Literacy assessment is essential for effective literacy instruction and training. However, traditional paper-based literacy assessments are typically decontextualized and may cause stress and anxiety for test takers. In contrast, serious games and game environments allow for the assessment of literacy in more authentic and engaging ways, which has…

Children's early knowledge and skills set the stage for later reading development. The present studies examined children's conceptual knowledge of reading prior to formal literacy instruction. Young children's knowledge about who is able to read books and what readers are reading when they read books has been studied primarily through interviews.…

Background: The array of availability of diverse digital reading applications, the mixed results emerging from small-scale experimental studies, as well as the long-standing tradition and range of known positive developmental outcomes gained from adult-child storybook reading warrant an investigation into electronic storybooks (e-books) by…

Lifelong learning is an established concept in international education, with the discourse surrounding it implying that it is globally relevant. Nevertheless, lifelong learning takes place in specific local contexts in which features such as language, location and content are distinctive. This raises the question: How is an understanding of the…

This study examines an assessment strategy used with incarcerated literacy learners. The strategy employed a traditional set of reading tests as well as open-ended interviews. Two stances--increasingly reconciled in the reading community--framed this assessment: (a) a post-positivist stance that promotes a normed, component-level assessment of…

This is Part II of a two-part report on an assessment strategy used with incarcerated literacy learners. As described in Part I, the strategy employed a traditional set of reading tests as well as open-ended interviews. Two stances--increasingly reconciled in the reading community--framed this assessment: (a) a post-positivist stance that promotes…

The home literacy environment is a well-established predictor of children's language and literacy development. We investigated whether formal, informal, and indirect measures of the home literacy environment predict children's reading and language skills once maternal language abilities are taken into account. Data come from a longitudinal study…

Literacy problems are highly prevalent and can persist into adulthood. Yet, the majority of research on the predictive nature of cognitive skills to literacy has primarily focused on development and adolescent populations. The aim of the present study was to extend existing research to investigate the roles of IQ scores and Working Memory…

"Reading maturity" is a construct that looks broadly at reading development encompassing not only basic reading skills but reading habits, attitudes, and dispositions. It has a rich history and this article calls for a need to make reading maturity a necessary part of the literacy curriculum. It offers a working description and reviews…

The purpose of this study is to determine the literacy skill level of the adults who participated in the basic level literacy programs when they complete the program and to investigate the relation of the determined level of literacy skill with socio-economic features of adults. Research is a descriptive study using mixed-method design. Study is…

In the early 1990s, UNESCO estimated that perhaps 97% of the world's 650 million disabled persons were unable to read or write, leading to significant efforts throughout the developing world to ensure that all children with disabilities attended school through "inclusive education" programmes. But what of the vast majority of persons with…

The Early Learning Guidelines: Nebraska's Birth to Five Learning and Development Standards (hereafter referred to as the Guidelines) is a resource to provide information about young children's learning and development. The Guidelines are intended to assist adults in planning and providing meaningful learning experiences and environments for…

Both within and beyond the OECD region, governments and other stakeholders are increasingly interested in the assessments of the skills of their adult populations in order to monitor how well prepared they are for the challenges of the knowledge based society. The current paper provides an overview of the two international assessments of adult…

This paper explores three current notions of literacy, which underpin the theorisation and practice of teaching and learning for both children and adults in England. In so doing, it raises certain problems inherent in these approaches to literacy and literacy education and shows how Stanley Cavell's notions of reading, and especially his reading…

Examines trends in crude and functional literacy rates and the purposes of literacy throughout American history. Discusses the implications of this history on the current and future state of literacy. (HTH)