Cogent Education

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Effectiveness of Literacy Teaching Design

Integrating Local Culture Discourse and Activities
to Enhance Reading Skills

Daris Hadianto, Vismaia S. Damaianti, Yeti Mulyati & Andoyo Sastromiharjo

To cite this article: Daris Hadianto, Vismaia S. Damaianti, Yeti Mulyati & Andoyo
Sastromiharjo (2022) Effectiveness of Literacy Teaching Design Integrating Local Culture
Discourse and Activities to Enhance Reading Skills, Cogent Education, 9:1, 2016040, DOI:
10.1080/2331186X.2021.2016040

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2021.2016040

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Hadianto et al., Cogent Education (2022), 9: 2016040
https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2021.2016040

CURRICULUM & TEACHING STUDIES | RESEARCH ARTICLE

Received 20 December 2020
Accepted 3 December 2021
*Corresponding author: Daris
Hadianto, Universitas Pendidikan
Indonesia, Bandung, Indonesia
E-mail darishadianto@upi.edu
Reviewing editor:
Yaser Khajavi, English, Salman Farsi
University of Kazerun, Iran
Additional information is available at
the end of the article
Effectiveness of Literacy Teaching Design
Integrating Local Culture Discourse and Activities
to Enhance Reading Skills
Daris Hadianto1*, Vismaia S. Damaianti2, Yeti Mulyati and Andoyo Sastromiharjo
Abstract: While research exists on literacy focused on children in formal school,
there is little evidence of how adult literacy is depicted in social practice from the
perspective of what adults do in daily life. This study investigates the effectiveness
of literacy teaching design integrating local culture discourse and practice to
enhance the reading skills of adults in Indonesia. One hundred participants from
underdeveloped areas aged 25–50 contributed to the learning process for twelve
lesson units. We elicited data by using two instruments, namely multiple-choice
questions and interviews. The statistical analysis showed that instructional design
profoundly affected the improvement of reading skills. The thematic analysis
showed how participants evaluated the literacy teaching design as enriching
knowledge, sharing understanding among participants and motivating them to
improve their life skills. This study will be useful to teachers who are seeking
cognitive and practical instructions to promote reading skills in the classroom.

Subjects: Media Literacy; Language & Linguistics; Literature & Culture

Keywords: literacy teaching; reading skills; local culture

1. Introduction
Literacy is important not only for children in formal school but also for adults in society (Gumilar,
2020; Theodotou, 2017). While research exists on literacy focused on children in formal school

ABOUT THE AUTHOR PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT

Daris Hadianto is a lecturer at the Department of
Mapping Survey and Geographic Information,
Faculty of Social and Education, Universitas
Pendidikan Indonesia. The author studied at the
Department of Indonesian Language Education
in Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia with a focus
on literacy. In addition as the Indonesian
Language of Education lecturer, the author is
active in the field of Indonesian for foreign
speakers as a lecturer and researcher. Several
research projects and published articles have
focused on literacy, reading, and Indonesian as
a second language. The author has research
interests in the fields of academic literacy, criti­
cal literacy, reading comprehension, Indonesian
language education, and Indonesian as
a second language.
Literacy is a fundamental factor to support people
in life because it includes all basic abilities such as
reading, talking, and speaking. In the context of
social practice, literacy depends on social context,
which varies for each individual. This means that
literacy leads to social practices whereby literate
people can interact effectively both in informal
institutions and outside them. This situation is
interesting because it places literacy not only in its
own nature but also in social practice. Research
on literacy that places it in the context of people’s
lives in rural areas, with local cultural content, will
greatly help the community to develop life skills
because the content used is related to people’s
daily lives. The findings of this study can provide
suggestions for learning designs and programmes
to improve literacy skills, as well as improve life
skills, especially for people living in rural areas.

© 2022 The Author(s). This open access article is distributed under a Creative Commons
Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license.

