The concept of "preliteracy" is important for adult literacy programs. All illiterate adults can undertake their initiation into the world of letters and figures provided they are strongly motivated to do so. Experiments on motivation indicate that literacy programs must respond at least to one essential need of the future literate…

There are 900 million illiterate people in the world. Because of reflective insights and creative research during the last two decades, the literacy process is no longer conceived as a training process that concentrates exclusively on implanting specific mechanical skills. It is now recognized as an educational process, as an unfolding of human…

This examination of the relationship between illiteracy and the labor market in California describes in general terms the effects of widespread illiteracy on employers, the unemployed, employees, and the California economy. It discusses current programs which address the lack of basic literacy skills in the labor market, and identifies some of the…

The study described in this book was designed to create an overall picture of the type of student found at a school for educationally substandard army recruits in England, to establish the causes of the student's educational backwardness and relate these to linguistic performance, and to compare the effectiveness of the approaches and methods used…

Profound changes in the structure of the workplace and in the nature of jobs now make reading, writing, and other communications skills vital to the performance of even entry-level jobs. However, massive numbers of present and future workers have only minimal or marginal proficiency in the basic skills. The problem will get worse as the labor pool…

This collection contains the texts of four draft papers and four responses that were presented at a symposium on defining literacy. The following papers are included: "Definitions of Literacy" (Richard L. Venezky); "Definitions of Literacy: Responses" (Reynaldo F. Macias); "Literacy for What Purpose?" (Larry…

Studies show Hispanics to have substantially higher rates of illiteracy than any other major population group in the United States. Illiteracy is one of a number of language problems for this population; other problems include limited oral English proficiency and native language illiteracy. Hispanics drop out of school in higher numbers and leave…

The extent and impact of adolescent illiteracy, brief descriptions of several successful programs designed to combat adolescent illiteracy, and a more detailed description of one of those programs are included in this collection of articles. The first article argues that while experts may disagree about the numbers of illiterate adolescents and…

This report details an evaluation of the effects of outreach activities of Project Literacy U.S. (PLUS) on community responses to the illiteracy problem. Part A describes general findings regarding PLUS task force activities during the campaign's first year, December 1985-June 1987. Section I is an introduction; Section II describes activities…

This study outlines some of the literacy problems of immigrants to Canada and the attempts being made to overcome these problems. The study first examines some of the popular definitions of literacy with a view to finding one that might be a goal for all illiterates in Canada regardless of their birthplace. Next, the latest data are analyzed to…

The problems and extent of adult illiteracy are presented in this workshop report, which explores how computer and communication technology might be applied in adult literacy education. The introduction provides statistics and a discussion of past and current attempts to teach illiterate adults. The major portion of the report focuses on what…

Any discussion of English as a Second Language (ESL) literacy should address three critical areas: who the learners are, what is to be taught, and how the literacy skills are to be taught. Three distinct groups of students can be classified as "non-literate" in their own language: pre-literates, illiterates, and semi-literates. Two approaches are…

The history of American prison education from 1650 to the present can be divided into five periods. Generally speaking, the education provided in prisons has been loose, fragmented, and essentially reflective of the prevailing local prison administration. Although the trend has been toward the adoption of a more enlightened view toward inmates and…

The Native Language Arts English as a Second Language Program for Optional Assignment Pupils in New York City was designed for economically disadvantaged students whose native language was not English and whose ability to read and write in English and, in some cases their own tongue was not adequate to permit them any degree of success in school.…

Three issues related to improving basic skills in this nation are discussed in this paper: the definition of "basic literacy skills" and the number of Americans who are purportedly illiterate, what evidence exists that minorities in the United States really have a more serious problem than others in acquiring basic literacy skills, and…