Examines various approaches that have been taken to promote literacy and makes a plea for more research to clarify issues that will permit more useful definitions of literacy and more productive approaches to developing and enhancing literacy among youth and adults. (HOD)

Over twenty years of attempts to provide instruction in adult literacy skills have accomplished very little in the country of Ethiopia. (MKM)

Urges that a complete science education curriculum should teach the communication skills of reading, listening, writing, and speaking, as well as the practice of literacy in scientific areas. (AEA)

Reports on a new adult literacy agency in England established to advise local education authorities. (MKM)

Describes characteristic literacy problems of the U.S. workforce and reports on industry's efforts to close the gap between the skills brought to the job and those required on the job. (HOD)

Reviews ERIC materials dealing with relative and absolute definitions of literacy. (FL)

Describes the way in which the Mandinkos of West Africa provide for literacy instruction. (MKM)

Reviews research on the average reading level in the United States, on how well the average American needs to read, and on what the average American can and does read. (MKM)

Cites attempts to define and assess adult literacy, noting the trend toward real-life performance-task items which are criterion referenced. (MKM)

Explores the function of reading in several societies. (MKM)

Notes recipients of the second International Reading Association Literacy Awards (with the first prize going to the Ethiopian Coordinating Committee for the National Literacy Campaign) and presents the comments about the value of literacy work made at the ceremony by UNESCO Director-General Amadou-Mahtar M'Bow. (MKM)

Proposes authentic assessment and pragmatic instruction as two strategies for closing the literacy gap for African Americans. (PRA)

Presents an unexpurgated interview with an 18-year-old prisoner soon after he learned to read and write, showing the importance of teacher caring in the process. (HOD)

Praises Peter Johnston's thoughtful, constructive use of the term dyslexia in his article that appeared in the May 1985, "Harvard Educational Review." (HOD)

Hypothesizes two historical explanations for the phenomenon of literacy and suggests that current technological developments may preclude the need for literacy as it is known today. (AEA)