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(e.g., Theodotou, 2017), there is little evidence of how adult literacy is depicted in social practice
from the perspective of what adults do in daily life. The social practice perspective views literacy as
one aspect of social activity that is practised by human agents with the capacity to form their own
goals, but which also acts in a particular social context to determine how literacy is used and that
gives it certain values and meanings (Kawatoko, 1995; Kell, 2008). This perspective challenges
scholars to look outside the literacy class and see how literacy features in people’s daily lives. This
view of social practice encourages a new awareness of how basic literacy skills are applied by
society.

Approaching literacy as a social practice, it is essential to find meaningful ways to help literacy
practitioners to support adult literacy skills, including reading skills. Adapting local culture and life
skills to literacy skills, such as reading beliefs, can facilitate the improvement of adult literacy.
Empirical evidence shows that culture determines people’s level of literacy, including their reading
skill (Bedard et al., 2011; Trueba, 1900). This means that local culture can be used to support
people in enhancing their literacy.

In the Indonesian context, there are still adults with low literacy skills, especially in under­
developed areas. The Indonesian government itself is trying to reduce the number of people
categorised as having low literacy by implementing various programmes. One of these is
a literacy assistance programme focused on underdeveloped areas and implemented through
a community service programme run by each university in Indonesia. The programme aims to
encourage the improvement of literacy skills, particularly reading skills. Researchers know that
literacy can be improved through the use of culture that develops where people live. Therefore,
this study advances the evidence related to the integration of local culture into literacy teaching
for teaching reading skills to disadvantaged groups in Indonesia. Through the community
service programme facilitated by one public university in Indonesia, we performed literacy
teaching integrating local culture in the form of discourse and practice to enhance reading
skills.

2. Literature review

2.1. Literacy as social practice

The ability of people to communicate verbally and non-verbally, as well as to read and write,
determines the ways people live in a community (Theodotou, 2017). Literacy is thus a fundamental
factor in supporting people because it covers all these abilities. Literacy becomes a social practice
through which the literate person can interact effectively in formal institutions and beyond (Sørvik
& Mork, 2015).

As a social practice, literacy depends on social context, which varies for each individual. This
situation is interesting because it places literacy not only in its own nature but also in social
practice. Literacy practice can be found at home or in the community (Heath, 1983; Theodotou,
2017). In the context of social practice, there are two essential factors contributing to the
development of literacy: practices and events. Literacy events refer to diverse activities connected
to literacy (Barton, 2007). For instance, people reading the ingredients on fast food packaging is an
example of a literacy event. Literacy practices lead to how people utilize literacy events through
particular actions; this situation is heavily affected by social and cultural contexts (Papen, 2006;
Theodotou, 2017). For example, a child learns to write when she/he reads the ingredients of fast
food. These two types of literacy are useful to build knowledge because they are similar to what
people do in their daily activities. This means that to improve adult literacy, two types of literacy
should be integrated into the learning process.

In adult settings, literacy as a social practice can be used to develop skills. The reason for this is
that adults frequently participate in local and situated social practices that involve texts (Barton &
Hamilton, 1998; Sørvik & Mork, 2015). The development of adult literacy through social practice

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can be conducted in several ways. A previous study (Prins, 2017), conducted in rural Ireland, raised
the topic of community literacy skills using digital storytelling in adult education. Literacy as
a social practice was also explored in the context of health literacy in Suriname (Diemer et al.,
2017). The results of this study were used as evaluation materials to improve health literacy.
Another study that looked at literacy as a social practice in a rural area investigated mosque-based
literacy campaigns from a sociocultural perspective in Morocco (Erguig, 2017). This evidence
indicates that texts can be used in different social situations to improve the literacy of rural
people. Doing so indirectly affects the progress of a country.

