Twenty-first century literacy includes a mixture of digital and print literacy skills and strategies. AutoTutor for Adult Reading Comprehension is a web-based intelligent tutoring system that is designed to help adult learners develop effective reading comprehension strategies. Lessons span basic reading skills (vocabulary, word parts),…

Facing the demands of the pandemic and distance learning, English learners require educational technologies that are accessible, engaging, and effective. Meeting these demands requires educational technology developers to consider learners' sociocultural contexts. Learning theories can be applied to meet individuals' needs to optimize chances for…

Based on experiences teaching a middle grades literacy course for pre-service teachers, this "Voices from the Field" article examines how challenging texts provoke adult learners to more closely attend to their reading experiences. By engaging with difficult texts, pre-service teachers experience frustration and confusion while reading.…

The Center for the Study of Adult Literacy (CSAL) seeks to improve our understanding of ways to advance the reading skills of adult learners. Our web-based instructional tutor uses trialogues in the AutoTutor framework to deliver lessons in reading comprehension. We have found a way to manipulate proven comprehension strategies to fit the daily…

Adult learners of English as a second language attend classes with various goals in mind with the most common being gainful employment. To obtain their goals, these learners must successfully acquire language and literacy in English. This can be a daunting task for English language learners as well as their teachers. Goal-oriented adult learners…

The Effective Instructional Strategies Series is a collection of six booklets based on the components used in Pacific Communities with High-performance In Literacy Development (Pacific CHILD), a principles-based professional development program consisting of research-based teaching and learning strategies proven to help improve students' reading…

Institutions of higher education realise the importance of the role of learning organisations in terms of providing personnel training and updating. Yet further consideration should be given to flexible and accessible means for meeting the growing request for continuous learning. Jason Hughes describes an organization's capability to "learn how to…

Based in a constructivist paradigm, socio-cultural views of literacy place a high degree of importance on how students connect to what they read. This means that instruction must follow constructivist principles and allow ample opportunity for discussion and learner-centered activities. In addition, this framework requires careful attention be…

The development of a comprehension-based graduate-level intensive course and instructional materials in English for Special Purposes is described. The 2-week course and materials were designed for visiting Latin American faculty members in agricultural education. Course goals were to improve participants' academic English proficiency, to prepare…

A Personalized System of Instruction (PSI) program for nontraditional adult learners was developed, implemented, and evaluated. The study objective was to determine if further investigation of use of PSI was worthwhile. From a review of literature and practice of PSI and adult learning, conclusions were drawn regarding major factors to consider…