The director of the National Institute of Adult Education describes some of the British strategies for bridging the gap between the acquisition of basic skills and their application to patterns of lifelong education. (SK)

Describes a study that investigated the literacy demands required by the task of text editing a manuscript on a computer terminal. (MKM)

Contends that the basic reason for functional illiteracy is that as children, individuals did not develop the ability to meet the challenges required for reading and writing and that children can develop the ability to meet these challenges by having parents read to them at an early age. (FL)

Addresses three questions: (1) what individual paths lead selected nonmainstream writers from the "Tenderloin" inner-city area of San Francisco to their craft; (2) how the contexts and relationships with the community support the growth of written expression; and (3) how this support affects individual and community growth. (MG)

One hundred sixty adult basic education students functioning at or below the sixth-grade level rated the extent to which they needed to learn 20 functional tasks. Factor analysis suggested three broad categories: everyday reading and writing, math and measurement, and special literacy tasks. Cluster analysis identified distinct subgroups based on…

Observes the language and the literacy behaviors in evidence at a shopping center food court. Muses on the "functional literacy" of the writer's immigrant mother-in-law. Discusses the range and extent of the literacies possessed by an elementary school student who, at the start of the school year, did not consider himself to be either a…

There should not be a split between literacy of function (ability to deal with institutional procedures) and literacy of voice (expression of knowledge and experience). Acquiring functional literacy often involves voicing experience as well as questioning institutional power. Teachers and students should collaborate in bridging the gap. (SK)

Calls into question whether the role of literacy and the function of schooling is to accommodate economic, social, and political structures. Examines multiple viewpoints of literacy and the difficulty of constructing a concept of literacy appropriate for diverse persons and changing circumstances. (SK)

Describes the rationale, development, and administration of the test used for measuring levels of achievement in functional literacy in Guyana. Draws attention to the difficulty of attracting funding for literacy programmes from international aid agencies, given the inflated adult literacy rate that is reported for Guyana in international…

Contends most people in Third World need functional and development-oriented literacy (FDL) if they are to contribute meaningfully to illiteracy eradication and attainment of sustainable national development in respective countries. Arguing current literacy instruction approaches in most Third World countries can't sustain FDL, suggests adoption…

Purpose: There is limited amount of research that constitutes non-traditional curricula implemented within an institutionalized context of developing countries. An attempt is made in this project to gain a clearer understanding of a non-traditional early learning program within an orphanage campus setting of Ladyville, Belize, Central America.…

As part of the National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS) of 1992, the National Center for Education Statistics published a separate study that focuses on the literacy skills of older adults (aged 60 years and older) from a variety of perspectives, such as age, sex, amount of education, race or ethnic background, income, and geographic region. Some of…

This article provides a discussion of the importance and use of a method of systematic critical analysis, metatheorizing, as a tool for understanding the current research and debate in deafness and literacy. After reviewing background information on the notion of metatheorizing, the article presents some general remarks relative to the debate on…

The presentation is a brief and free paraphrase of a 1968 article by Thomas G. Saunders (in the American Universities Field Staff Report, West Coast South America Series, vol. 15 n1). The Freire Method makes literacy training a critical, active process through which habits of resignation are overcome. (Author)