2.2. Culture as an approach to literacy teaching

There are many definitions of culture. One of these is related to concepts, beliefs and principles of
action attributed successfully to a society (Goodenough, 1976; Trueba, 1990). Culture, therefore, is
an identity attached to society as part of activities or experiences of daily life. In other words,
because culture connects to what people do in life, it has a connection to sociocultural knowledge.
Interestingly, literacy plays the role of a symbolic system dynamically altering the way people
communicate (Trueba, 1990). Literacy is thus technically responsible for pushing people’s ability to
read and write, which requires a sociocultural environment. This means that the acquisition of
literacy is determined by culture.

Furthermore, in the context of literacy teaching, culture and texts correlate with each other
(Li, 2011). Previous research revealed that teaching material and content that present cultu­
rally familiar materials have a strong effect on students’ reading motivation and achievement
(August et al., 2006; Li, 2011). In addition, popular texts, which present superhero stories,
news media, and digital media, can improve students’ attention towards literacy teaching.
Some researchers who focus on literacy argue that academic literacy and critical conscious­
ness can also be promoted by integrating popular cultural texts into school literacy (Dyson,
1997; Li, 2011; Moje, 2002; Morrell & Duncan-Andrade, 2002). For instance, Dyson (1997)
investigated how the use of popular culture in the unofficial and official literacy curriculum
was implemented in the teaching of young students aged 7–9 years. The study revealed that
the representation of the state of social play by students could reveal several learnt values,
such as the ability to mediate and negotiate social relations. On this basis, Dyson argued that
various cultural materials afford value for institutional engagement and feedback in literacy
learning.

Previous studies have consistently shown that culture can be integrated into literacy teaching,
particularly for reading skills. In this context, adults’ experiences of their daily activities can be
transformed into a discourse for reading materials. This is a form of cultural translation from daily
experience to literacy practice (Li, 2011). Moreover, teaching literacy should not be limited to
attaining good instruction but should adopt a strategy that is relevant to the needs of adults (Au,
2007; Li, 2011). In other words, the texts developed as teaching materials should not be specific to
a certain field but should be related to the background of the people who are learning reading. This
study, therefore, uses the local culture of people and their daily activities as teaching materials for
adult literacy classes in underdeveloped areas.

3. The context of the study

The literacy teaching design developed in this study is based on a geographical analysis of
community needs. The design is constructed according to local culture, which is connected to
the skills that people require to solve problems in daily life. Researchers highlight that reading is
a basic skill that must be mastered by people in underdeveloped areas. The form of local culture
here is the ability to behave in an adaptive and positive manner, which enables a person to
respond to the needs and face the challenges of everyday life (Kell, 2008; Lee-Hammond &
McConney, 2017; López, 2014). These skills allow a person to face life’s problems without feeling
depressed, then proactively and creatively find solutions so that they are finally able to overcome

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them. Put simply, we integrated local culture in the form of daily experiences into literacy training
to teach reading skills. The literacy teaching phases can be observed in Table 1.

In this literacy teaching design, we divided the phases into two parts. First, phases 1 to 4 focus
on teaching reading skills with tutors presenting a discourse related to local culture that partici­
pants commonly experience in daily activity. For instance, the first unit of teaching literacy is to
provide a discourse on how to make compost from animal manure. All the participants are taught
to read and comprehend this information. The interaction between tutors and participants is
intense, which helps the participants to understand the context of the information and knowledge
provided. Second, phases 5 and 6 provide an activity to create a product based on procedures
found in the teaching materials. For instance, all the participants actively and collaboratively make
compost based on the skills provided in the discourse. In this part, interaction among participants
occurred enthusiastically. Based on the literacy teaching design developed and the activities
conducted by the participants, we investigated the effects of this intervention on reading skills.
We develop two research questions:

(1) Can a literacy teaching design integrating local culture/life skills activities enhance reading
skills?
(2) How did participants evaluate the literacy teaching design in terms of enhancing their life
skills to support daily activities?

