The United States lacks uniform popular definitions of "literacy," remediations, or consensus for national standards. Factors beyond the control of educational and political structures continually modify and dominate discussions of illiteracy and strategies of remediation. In most advanced cultures, alienation and functional illiteracy…

Functional illiteracy is an urgent problem for the U.S. business and industrial communities. Employers can uncover literacy problems among employees by conducting analyses of the literacy tasks needed on the job and assessing the basic skill levels of their work force. The design of a basic skills training program should be based on clearly…

A Canadian Bar Association Task Force on Legal Literacy explored the relationship between literacy and access to the legal system. A literature review revealed that little attention had been directed to literacy and use of the legal system. Three important findings emerged from 24 focus groups of current and former adult learners: virtually all…

A test of job-specific literacy, called the McCoy Assessment of Worksite Literacy Abilities (MAWSLA), could not predict the job success of the 100 employees who took it. The 108-item test was based on literary tasks encountered by employees in the course of a routine day at McCoy Electronics Company, a 560-employee firm in Pennsylvania. The…

The study used data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress report to examine the relationship for young adults between functional literacy skills and educational attainment. Educational attainment was classified into four categories: less than a high school graduate, high school graduate, some postsecondary education, and college…

In recognition of the trend toward functional illiteracy, this study developed and evaluated a criterion-referenced functional literacy test for use in diagnosis and evaluation of Miami-Dade Community College English students. The instrument was pilot-tested on 135 composition students in the fall of 1976, then revised after item analysis and…

The document was prepared as part of a UNESCO contract to train 16 counterpart officials of UNESCO-sponsored literacy projects. Functional literacy was studied in three parts, all dealing with the total planning process. First was project planning. Literacy projects must consider national educational plans and be related to relevant economic…

Phase one of the Ontario Literacy and Health Project established a link between lack of education and increased health problems. Phase two was undertaken for the following purposes: (1) to develop a position paper on literacy and health; (2) to foster working partnerships between literacy groups and health groups that would result in ongoing…

This book provides a historical overview of illiteracy as a social phenomenon in Belgium, examines public policies, and profiles literacy in the French and Flemish communities. It is organized in six chapters. The first chapter presents an overview of literacy in Belgium, with information on the educational system and cultural diversity. Chapter 2…

This paper documents Iraq's efforts to conquer the problem of illiteracy brought about by an inadequate educational system, lack of incentive to become literate, low standard of living, and low levels of school attendance. A general historical perspective of education in Iraq and the Arab world is presented followed by a tracing of the history and…

Experiments reported in this document were intended to shed light on the linguistic and presentational issues surrounding the provision of a subtitling service for deaf schoolchildren. A series of formal experiments was carried out to evaluate deaf children's appreciation of subtitled television programs. (These experiments are described in detail…

Americans aged 60 years and older now represent the largest age cohort of functional illiterates. Educational systems have not adequately addressed the needs of this group. Many older Americans, for whom English is a second language, need instruction in both English and basic literacy skills. Many older adults living at or near poverty levels have…

The 1977 edition of the Florida Functional Literacy Test is a 117-item multiple-choice measure of 13 mathematics and 11 communication skills required for minimal acceptable performance for students to graduate from state high schools. A student must pass at least half of the skills in mathematics and communications and get 70 percent of the items…

Project ALMS (Adult Literacy Mission Support) was designed to improve the communication skills of semi-literate or illiterate adults, help participants become more self-sufficient, provide an ongoing program for other such individuals, and provide a manual of guidelines and suggestions for other programs. Three groups were established to make a…

The Adult Performance Level (APL) project summary specifies the competencies which are functional to economic and educational success in society and describes devices developed for assessing those competencies. The APL theory of functional competency identifies adult needs in general knowledge areas (consumer economics, occupational knowledge,…