Teaching modern foreign languages is not all about communicative skills. It is also about testing functional abilities. While we still pay lip service to the creed of communicative language teaching, we have adopted test formats and teaching styles that follow a hidden agenda: the production of human capital. The main objective of teaching is…

According to Peha (2016), fiction is all about character. What a character wants, how they go about getting it, and how they change throughout the trajectory of the narrative are key factors that drive a story and make it meaningful. This paper integrates strategies from both narratology (Nikolajeva, 2002; 2005; Rimmon-Kenan, 2002) and linguistics…

For art educators, teaching textual literacy can be a challenge. In a review of literature, Hall (2005) found that content area teachers (as opposed to teachers of Reading and English) did not feel qualified to teach reading and believed that students did not need reading instruction to be successful with texts from their specific disciplines.…

It was not until the end of the 1970s that public debate on the problem of functional illiteracy among adults began in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). Even afterward, Germans were reluctant to admit that illiteracy was a problem in their country. Literacy education efforts began at the local level, and the first national conference on adult…

"Contested Ground: Performance Accountability in Adult Basic Education" (ABE) is one of the most important books on adult literacy policy at the turn of the century. In it, Juliet Merrifield examines the critical issues of policy, practice, and theory with which the field is currently consumed. She and her colleagues maintain that the concept of…

This book, which is intended as a practical guide to functional literacy at the grassroots level, addresses a range of issues encountered by literacy workers when mobilizing, planning, teaching, supervising, and evaluating adult literacy programs. The following topics are discussed: adult literacy, literacy teachers, and literacy work; the many…

This booklet, which was written for adult literacy practitioners in Australia, examines some key issues currently being raised about new information technologies and technological literacy. The following are among the topics discussed in the booklet's nine sections: innovation and dissemination (effects of videocassette recorders, computers, and…

This book is a systematic exploration of literacy programs for adults with developmental disabilities. The following are among the topics discussed: issues in adult literacy (multicultural issues, combining literacy instruction with transition, and assessment of adult literacy); the developmental basis for adult literacy education (postformal…

Together, these four newsletters contain 36 articles devoted to adult literacy research and practice and the relationship between them. The following articles are included: "A Productive Partnership" (Richard J. Murnane, Bob Bickerton); "Welcome to 'Focus on Basics'" (Barbara Garner); "Applying Research on the Last Frontier" (Karen Backlund, Kathy…

This book contains eight papers on adult learning and literacy. "The Year 1998 in Review" (Fran Tracy-Mumford) examines educational legislation and policy and developments in adult education program development, program accountability, strategic alliances and partnerships, and instructional methodologies and technologies. "Lessons…