A study was conducted to determine the costs of illiteracy in Canada and to suggest future efforts to combat it. Research was conducted by interviewing 35 persons involved with education in Canada, such as officials of the Ministry of Skills Development, other government officials, statisticians, employment service personnel, representatives of…

This document describes the British Adult Literacy and Basic Skills Unit (ALBSU) because information on the ALBSU experience might be useful to planners working to establish a similar national literacy center in the United States. (The ALBSU was formed in London in the mid-1970s to support the BBC's television-based national adult literacy…

The field of cognitive science (as represented, for instance, by intergenerational literacy programs) offers new ways to think about increasing cognitive abilities, which is particularly important in view of the disappointing outcomes of many intervention programs that do not seem to make their participants more knowledgeable or better thinkers.…

The National Child Development Study is a longitudinal survey of all people who were born in the week of March 3-9, 1958 in England, Scotland, and Wales--approximately 17,000 people. A project used information collected from 12,500 of these people through interviews in 1981 when they were 23 years old. The project sought to determine (1) what…

The elimination of adult functional illiteracy has been declared a national priority. More than the ability to decipher a given text, functional literacy means the practical application of literacy skills to life in a particular society or group. But this in turn demands that the individual have enough prior knowledge of the surrounding culture…

A study researched the existence of established Adult Basic Education (ABE) curricula for incarcerated adult inmate/students in state correctional education programs, specifically the functionally illiterate. All 50 State Departments of Corrections were surveyed by questionnaire; 44 responded. ABE was a basis for curricula according to 37.6% of…

THE NEED FOR AN ADULT BASIC EDUCATION CENTER IS ILLUSTRATED BY STATISTICS ON ILLITERACY IN THE UNITED STATES FROM THE 1960 CENSUS. ELEVEN PERCENT OF ADULTS WERE FUNCTIONALLY ILLITERATE AND NEARLY 2.3 MILLION HAD NEVER BEEN ENROLLED IN A SCHOOL. CONCERN TO ERADICATE ILLITERACY IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD IS SHOWN IN UNESCO'S RESOLUTION AND…

A study compared the effectiveness of Learning 100 (L-100), a multimedia, multimodal, multilevel communication skills system, with that of a more conventional reading program with functional illiterates in Bedford-Stuyvesant, a ghetto area in Brooklyn, New York. In January, 1968, under the Title III Adult Education Act of 1966, Adult Basic…

As an initial effort to assess reading in correctional institutions, a questionnaire was sent to some 70 state directors of corrections, both adult and juvenile, by the National Clearinghouse for Offender Literacy Programs which is sponsored by the American Bar Association, the American Correctional Association, and the National Association of…

The Brazilian Literacy Movement (MOBRAL-El Movimento Brasileno de Alfabetizacion de Adultos) is discussed in terms of its legal and conceptual bases, organization, participants, technical aspects, and effectiveness. Established by law December 15, 1967 to lower the illiteracy rate in Brazil by improving educational opportunities for the…

Recommendations for assisting the functionally illiterate adult are given. These include: (1) administration of quality adult education programs to them, (2) administration of basic education programs with LOGICAL OUTREACH components, (3) positive incentives for learning, (4) exemplary teachers, (5) proper evaluation, and (6) maximum cooperation…

The hypothesis of this study was that a predominantly localized visual-aural recruitment package would be effective in attracting and recruiting functionally illiterate adults into Adult Basic Education programs. In order to test this hypothesis, data pertaining to past and current methods of recruiting students to Adult Basic Education programs…

In order to identify the reading behavior and instructional needs of functionally illiterate adults reading below fourth grade level, 50 adults were identified and diagnosed on the Durrell Analysis of Reading Difficulty test and the Slosson Intelligence Test for Children and Adults. In addition, a questionnaire was administered to Oklahoma City…

The Baltimore Learning Center is designed to provide functionally illiterate adults with the basic skills they need to compete for jobs. The Center's success is largely due to PLATO (Programmed Logic for Automated Teaching Operations), a computer-aided instruction system that lets the student work at his own pace. (MF)

Although adult basic education has been profoundly influenced by the concept of functional literacy, definition of this concept is clouded by false assumptions. From this critique of the economic approach to literacy emerges a new approach: locating literacy in its social context and relating it to information needs and access. (SK)