Bilingual vocational education (BVE) offers a way to improve both the job and English skills of workers with limited English proficiency (LEP). Initially using both the native language and English to provide job training makes instruction immediately comprehensible to the students. Gradually, the use of the native language decreases while English…

The numbers of women with low literacy levels, the increased labor force participation of women, and increasing literacy requirements on the job make the case for the inclusion of a literacy component in employment programs for women. Such programs should strive to be comprehensive, learner-centered, flexible, standards-based, and linked to…

Recent developments have broadened the definition of literacy to multiple literacies--bodies of knowledge, skills, and social practices with which we understand, interpret, and use the symbol systems of our culture. This compilation looks at the various literacies as the application of critical abilities to several domains of importance to adult…

Research documenting links between levels of education and health outcomes suggests people with higher educational attainment may have a health advantage. Health literacy issues that go beyond basic skills include health information communication; literacy and health as cultural and social practices; a relationship among health information,…

The increasing emphasis on managed health care, which requires health consumers to make complex decisions, is reinforcing the importance of literacy skills. "Health literacy," which refers to the ability to engage in such activities as health-related critical thinking, problem solving, self-directed learning, and self-advocacy, is…