This article focuses on low-performing adult readers in the Scandinavian countries, seeking to identify and describe some of the literacy-related problems that they face. Following a presentation of the Reading Components Assessment (RCA) used in PIAAC (Program for International Assessment of Adult Competencies), we provide profiles for those…

The work reported in this paper is an offshoot of a project started in early 1986 and designed to produce a comparison between the vocabulary in the TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) texts and the vocabulary found in contemporary non-technical English writing. This study investigated the unique words and differences in frequency…

A study examined the English vocabulary of English textbooks used in Swedish upper secondary schools to distinguish differences between the vocabulary of the textbooks and modern, everyday English as represented by newspapers, books and the colloquial language. Fifty-six books were included in the sample. In the selection process, account was made…