Education has been identified as one of the most important ways to achieve national development. With 3 million non-literate adults in Lagos State, the commercial nerve center of the nation, radio becomes a veritable medium to teach such adults who, for several reasons including economic, do not have the opportunity of formal schooling. The study…

This study explored how 14 foreign-language writers at a university in Japan changed their genre awareness of discussion genre texts (particularly argumentative essays) during a 15-week systemic functional linguistics course consisting of text-based writing lessons assigned as part of a teaching and learning cycle. To obtain in-depth quantitative…

Lesotho's educational system and development are largely influenced by missionaries and colonisers who taught the three 'Rs' (reading, writing and numeracy skills) to the Basotho. Most of those enlightened Basotho were to carry on the duties of either educating others or as missionary workers. Some became clerks, interpreters, police officers,…

This study examined the progress of English as a foreign language (EFL) writers using the instructional framework of systemic functional linguistics (SFL) and the communities of practice (CoPs) model. The study participants comprised 11 first-year undergraduate students in Japan with intermediate-level English proficiency who were exposed to SFL…

This article describes an unconventional method to teach un-contracted braille reading and writing skills to students who are blind and have additional disabilities. It includes a keyboarding curriculum that focuses on the whole language approach to literacy. A special feature is the keyboard that is adapted with braille symbols. Un-contracted…

Causes of aliteracy, having reading and writing skills but choosing not to use them, are discussed. Ways of preventing it by making reading relevant and connecting reading to writing are suggested. Enabling preservice teachers to become confident in their ability to write is stressed. (MT)

Discusses the current state of literacy and suggests that there is a renaissance of interest in the teaching of rhetoric and composition. (AEA)

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

Contends that the basic reason for functional illiteracy is that as children, individuals did not develop the ability to meet the challenges required for reading and writing and that children can develop the ability to meet these challenges by having parents read to them at an early age. (FL)

An analysis is provided of the belief that theories developed about literacy within different academic disciplines and development campaigns have been built around contradictory assumptions. The conclusion is made that research is needed in order to make literacy instruction more functional in adult literacy programs. (109 references) (GLR)

Describes the writing and business communication problems of college-educated workers in Silicon Valley. Discusses hidden illiterates in the universities and in the workplace. Offers solutions for professors and managers faced with the problem of hidden illiterates. (PRA)

Relates Victorian attitudes toward education by a forgotten 19th century liberal educator concerned with proper moral education. Concludes that uses and development of basic literacy are severely bound by individual and social contexts and that basic literacy does not, in itself, wield a magical transforming power for learning and life. (TRS)

A framework for a competency rating scale combines types of literacy (reading, writing, numeracy, and document processing) and literacy levels (basic and required). Indicators of the competencies derived from individual behavior show whether the competency is fully established, just developing, or absent. (SK)

Little empirical evidence exists on how adult literacy learners act as consumers. Yet, adult literacy programs often employ a "functional" approach to consumer education and assume that adult learners are deficient in consumer skills. Data from a qualitative study of the consumer behaviors of adult literacy learners are used to explore how adult…

According to a National Assessment of Educational Progress report, most American school children have mastered reading and writing fundamentals without learning how to analyze, evaluate, and extend ideas they read and write about. To address this "surface understanding" problem, the report recommends literacy programs aimed at high risk…