23 million Americans lack the reading and writing skills needed to handle the minimal demands of daily life. The widespread problem of functional illiteracy pervades every segment of society and could erode the ability of the nation to keep up with other technologically advanced countries. (SK)

Presents model using elements of status, social group or speech community, and values for treating literacy as a sociolinguistic phenomenon and in support of bilingual education. Uses Navajo and medieval Jewish languages as examples. (BK)

Functional literacy for inmates is that critical threshold in learning which enables a person to become an autonomous individual capable of reflecting on his/her circumstances and transforming the self and behavior. Once on 'the outside,' the conditions which led to incarceration can hopefully be recognized and avoided. (Author)

Lists and describes the criteria used by the Toronto Public Library in selecting basic reading materials for functional illiterates. (CHC)

The study of the Functional Literacy Program in India encountered problems of opposition to evaluation, inappropriate respondents, and difficulties in contacting participants, which point to changes that should be made in the evaluation methods. (SK)

Following notes on the extent of illiteracy in the Third World, a model is outlined for a functional literacy program with focus on the roles of the village worker and of the participants. (WL)

Examines the performance of Moroccan children on a series of common household literacy tasks, and whether their performance on these tasks was related to school literacy skills, school experience, and other factors. Finds that although the children had learned many skills relevant to household literacy tasks, they demonstrated only partial…

A survey of 53 probation services in England and Wales and visits to 13 revealed unsystematic provision of literacy services in correctional rehabilitation, conflicting perspectives on how literacy should be defined and taught, and ambivalence about the role of probation officers as punitive or preventive. (SK)

The functional literacy discourse ignores the ideological role of literacy in society and enables workers to be blamed for poor economic performance. A more meaningful concept of literacy at work includes understanding workplaces as communities of practice and inclusion of the voices and experiences of workers. (SK)

A test measuring document, prose, and quantitative literacy of out-of-school youth in Guyana found that only 11% had high levels of functional literacy, a literacy rate much lower than usually reported. Failure to represent the situation accurately prolongs the lack of political will to deal with the issue. (SK)

Compares three perspectives on contextual literacy and gives examples of program settings with which each is philosophically congruent: (1) literacy as social practices, focused on use in daily life; (2) functional context literacy, mastery of concrete tasks embedded in environments; and (3) critical literacy, analysis of oppression and use of…

Once upon a time, Americans identified illiteracy among high school graduates as a national crisis. The solution, almost everyone agreed, was to teach every child to read by the end of third grade. If students could read well by then, the reasoning went, they would read even better in all the grades that followed. However, the 2005 results of the…

This study considers two questions: (1) Who are the functional illiterates in the Reno-Sparks area? and (2) How can they be brought into the adult basic education program if they are not at present enrolled? A survey was made of the area to obtain statistical information concerning the functional illiterates. A compilation of the statistics is…

This paper presents a proposal for a new approach to the fundamental problem of illiteracy existing among the Indians in the northern prairie provinces of Canada. It also suggests several ways in which the use of native language can be strengthened. The approach to be used in solving the language problem is the Teaching of English as a Second…

The first of two articles addressing the issue of user documentation for computer software discusses the need to teach users how to read documentation. The second presents a guide for writing documentation that is based on the instructional systems design model, and makes suggestions for the desktop publishing of user manuals. (CLB)