Millions of children are expected to become literate in a language different from that of their home. They are confronted by problems such as a of lack of resources and a lack of well-qualified teachers, compounded by insufficient exposure to the target language.

In this concise monograph, Warwick Elley provides a solution to this problem: An effective literacy program, known as the "Book Flood," which has consistently been found to work in a variety of Third World countries. Elley presents the evidence for the effectiveness of such programs and contrasts this with traditional approaches which have been consistently ineffective. In "Book Flood" programs, students are exposed to an abundant supply of high-interest, illustrated story books, and their teachers are taught how to effectively engage their students with these books daily. The outcome is that pupils expand their vocabularies, acquire grammar naturally, become fluent readers and transfer their command of the language to writing, to speaking, and to other subjects.

Warwick Elley is a world authority on literacy. He is the author of How in the World do Students Read?, the results of the I.E.A. study of literacy in 32 countries in 1991, and has served as a consultant to various international governments and ministries of education, including Fiji, Singapore and Sri Lanka. He is Emeritus Professor of Education at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand.

Published by Language Education Associates 1998
ISBN 0-9652808-5-3
17 page softcover booklet 8.5" x 11"
$6.00

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