How do you improve communication with patients with low health literacy?

Speak English!: Or whatever the native language os of the patient! physicians often resort to "fancy" words and definitely not normal language in discussing medical problems. If we spoke simply in understandable terms, that would help. Also, rather than telling patients things, I have found if i ask first what they know about a problem, it often lets me focus on what they don't know: ask-tell-ask is the technique.