim to create a literate world and promote literacy for all.

The Bloggers Unite Team have set up a special site dedicated to this day, click here to view it and join in.