The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the learning of basic reading literacy skills in a contextualized, educational career technical training program, specifically the School to Work Program. The study explores whether adult literacy rates can change through students' participation in a contextualized, educational…

New research shows that adults with the lowest literacy and numeracy skills are likely to have experienced substantial disadvantage from early childhood. As the journeys of many adult learners attest, education can transform opportunity. What is more likely to motivate them to take up an educational offer is a life course transition or a new…

The vast majority of American-born adults are exposed to written language from a very early age. Most Americans live in a print-based society where letters and words are everywhere! Drive, walk, or bike down any American street and you will see numerous eye-catching billboards, signs, and storefronts. Our towns, cities, neighborhoods, and homes…

Describes a program for high school students and adults that is designed to improve basic skills, especially in reading. (RB)

This curriculum guide was developed to provide a consistent reading improvement curriculum throughout the Lansing, Michigan, adult education program. An introductory section contains a statement of the purpose of the program, its objectives and goals, student and teacher survey forms, general instructions and suggestions for using the teaching…

Presents a discussion of the rethinking of the role of literacy in African nations. Emphasis is needed on measurement concepts for peasants. Cultural motivations are suggested as important considerations when planning literacy programs. (SA)

An adult basic education curriculum is presented, designed to raise the competencies of adults in the basic areas of oral and written communications, arithmetic, social sciences, occupational planning (including development of occupational concepts and attitudes) and development of self. Basic area skills and activities are presented in three…

A research project examined the production of post-literacy materials through field visits to South Africa, India, Germany, and the Netherlands. In every country the many materials that could be used for the practice of literacy fell into two main groups: special materials (post-literacy and easy reading materials) and real materials (extension…

A study examined basic reading skills among men in prison, comparing poor and adequate readers with respect to comprehension, decoding, short-term memory, and speech perception. Subjects, 88 inmates of normal intelligence, normal hearing, and no significant speech abnormalities, at a minimum-security prison, were given reading comprehension tests…

Interviews with 13 female and 7 male retirees in the West Midlands, England, aged 60-70 plus, ascertained their self-perceived reading, writing, oral communication, and computation skills. It was concluded that basic skills cannot be defined as an identifiable set of coping skills, but must be based on self-perceived requirements within an…

Twenty percent of adult Americans function only with difficulty with necessary every day literacy skills, almost two-thirds of the 800 million illiterate adults in the world are females, and the number of women who cannot read or write has risen steadily in the past 10 years. The inservice program described in this document involved a team of…

These four modules are designed to improve the basic vocabulary skills of students interested in the field of electronics and to introduce them to some basic vocabulary and information of basic electronics. The exercises, prepared for students reading below the eighth-grade level, provide strategies to help students learn the meaning of new words.…

Intended for the Literacy Coordinators of Alberta, this annotated bibliography reflects the needs of the PROSPECTS Adult Literacy Program clientele; therefore, it does not include resources for native learners and includes only resources available at the PROSPECTS library and the Edmonton Public Schools' adult literacy library. One hundred…

The Communication Experience Approach (CEA), a modification of the Language Experience Approach to teaching reading, involves the use of group activities designed to help functionally illiterate persons learn basic communication skills. This paper first discusses six distinct processes in the CEA: setting a specific purpose for communicating,…

Available literature pertaining to the following topics was reviewed: cognitive skill retention across the life span, literacy and basic skills retention, and policy implications of skill retention work. Among the key findings of the review were the following: (1) available evidence suggests that adult literacy skill retention may vary…