Author, Brian Hough, has a passion for writing and to empower others to ensure they can read.
The Kensington resident approached the NEWS with the aim of empowering others after reading about Caxton’s #WeRead campaign.
The campaign, which is held in partnership with the SA Book Development Council, is aimed at encouraging South Africans to read more.
The 79-year-old Brian first started writing when he was 12, writing a school play.
He continued to write, moving on to write a series of plays in the late 1970s.
Each play in the book gave the reader, or planner of the play, to either stick to the script, add some of their content or to allow the reader as much creative freedom as possible.
Some of the books Brian wrote include a basic literacy workbook for adults, The Real Life of Brian (an autobiography), Soaring Above Vultures (published 2002) and Soaring Above Vultures II (published in 2016).
“Soaring Above Vultures teaches readers the basic skills needed to start a business.
“The second in the series was written with Pieter Williams, a specialist on legality surrounding small businesses.
“Everything I have written is from personal knowledge and experience,”said Brian.
Brian bemoaned the low level of reading skills in South Africa.
“The challenge is that both higher education and business demand a high level of comprehension of English for education and training purposes,”said Brian.
In the hope of changing this, Brian started Programmed English Reading and Language System (PERLS), a programme focused on improving children and adults reading skills.
“At first we used an American programme, but found the participants struggling to relate to the content, and the spelling of words.
“The new system makes use of 480 short stories, many of which are SA stories from countries around the world.
“It caters for English Mother-Tongue (EMT) and English Second Language (ESL) users.
“Some techniques the system uses include flashing technique, filling in of the blanks spaces, reading content and a test on the content.
“Depending on the participants’ results, the system will either increase or decrease the difficulty and speed of the next session,” said Brian.
Brian said the PERLS system is based on an access code system with a code valid for 12 months.
Contact PERLS on support@perlsreading.com or 011 704 5402 for more information.
WIN:
The NEWS is giving away 10 lucky winners a chance to win a code to PERLS.
To enter, name the week and event that Caxton’s #WeRead campaign was building up to.
Email your answer to benews@caxton.co.za before October 2, and mark on the subject line, PERLS competition.
Winners will be notified by PERLS.
