Attainment of functional English literacy skills by all students has been a focus of Australian national policy since the 1989 Hobart Declaration (MCEETYA, 1989). This focus underpins current educational accountability policy enacted through the National Assessment Program-Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN). The Adelaide and Melbourne Declarations…

This paper uses Cambodia as a case study to problematise the notion of choice in the spread of English. I explore specific historical contexts which were central to the construction of the demand for English and English language teaching (ELT) in Cambodia. The actions of a range of external agencies resulted in the close discursive articulation of…

Adult English language learners who lack print literacy or experience with formal education encounter a unique set of challenges in their lives and their efforts to learn English. Educators and policymakers are similarly challenged by how best to help these adults acquire English literacy. This paper reviews a variety of research, including that…

This paper examines strategies of developing functional literate citizens in Western Nigeria because it is believed that the problems of unemployment in the area are caused by the non-functional literacy programmes that have been on for long. The aim of the study is to promote the teaching of functional literacy to adults and those who are out of…

The challenge of peace building in Nigeria is increasing as communities continue to show adversary tendencies. This is happening even after many third party conflict transformation efforts have been expended to resolve and set a conducive climate for stakeholders to sustain peace. Some peace building assessment projects have indicated that the…

Published in London between 1839 and 1852 and aligned with the commercial objectives of the New Zealand Company, the "New Zealand Journal" included letters from emigrants. This paper studies letters written by a small cohort of rural labourers who emigrated from Ham House in Surrey to Wellington in 1841. Following Dorothy Smith, I read…

This ethnographic study employs a gender perspective to understand the motivations of eight women literacy learners participating in a village-based functional literacy programme in rural North-eastern Thailand. Field research took place over six months of periodic residence in a North-eastern Thai village, and involved participant observation,…

The study of the Functional Literacy Program in India encountered problems of opposition to evaluation, inappropriate respondents, and difficulties in contacting participants, which point to changes that should be made in the evaluation methods. (SK)

Workplace literacy has been a recent addition to the field of literacy education and research, achieving a level of "commonsense" acceptability so that its meaning(s) or constructions have largely gone unchallenged. A study, therefore, explored the concepts of "work,""workers," and "literacy," not so much to…

Summarizes the findings of Book Flood studies in Niue, Fiji, Singapore, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Solomon Islands, and several other developing countries. It is possible to double the rate of reading acquisition of Third World primary school pupils with a Book Flood of about 100 high-interest books per class and short teacher training sessions.…

The theoretical background and empirical studies concerned with the relationship between language and cognition in bilingual children and in bilingual mildly retarded children are examined. It is suggested that the effects of bilingualism are not necessarily detrimental to mildly handicapped children. Cognitive and interactional factors in the…

Reviews literature on U.S. Office of Education-sponsored Adult Performance Level project that cites among its accomplishments (1) a model for competency-based education, (2) creation of national awareness of illiteracy, and (3) individualized programs. Among its insufficiencies are absence of reliable measures of validity, value-laden curriculum,…

The study evaluated the readability of warning labels on potentially hazardous substances sold in a grocery store. Findings indicated the reading level of half the key words ranged from 4th grade to 10th grade and that many words seldom taught to the moderately or severely retarded appeared frequently and others commonly taught appeared rarely.…

Describes the lack of education of Black prison inmates. Discusses relative benefits and costs of educational programs to inmates and citizens. Provides seven examples of successful state-run programs and comments on the future possibilities for laws requiring educational programs for all inmates. (JS)

The purpose of this investigation was to determine the effects of American music, lyrics, vocabulary definitions, and song explanations during online music study on listening comprehension, vocabulary acquisition, and lifestyle literacy in Taiwanese ESL learners. One-hundred-eight ESL learners from 2 large comprehensive universities in Taiwan…