This study is a critical analysis of a low-stakes in-house English as a Second Language (ESL) and English literacy test from a local program in a large city in the southwestern United States. From a critical multimodal social semiotic perspective (Kress G. Multimodality: A social semiotic approach to contemporary communication. Routledge, 2010;…

The argument is advanced that many literacy materials, such as basal readers and workbooks, do not allow literacy students to learn to read and write in the daily context in which the skills will be used, and an alternative is described. The limitations of phonics-based materials and the resulting controlled vocabulary of readers and workbooks…

A teacher-training project was conducted in Northern Nevada to identify the needs of recent immigrants, to create materials that will meet those needs while keeping on a basic, survival level of English proficiency, and to develop techniques to retain the individuals in class once they have been attracted into the educational program. The project…

Problems facing literacy education include how to attract nonEnglish speaking and illiterate adults to the programs and how to reduce attrition and increase motivation for the students who do come to the programs. One method that could help to solve these problems is "community literacy," an approach to learning in which the curriculum…

This guide is designed to help volunteers and teachers use English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) materials in the Free Library of Philadelphia's Reader Development Program collection. The first part is a general overview of ESL, including a description of approaches and methods for teaching. The second part presents suggestions for successful…

A project researched a process and generated a sample product to facilitate the teaching of English to adults who have limited proficiency in reading, speaking, or writing the language. Specific areas of interest included using a videocassette recorder (VCR) as a supplemental delivery system, using home video equipment to develop instructional…

This guide is a catalog of adult education English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) materials, covering literacy, citizenship, and life-coping skills. It is intended to serve the needs of adult education ESL instructors and supervisors. The catalog is organized in three sections. Section I consists of evaluations of 27 instructional systems. Information…

This document contains 43 papers on many aspects of adult literacy: "Literacy, Human Rights and Equality of Opportunity" (Einfeld); "Overcoming Illiteracy" (Marquet); "The Literacy Issue" (Crocker); "Literacy and Civil Liberties" (O'Gorman); "Designing a Tutor Training Program for Tutors of ESL"…

A 310 Project, Learn to Read, was conducted by Oakton Community College in suburban Chicago to teach reading to functionally illiterate and limited English speaking (LEP) adults using a variety of approaches. Participants included two groups. One group consisted of American-born adults who had basic oral competency but had failed to acquire…