Apparent reading deficiencies among entering workers, combined with increasing demands for highly skilled workers, have led business and industry to increase their training and education efforts. One aspect of this effort requires understanding the reading demands people in various occupations are likely to encounter. This study examines the…

Compared self-administered and examiner-administered depression adjective check lists. Half of each form was administered in standard manner and half was read by examiners to psychiatric inpatients. Analysis revealed no significant effects for vocabulary, sex, or method of administration. Results support examiner-administered method in cases of…

From interviews with 18 low-literate prisoners, the following observations were made: few could function effectively without assistance, which was most likely to come from fellow prisoners; functioning depended on type and importance of literacy tasks to the individual and individual abilities and characteristics. The complexity within this small…

The first section of this paper reports the results of numerous literacy studies in which adults were tested on a variety of tasks, including filling out forms, answering questions about newspaper classified advertisements, and dealing with certain facets of consumer economics. The percentage of adults in the United States reported to be literate…

One hundred sixty adult basic education students functioning at or below the sixth-grade level rated the extent to which they needed to learn 20 functional tasks. Factor analysis suggested three broad categories: everyday reading and writing, math and measurement, and special literacy tasks. Cluster analysis identified distinct subgroups based on…

Contends most people in Third World need functional and development-oriented literacy (FDL) if they are to contribute meaningfully to illiteracy eradication and attainment of sustainable national development in respective countries. Arguing current literacy instruction approaches in most Third World countries can't sustain FDL, suggests adoption…

This article examines the historical literacy experiences and current literacy practices of the parents of one working class family as they shape the literacy learning of their four-year-old daughter. Data collected from field notes, observations, and videotaped interviews of the parents and daughter were analyzed and events sorted into categories…

The functional literacy of various groups of 17-year-old students was assessed to discover whether the reading skills which are usually taught in the schools are adequate for functioning in everyday life. Eighty-six test exercises were classified according to the various formats of reading materials they represent and according to the types of…

In 1974, the National Right to Read Effort asked that the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) conduct a Mini-Assessment of Functional Literacy (MAFL) in conjunction with its regular assessment of ten learning areas usually taught in school. The first MAFL was administered to 5,200 17-year-olds statistically selected to represent the…

Proposes redefining the problem of illiteracy in terms of a "social-interaction perspective" that would emphasize the need "to acculturate students to the practices of reading in their communities" and the broad range of reading competencies required by today's society. (JBM)

Distinguishes between functional and elective illiterates and attempts to explain the extent and causes of elective illiteracy in Canada. Describes a model of reading activity that confirms expected bivariate associations between elective illiteracy and education, settlement type, language, age, and occupation but reveals three complicating higher…

A study examined the relevancy of freshman composition to writing in the workplace. Four professionals in middle management who had been out of college for a number of years were surveyed by e-mail about their writing in the workplace, college education, freshman writing classes, and importance of seven skills employers want employees to have.…

In this study the authors investigate the experience of Sandy, a nontraditional university undergraduate whose student teaching took place in a small, impoverished rural community in the southwestern U.S. They focus on her student teaching experience with third graders in a community whose youngsters, living in rural poverty, were at-risk in their…

In presenting the work of participants before and during the Symposium, the report begins with an introduction giving an overall view of concepts, projects, and problems of functional literacy with reference to other sections of the report. The keynote lecture deals with functional literacy in the context of adult education--results and innovative…

This study developed an inventory that could be used to assess adult beginning readers' attitudes toward reading in the three attitudinal dimensions of beliefs, feelings, and behaviors and in five reading situations identified by a sample of adult beginning readers. Suggested uses for the inventory were generated. (Author/CH)