Examples of embedding literacy and numeracy in practice

Research shows that many adults learn literacy skills without going to school or to literacy classes.  They learn through the texts involved in their occupations or some other immediately relevant activity, and they learn difficult words from the start.  In traditional literacy teaching, 'easy' words are taught at the beginning, with the learner progressing to 'harder' words as the easier ones are mastered.  But Rogers & Uddin (2004,2005) showed, and learners continue to demonstrate, that difficult words are learned early on simply because they are words that people know and can relate to in their own experience, e.g. car components, building materials, names of customers.

Please share examples of how you embed literacy and numeracy in courses you offer, teach or otherwise know about, (scroll down and click on 'reply' on the right of your page). Some examples we have thought of are

* a dressmaker keeps a notebook of customers' names and measurements

* a carpenter has a record of materials and orders

* shopkeepers have lists of goods, prices, creditors and their repayments

* people who may have religious literacy - they may read their religion's holy text, but nothing else.