4. Method
This study used a pre-experimental embedded case study method (Cohen et al., 2017). The use
of the literacy teaching design integrating local culture/life skills aims to improve people’s
literacy skills, particularly their reading skills. We take advantage of the use of this literacy

Table 1. The literacy teaching design involving tutor’s and participants’ activities
Phase Task

The first phase: conditioning
The second phase: discourse
presentation
The third phase: the creation of
meaning
The fourth phase: tutoring
The fifth phase: evaluation
The sixth phase: appreciation
Participants
Participants are conditioned by the
way the tutor builds schemata
according to the discourse.
Participants are directed to reveal
aspects of culture and life skills,
which are the topic of a discourse.
Participants are facilitated to
express cultural experiences,
reveal cultural meanings according
to topics and reveal cultural and
life skills.
Participants are guided to read
with local cultural content, which
facilitates the revelation of cultural
aspects (the topics) and dealing
with problems.
Participants answer the questions
asked, listen to the answers and to
comments from other participants
Participants carry out questioning
activities if they do not understand
and collect their learning results
from the tutor.
Tutor
Participants respond to the tutor
and share experiences related to
the topic.
The tutor presents a discourse on
the cultural aspects of life skills.
The tutor facilitates students to
explore cultural knowledge,
formulates responses to problems
and enables the creation of
cultural meaning and life skills.
The tutor simultaneously carries
out activities combining cultural
discourse with literacy learning,
applying an adult learning
approach and conducting
individual and group mentoring.
The tutor asks each individual
a minimum of two questions
according to the topic
The tutor rewards the participants.

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teaching design in the context of the social change that has occurred in rural society (Robinson-
Pant, 2008; Sayilan & Yildiz, 2009). Participants came from the rural areas of the West Java
Province, Indonesia. The selection process took place in several stages. First, we collaborated
with the local government of one village to learn the degree of education and the economic
features of the area. Based on this data, we verified that there was a significantly low level of
education and that the economy was dominated by farmers and people without permanent
jobs. There were 274 people categorised as having a low degree of education and low literacy
skills, particularly in reading skills; some people had graduated from elementary school (63.6%)
while some from junior-high school (36.4%). Second, along with the local government, we
invited all these people to join the programme we had created. One hundred and forty-five
people came to the one-hour session to hear our explanation of the programme. At the end of
this session, they were offered the chance to fill out a letter of commitment. One hundred
people committed to attending 12 lessons. They were aged from 25 to 50; 70% were male and
30% female. In accordance with the objectives of this study, data collection was carried out
with all the participants.

The tutors contributing to this study were 10 undergraduate students. They were third-year
students from different courses, such as science and language. They joined the programme
because the university had a mandatory course for all third-year students to volunteer in the
local community before they could be admitted to year four. The students were trained to
comprehend the teaching materials over one month before acting as tutors.

4.1. Procedures
We enacted the literacy teaching design in the course for 12 lesson units. Each unit lasted three
hours during which the participants interacted among themselves and with the tutors as part of
the learning process. The lessons were held on Saturdays from 09.00 am to 12.00 pm. We
divided each unit into two parts. First, the tutors taught the participants to comprehend the
discourse related to local culture or life skills included in phases 1 to 4 of the literacy teaching
design. During this time, both participants and tutors were engaged in creating collaborative
learning using the teaching materials developed. Second, the instructional design provided real
activities during which participants collaborated or made a product based on what they read;
this involved phases 5 and 6 of the literacy teaching design. The tutors facilitated the process
with several materials required for making the products. For each unit of the course, the
participants made a different product; hence, after finishing the course they had carried out
12 different tasks (see Appendix A) that supported their daily activities as farmers and other
kinds of workers.

