We hear or read the following phrases often: "Everybody spends so much time on their smartphones that they never look up." "Just send me an email and we'll work out the scheduling." "You'll find all the job application materials on our website, where you can submit your application online." However, adults with low…

In order to assess various reading and writing abilities of adults, for comparison with corresponding abilities of pupils in grades 7 through 12, and to investigate the extent to which adults' reading and writing abilities can be regarded as satisfactory, answers to a series of tests and questionnaire data were obtained from random samples of…

Describes a study that investigated the literacy demands required by the task of text editing a manuscript on a computer terminal. (MKM)

Twenty-four adults participated in an experiment to determine the difficulty of conditional sentences of the kinds frequently found in the instructions in government forms. The stimulus materials were 128 sentence frames of the form, "If you are X, press button Y," where X was replaced by sixteen different coordinate structures. These…

This study investigated various reading and writing abilities among 25- and 35-year-old residents of Linkoping, Sweden, and assessed the extent to which these individuals' abilities could be regarded as satisfactory for their needs. In all, 377 subjects were tested on the following skills: alphabet recognition, copying ability, reading rate,…

Describes the development and pilot testing of an interactive software lesson series designed to increase reading and writing abilities of illiterate adults and adolescents. Results of pilot studies of the High Quality Educational Program indicate the microcomputer approach to instruction combined with appropriate software offers a promising tool…

A project is described that attempted to formulate a meaningful concept of adult performance levels, to devise instruments to measure performance at those levels, and to use those instruments to assess the functional competence of a representative sample of the population of the United States. Three levels of competence are defined in terms of…

This biliography is intended to help educators locate materials, ideas, and methods which will enable adults to become more functionally literate. Readability levels are provided for many items. The bibliography is divided into six sections. The first section lists materials for the professional educator, including resources, staff development…