There have been few, if any, significant changes in educational policy regarding the provision of adult literacy education in India over the past two decades. The changes that have taken place in India's adult literacy programs have occurred in the realm of technology rather than ideology, thereby supporting a continuity in the existing…

One of the most difficult problems facing colleges today is dealing with students whose basic skills are too low to allow them to benefit from college-level studies. While some institutions seem to have given up expectations for underprepared students' achievement, others have instituted massive programs of individualized counseling and tutoring…

In Malawi, adult literacy deserves immediate attention in order to promote health, family planning, and productivity. While policy commitment for adult literacy promotion has not been lacking, intensified action has been. In 1979 the government accepted the Unesco Mission Report to undertake a functional literacy program on the successful…

Intended for use by literacy workers, teacher trainers, and program developers and directors, this annotated bibliography brings together the most current writings about adult literacy education available in journals, books, and ERIC documents. The entries are arranged into five sections: (1) the state of adult literacy, both in the United States…

This collection of adult student writing is the product of a literacy education project in Pennsylvania. Contributors to the volume were adult students in Adult Basic Education (ABE), General Education Development (GED), English as a Second Language (ESL), and basic literacy classes. The adults who participated in this writing project were…

This resource manual of ideas for incorporating functional literacy applications into student lessons is intended for volunteers trained to teach one-to-one in adult literacy programs and for teachers of adult students. The ideas are designed to increase beginning student exposure to and familiarity with functional literacy materials. It provides…

To determine the effect of attention to affective needs on the success of adult literacy programs, researchers analyzed data from 400 programs nominated by advisors to the National Adult Literacy Project (NALP), and selected a sample of 15 for the field research. The sample programs included three military, three prison, three English as a second…

A program funded by USAID to help the Adult Literacy Organization of Zimbabwe (ALOZ) increase its capacity to provide training and supervision for adult literacy teachers and to publish and distribute literacy texts is evaluated. Methodology used included questionnaires, interviews with ALOZ staff, observation of grant activities, and a review of…

Current discussions about literacy often focus on how economic changes are raising expectations for literacy achievement. The emergence of a so-called knowledge economy or learning economy requires more people to do more things with print. Less attention has been given, however, to how the pressure to produce more literacy affects the contexts in…

A study was conducted to describe factors influencing the acquisition of facilitating and inhibiting reading strategies by adult beginning readers (ABRs) in order to generate potential guidelines for instruction. Using an adapted form of the Goodman and Burke taxonomy of oral reading miscues as initial framework, the investigators described ABRs'…

A response to United States Senator George McGovern's call for congressional legislation to establish an independent national commission on literacy is necessary. Two considerations that must be taken into account by any individual, group, or commission addressing issues of criteria for competency in literacy are: (1) literacy competence is a…

In recognition of the trend toward functional illiteracy, this study developed and evaluated a criterion-referenced functional literacy test for use in diagnosis and evaluation of Miami-Dade Community College English students. The instrument was pilot-tested on 135 composition students in the fall of 1976, then revised after item analysis and…

Four speeches delivered at the Research in Adult Basic Education Conference are presented. The first paper, by Larry Martin, describes his preliminary investigation into psychosocial characteristics of adult basic education and adult secondary education participants. The second paper, An Alternative Program for Attaining Adult Literacy, by Gordon…

A nation-wide program in adult basic education requires an organizational structure which will provide a practical and theoretical, centralized and decentralized outlook. This system should include a national commission, state-wide committees, and community councils which would facilitate communication. Leaders must be selected and prepared and…

One in a series of training monographs, this text suggests a core curriculum of scientific ideas that should become part of the common human heritage. The eight chapters present discussions of scientific literacy within its social context, scientific methodology, the environment, human health, agriculture, energy, ideas for teaching science in…