4.2. Instruments
We developed two instruments related to the literacy teaching design. The first one measured the
reading skills in comprehending discourses. Several steps were involved in developing this instru­
ment. First, we chose six themes (discourses) related to the lesson units learnt by the participants.
Second, we developed each theme or discourse as an essay consisting of 300–500 words. Third, we
formulated five questions for each theme. Fourth, we divided the six themes into two parts, with
each part consisting of three discourses. The first three discourses, or fifteen questions, focused on
the competence in reading information literally while the others on the competence in reading
information critically. The questions were multiple-choice ones, which required participants to have
read the discourse earlier. Fifth, the instrument was tested on 30 second-year university students
from the department of Indonesian language to measure its validity and reliability. Because the
instrument included multiple choices, we used the Pearson product-moment correlation to count
its validity and the split-half method to measure its reliability. The reason for using the Pearson
correlation is that it is a simple way to assess the degree of the linear correlation among questions
(Puth et al., 2014). Based on the analysis, the average Pearson correlation coefficient for all the
questions was 0.72. Furthermore, the use of the split-half method for the reliability of the instru­
ment aimed to investigate the consistency of the instrument, as we decided not to take test-retest.

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We found the degree of reliability of the instrument to be 0.67. This instrument was used in the pre-
test and post-test to measure and map participants’ level of reading skills; it used the Indonesian
language as the mother tongue of the participants.

The second instrument consisted of interview questions. These were used to elicit participants’
perceptions of the effect of the literacy teaching design on supporting their life skills. Five semi-
structured interview questions (see Appendix B) were put to 10 participants. Each interview lasted
almost half an hour and was conducted after participants finished the course. The interview was
carried out in the mother tongue of the participant so that they could respond easily.

4.3. Data sources and analysis

One hundred participants completed a reading skills test. They used the same instrument, which
consisted of 30 multiple choices, for pre-test and post-test. Every right answer was scored one (1)
while a wrong answer was scored zero (0), so the maximum possible score was 30 (similar to 100
on a scale of 0 to 100). We divided participants’ scores into 4 types to code their level of reading
skills, as shown in Table 2. All the responses were coded and entered into SPSS. Participants’ scores
pre- and post-test were compared using paired t-test. To consider the effectiveness of the literacy
teaching design, we also measured effect size (d).

In addition, the interview data were analysed using thematic analysis (Creswell, 2012). At the
beginning, the data were coded to allow initial codes to emerge. The data were then grouped to
generate categories and sub-categories (see Table 3). Finally, the underlying categories were
sorted into three themes related to the enactment of the literacy teaching design. The three
themes are enriching knowledge, sharing understanding among participants, and motivating to
improve life skills.

Table 2. Reading skill levels

Code Category Score
1 Very low < 25
2 Low 25 < score < 50
3 Intermediate 50 < score < 75
4 High > 75

Table 3. An example of coding

Themes Coding Category Open coding Sample of quotes
Enriching knowledge New knowledge Alternative products . . . I know how alternative
created products from cassava
are created. Before this
program, I knew a few
products and this helped
me to earn a living daily
(P-27)
Sharing understanding Uniformity of To have the same When doing the practical
among participants understanding understanding activities after what we
discussed, my friends and
I in my group must have
the same understanding
of the procedure . . . For
instance, when we make
compost, we must make
sure that the procedure is
correct (P-9).

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4.4. Ethical statement

All participants were obliged to provide their informed consent before joining the program. The
research protocol was internally approved by the Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia.

5. Result and findings

5.1. Level of reading skills and its enhancement

Based on the pre- and post-test scores, we mapped participants’ reading skills before and after the
enactment of the literacy teaching design integrating local culture discourse and activities.
Figure 1 shows the level of reading skills for the 100 participants. The category “very low” is
dominant; 64% of all participants were in this category before the intervention began. In contrast,
after the intervention, no one was in this category. In the low category, there were similar results
before and after the intervention, 32% and 36%, respectively. Only 4% of participants were in the
intermediate category before the instructional design was implemented, while the figure rose to
54% afterwards. Only one-tenth of participants had high reading skills after the intervention.
Overall, then, there was an improvement in the reading skills of those who were engaged in the
instructional design integrating discourses and practices of local culture.

