Using the data from the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), this Data Point summarizes the number of U.S. adults with low levels of English literacy and describes how they differ by nativity status and race/ethnicity. PIAAC is a large-scale international study of working-age adults (ages 16-65) that assesses…

Through this international cross-case analysis of ethnographic literacy practices data, we investigated two questions: (1) In what literacy practices do adults with limited or no schooling engage for personal fulfillment? and (2) What do these practices reveal about the nature of literacy for individuals who are often characterized as illiterate?…

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…

Most microcredit institutions focus on giving out credit to their clients with the assumption that these clients have the capacity and ability to manage the credit efficiently and the human capital to operate efficiently. There is evidence to show that most women in the Savelugu/Nanton district of Ghana have access to credit but lack the…

Current pedagogical approaches recognize literacy as a social practice and yet school-based conceptualizations continue to dominate understandings of literacy learning of individuals with intellectual disability. Such understandings lead to local or everyday literacy practices being devalued and overlooked. Thus, for adults with intellectual…

The purpose of this study was to investigate how Canadian adults living with limited literacy and chronic illness made meaning of their patient education experiences. The study used a hermeneutic phenomenological research design and employed three data sources over a nine-month period. Data was interpreted and analyzed as it was collected,…

This study investigated the comparability of paper and computer versions of a functional writing assessment administered to adults 16 and older. Three writing tasks were administered in both paper and computer modes to volunteers in the field test of an assessment of adult literacy in 2008. One set of analyses examined mode effects on scoring by…

This article presents data on the types and duration of reading-related activities reported by a volunteer sample of 400 adults (demographically similar to the U.S. adult population age 20 and older in terms of race, ethnicity, education, and working status) in the 2005 Real-World Tasks Study. This diary study revealed that adults spent, on…

Argues that a successful adult basic education program should recognize the differences between younger students and adults, provide a setting in which adults' dignity is not threatened, carefully diagnose each adult's needs, and prescribe and implement a program to meet those needs. (FL)

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 efforts and difficulties encountered by health care professionals who attempted to develop a Spanish-language word recognition test as a quick screening for patients' literacy levels, an effort which was ultimately unsuccessful. Notes that the close phoneme-grapheme correspondence of the spelling system means oral reading may not reflect…

The message about general literacy standards in Canada (as reported in the Southam Literacy Survey) is that approximately five million Canadians are illiterate. The validity of this message must be challenged because a group of middle-class Canadians with middle-class values established the criteria for being "literate" and felt that all…

This report analyzes the initial results of UNESCO's Experimental World Literacy Programme and makes recommendations for future action. The meaning of functional literacy is discussed, and pilot projects in twelve countries are briefly described. The analysis reveals that the programme has fallen seriously behind schedule, that the number of adult…

Statistics indicating that the problem of illiteracy is lessening mask a greater problem--that of functional illiteracy. Functional illiterates may have some reading and writing skills but are not able to apply them as functioning members of society. A 1975 study using the most sophisticated instrument that had ever been used to determine…

In 1993, under contract from the National Center for Education Statistics, the Educational Testing Service assessed the literacy proficiencies of a nationally representative sample of all adults, aged 16 and over, from nearly 27,000 homes. That assessment, the National Adult Literacy Survey, produced a profile of the English literacy skills of the…