The present study addresses word recognition automaticity in Spanish-speaking adults who are neoliterate by assessing the event-related potential N170 for word stimuli. Participants engaged in two reading conditions that vary the degree of attention required for linguistic components of reading: (a) an implicit reading task, in which they detected…

In the current context of extensive national and cross-cultural migration, the education of migrant and refugee children is an important and critical consideration. In the U.S., the education of migrant children--who move with their farm worker parents within states, across state borders and sometimes across national borders--brings challenges…

The authors developed and tested a 35-min psychoeducational program with the goal of increasing Spanish-speaking persons' literacy of psychosis. The program uses popular cultural icons derived from music, art, and videos, as well as a mnemonic device--La CLAve (The Clue)--to increase (a) knowledge of psychosis, (b) efficacy beliefs that one can…

This chapter examines the characteristics and performance of adult immigrants and adult English language learners on the National Assessment of Adult Literacy. These factors are related to key social outcomes such as involvement in the labor force, income, and welfare participation, and the data reported can be used in making decisions about…

Describes efforts and difficulties encountered by health care professionals who attempted to develop a Spanish-language word recognition test as a quick screening for patients' literacy levels, an effort which was ultimately unsuccessful. Notes that the close phoneme-grapheme correspondence of the spelling system means oral reading may not reflect…

Among Chicano and Mexican-born residents of five states, surveyed in 1979, inclusion of Spanish literacy produced a higher literacy rate than is generally cited for this population. Biliteracy and Spanish literacy were associated with educational achievement, family income, employment, and political participation. Associations with gender, age,…

Both a case study of a middle-aged Mexican migrant woman's attempt to learn to read and write and a personal account of the tutor's discovery of some of the social and psychological factors that kept her illiterate. Discusses methodology, materials, techniques, conflicting conceptions of literacy, and sociocultural expectations. (RDN)

Immigration and the role of English are issues very much on the minds of Americans. "English-only" laws in California and elsewhere have ironically not included provision for funding English-language instruction. Nationwide, the demand for classes far exceeds the supply. A survey shows that 37 percent of illiterate adults do not speak English at…