We also carried out a meta-analysis by observing each level of reading skills. Table 4 shows the
number of participants, the averages and the gain scores for each category. Interestingly, all the

Figure 1. Participants’ reading

skill levels based on pre- and
post-test scores.

Table 4. Average scores for each category of reading skills

Category of Pre-test Post-test Gain
reading skills
N Mean N Mean
Very low 64 14.58 0 0 −14.58
Low 32 28.23 36 36.48 8.25
Intermediate 4 55.83 54 59.14 3.31
High 0 0 10 79.67 79.67

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participants in the very low category moved to a higher category, such as low and intermediate.
Similarly, participants who were in the low and intermediate categories also improved their read­
ing skills to intermediate and high levels. Furthermore, the gain scores depict high enhancement.

Not all the participants in the intermediate and low categories moved to higher categories.
A micro-analysis reveals that several participants who started in the low and intermediate cate­
gories remained in the same categories. For instance, participant 38 (P-38) is categorised as
intermediate both in the pre-test and post-test scores. This means that the participant had the
same level even though their score improved and that there was no alteration of reading compe­
tence. The same situation occurred to five participants in the low category (see Figure 2); they did
not improve in terms of reading skills levels but they improved their scores. By considering the
representation of each category position, we found that the shift from very low to intermediate
was the same as that from low to intermediate. This indicates a change in reading skills capability
because the intermediate and high categories provide reading skills to make sense of the texts.

In addition, to understand a change or enhancement in reading skill scores, we calculated the

significance of the mean difference between pre-test and post-test scores. The normality test
using Kolmogorov Smirnov shows that both pre-test (x̅ pre-test = 20.60; zpre-test = 1.079; p = 0.195; p >
0.05) and post-test (x̅ post-test = 50.03; zpost-test = 1.193; p = 0.116; p > 0.05) scores were normally
distributed. We then used a paired student test (paired t-test) to examine whether the mean
difference between pre-test and post-test scores was significantly different. The results of the
statistical analysis using SPSS found that there is a significant difference between the averages of
the pre-test and the post-test (std. Deviation = 12.57; t = −25.78; df = 99; p = 0.000; p < 0.001).
Furthermore, the effect size was large (d = 1.2). This means that the implementation of the literacy
teaching design enhanced participants’ reading skills to comprehend the provided discourse.

5.2. Participants’ perspectives on the use of the literacy teaching design

Regarding the interview data, we coded three themes related to participants’ evaluation of the
literacy teaching design. The themes are: enriching knowledge, sharing understanding among
participants, and motivating to improve life skills.

5.2.1. Enriching knowledge

Participants thought that literacy teaching integrating local culture discourse and practice could
enrich their knowledge. They viewed the discourses and practices provided in the learning process
as familiar because they were close to their daily activities; the discourses frequently opened new
perspectives to improve their daily earning activities. For instance, the optimisation of the

Figure 2. The micro-analysis of

category changes of each level
of reading skills.

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economic products created from cassava in lesson unit-4 was an important discourse for enriching
their knowledge to yield unique local products that could be sold not only in the village but also in
urban areas. As several participants stated:

Yes . . . The learning process truly shared worthwhile values to improve my reading skill but
I think not much . . . I graduated from primary school and it is difficult to learn . . . The
important thing for me was that I learnt new things, particularly when I had to do the
practical activities or make products . . . For instance, making chips from cassava. I really
liked this (P-70).

