This booklet, aimed at adult basic education students, pinpoints and summarizes a few common spelling rules to help make spelling easier, and includes a component on using the dictionary. In the text, each rule is presented with many examples. Exercises follow each spelling rule, allowing students the opportunity to apply the rule to specific…

The Ohio Adult Literacy Survey, like the National Adult Literacy Survey of which it is a part, aimed to characterize adults' literacy skills in English based on their performance on diverse tasks that reflect the types of materials and demands they encounter in their daily lives. To gather information on the literacy skills of adults in Ohio,…

When people seek to augment their reading and writing skills through participation in adult literacy programs, what do they expect to happen? An examination of brochures promoting adult literacy programs both nationally and in Philadelphia indicates that the programs promote adult literacy instruction as empowering learners and rescuing them from…

The Literacy Plus Project, begun in 1985, provides tutoring for English-speaking adults aged 16 and over who live in the Hayward (California) Public Library service area, and whose reading and writing skills are below eighth-grade level. During the 1988-89 program year, the program trained 84 tutors (goal: 100) using a program developed by the…

A general discussion of India's illiteracy rates and of State programs to combat it is presented, emphasizing political motivation. Other developing nation's illiteracy rates are compared with India's. (LH)

Programs, particularly, language teaching, undertaken in Sweden with a view to promoting immigrant adjustment, involve folk high schools, voluntary adult education associations, and municipal adult education. Reaching the isolated immigrant woman and arranging family courses are some of the avenues explored. (JH)

The Adult Education Amendments of 1988 require the Department of Education to submit a report to Congress on the definition of literacy and then to estimate the extent of adult literacy. Literacy has been defined by self-report in early Census Bureau surveys, in a competency-based approach by the Adult Performance Level project, and as "the…

A definition of illiteracy is the inability to read and compute at the standard needed by an adult within a chosen social context. While statistics may vary depending upon the study, women make up the majority of the illiterates nationally and internationally. Three factors that contribute to illiteracy among women are social acculturation and…

Significant research studies, bibliographies, and selected scholarly papers that have analyzed numerous aspects of illiteracy are examined in this paper. A definition, characteristics, and the plight of illiterates are discussed. The following selected research studies are then reviewed and a brief analysis of each is given: (1) "The Acquisition…

This Brief first summarizes research findings regarding computer-assisted instruction (CAI) and its effectiveness in adult literacy education programs. The following findings are given: CAI is effective for a significant number of adult learners; CAI is effective because it provides the adult learner with flexibility, control, individualization,…

Literacy is a commodity of measurable value to those who acquire it. This proposition is easy to accept if the many benefits of acquiring literacy are considered: better jobs, more productive use of leisure time, greater self-sufficiency, increased ability to help one's children with school work and hobbies. The Gannett Foundation first became…

Although there may not be a direct causal relationship between illiteracy and crime a look at the broader picture points to a significant connection. As many as 50 percent of adults in federal and state prisons cannot read or write at all; the majority of prisoners are poor; blacks, comprising only 12 percent of the general population, make up…

Sociocultural concerns have provided the framework for literacy expectations throughout the history of the United States, and have determined the extent to which national emphasis has been placed on adult literacy programs. Early literacy programs have been traced to the Reconstruction period following the Civil War. The next surge of interest in…

These statements, letters, and supplemental materials were provided by: (1) Janet Jones Ballard, Assault on Literacy Program; (2) Representative Jim Cooper, Tennessee; (3) Mitch Snyder, Center for Creative Non-Violence; (4) Garrett Murphy, Division of Adult and Continuing Education Programs, New York; (5) W. Wilson Goode, mayor of Philadelphia;…