Yes . . . It helped me to improve my competence to read . . . I am 25 years old and I am still

young . . . This competence will help me to open up opportunities and increase information
related to my daily activities (P-89).
5.2.2. Sharing understanding among participants
Participants commented positively on the fact that they were trained to share their understanding
among other participants. The context of practice in the literacy teaching design urges all parti­
cipants to contribute directly to a small group; they have to create the products from what they
read. The participants said that they had to share their understanding of the ways the products are
made based on the correct procedures. This situation is not easy because sometimes the partici­
pants in a group have different background experiences and ages; the sharing of understanding
frequently takes a long time. This is evident in the interview scripts:

My emotional feeling is too complex. I must understand another skill in the group in the
context of the practical activities for making a product. Sometimes, the activity is boring
because not all the participants have the same understanding, especially the old. I must
share my understanding to embark on the practical activities (P-90).

In practising the knowledge that we discussed, my friends and I in my group must have the
same understanding of the procedure . . . For instance, when we made compost, we had to
make sure that the procedure was correct (P-9).
5.2.3. Motivating to improve life skills
There is a positive nuance provided by literacy teaching design when implemented with people in
underdeveloped areas. This is because both cognitive and practical activities motivate people to
improve the skills required to support their lives. The use of the teaching materials opened
participants’ minds to modify the product that they have known in daily life. For instance, in
unit-4, the participants learnt to read using a discourse on how to make chips from cassava.
This activity is known in their village but they can vary the product by widening the types of chips
based on their level of spiciness. This information was obtained by reading the teaching materials
and practising them during the learning process.

Yes . . . The information from the reading materials enhanced my knowledge to develop
a certain product. I never knew that cassava chips could be varied based on the level of
spiciness. I think many local products in this village can be made unique. The key is the
capacity to read information to obtain new knowledge; I believe this will improve the life
skills of all the groups in the village (P-2).

In addition, the participants argued that literacy teaching integrating local culture discourse
and practice helps groups in undeveloped areas to be more creative. The reason for this is
that the information provided in the reading materials combines a new approach to develop
the local products commonly manufactured in the village. In other words, the activities
contribute to the identity development of the society; they indirectly build motivation to
have a goal and learn the values that people want to acquire (Guthrie et al., 1996; Pintrich
& Schrauben, 1992).

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6. Discussion
We focused on two research questions. First, whether the enactment of a literacy teaching design
integrating local culture discourse and practice is effective in enhancing reading skills. Second, how
participants perceived this design in terms of its usefulness in enhancing their life skills to underpin daily
life.

The findings show that the literacy teaching design alters reading competence. The evidence to
support this finding is the existence of six phases in the literacy teaching design encompassing two
types of literacy. The six phases can be divided into two types of literacy: literacy practice and literacy
events. Phases 1 to 4 function as a literacy event in which the participants directly learn to comprehend
texts related to daily activities and experiences (Barton, 2007). The characteristics of the textual dis­
course, which are familiar to participants, strengthen the cognitive activities and help them understand
the meaning of what they read. This affects participants’ motivation to read and achieve (Goldenberg
et al., 2006). Phases 5 and 6 are related to literacy practices, in that people used what they had read to
create a product and this was influenced by their daily sociocultural interactions (Heath, 1983; Papen,
2006). In this practical activity, all the participants were engaged in sharing personal experiences and
were intensely connected to other participants in the small groups. This activity had a direct positive
effect on reading skills because people had to share their understanding of how a product should be
manufactured. We thus argue that integrating local culture in literacy teaching helps to share socio­
cultural values that strengthen the literacy practice itself (Li, 2011; Teale & Sulzby, 1986). These elements
explain why the literacy teaching design in question is effective in improving reading skills in under­
developed areas.

More importantly, the micro-analysis shows that there was a shift from reading information literally to
doing so critically. The two reasons for this are related to the characteristics of the reading materials
provided and the cognitive activities in the literacy teaching. First, the reading materials provided not only
local cultural discourse but also the problems related to interpreting the information critically. This plays
a key role in supporting the effort to make sense of the texts in a discourse. This activity occurred regularly
during the 12 lessons. Second, phase 3 in the literacy teaching design specifically dealt with the creation
of meaning. There was a collaborative effort between tutor and participants to create meaning in the
context of cultural experiences; this directly affects participants’ competence in interpreting information
critically. We argue that these reasons explain why there was a significant shift from reading texts
literally to interpreting them critically.

We found that the use of a literacy teaching design integrating local culture discourse and practice
contributes to enriching knowledge, sharing understanding among participants and motivating them to
improve their life skills. This instructional design helps participants to develop new ways of improving
local products. In addition, when conducting practical activities to create a product, there was also
sharing of understanding between old and young participants. This means that the learning process
shares worthwhile values. Lastly, there was a positive tone towards the instructional design because it
underpinned the identity development of the society; it indirectly built motivation to have a goal and
learn the values that people want to acquire (Guthrie et al., 1996; Pintrich & Schrauben, 1992). This
evidence shows how integrating local cultural discourse and practice can address the problem of adult
literacy in remote or underdeveloped areas.

7. Conclusion and implication

In conclusion, this study has presented evidence on how literacy teaching integrating local culture
discourse and practices helps adults to improve their reading competence. The researchers high­
light the importance of combining cognitive and practical activities to underpin the improvement
of reading skills. In addition, the study also investigated how adults evaluated the use of cognitive
and practical activities depicted in the six phases of literacy teaching in terms of enriching knowl­
edge, sharing understanding among participants and motivating them to improve their life skills.
Furthermore, the study has made an essential contribution to explaining how the development of

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an instructional design that integrates local culture can be a tool for enhancing the literal and
critical comprehension of information.
This study has also some pedagogical implications. The integration of local culture as a form of
social practice can be developed to support the reading skills of adults. Through pre-experimental
research, we have documented that there is a profound effect when daily activities are integrated
into literacy teaching in underdeveloped societies. We believe that this literacy teaching design
can be brought to a formal classroom where the students can be engaged in mastering reading
skills. This study, therefore, is useful for teachers who are seeking cognitive and practical instruc­
tions that promote reading skills in the classroom.
Funding
The authors received no direct funding for this research.
Author details
Daris Hadianto1
E-mail: darishadianto@upi.edu
ORCID ID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4692-6031
Vismaia S. Damaianti2
Yeti Mulyati
Andoyo Sastromiharjo
1
Department of Mapping Survey and Geographic
Information, Faculty of Social and Education, Universitas
Pendidikan Indonesia, Bandung, Indonesia.
2
Department of Indonesian Language Education, Faculty
of Language and Education, Universitas Pendidikan
Indonesia, Bandung, Indonesia.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the
author(s).
Citation information
Cite this article as: Effectiveness of Literacy Teaching
Design Integrating Local Culture Discourse and Activities
to Enhance Reading Skills, Daris Hadianto, Vismaia S.
Damaianti, Yeti Mulyati & Andoyo Sastromiharjo, Cogent
Education (2022), 9: 2016040.
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Appendix A: List of Reading Material Themes for Each Lesson Unit

Lesson Unit Themes of reading materials

1 Compost and its benefits
2 Traditional rice harvest
3 How to make a traditional soil fertilizer
4 Spicy cassava chips
5 The traditional way to fertilize the soil
6 How to get rid of birds from farmland
7 Traditional remedy for insect pests
8 Traditional irrigation for rice fields
9 Traditional rice planting tool
10 Sweet Potato Chips
11 How to market traditional food products
12 How to manage the finance of a micro business unit

Appendix B: List of interview questions

(1) Do you think the literacy teaching design implemented in the learning process is useful to change
your reading skills? Why

(2) Do you think the literacy teaching design implemented in the learning process is useful to train the
life skills required in daily activities? Why

(3) Do you think the literacy teaching design implemented in the learning process is useful to improve
your daily earning activities? Why

(4) How are the difficulties faced during conducting the learning process emphasizing local culture
discourse and practice?

(5) How are your emotional feelings during conducting the learning process to improve your reading
skills?

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