The Wiley Handbook of Adult Literacy

Dolores Perin

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781119261421, 9781119261377
• eBook ISBN: 9781119261391
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Literacy
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Examines the widespread phenomenon of poor literacy skills in adults across the globe

This handbook presents a wide range of research on adults who have low literacy skills. It looks at the cognitive, affective, and motivational factors underlying adult literacy; adult literacy in different countries; and the educational approaches being taken to help improve adults' literacy skills. It includes not only adults enrolled in adult literacy programs, but postsecondary students with low literacy skills, some of whom have reading disabilities.

The first section of The Wiley Handbook of Adult Literacy covers issues such as phonological abilities in adults who have not yet learned to read; gender differences in the reading motivation of adults with low literacy skills; literacy skills, academic self-efficacy, and participation in prison education; and more. Chapters on adult literacy, social change and sociocultural factors in South Asia and in Ghana; literacy, numeracy, and self-rated health among U.S. adults; adult literacy programs in Southeastern Europe and Turkey, and a review of family and workplace literacy programs are among the topics featured in the second section. The last part examines how to teach reading and writing to adults with low skills; adults' transition from secondary to postsecondary education; implications for policy, research, and practice in the adult education field; educational technologies that support reading comprehension; and more.

• Looks at the cognitive processing challenges associated with low literacy in adults
• Features contributions from a global team of experts in the field
• Offers writing strategy instruction for low-skilled postsecondary students

The Wiley Handbook of Adult Literacy is an excellent book for academic researchers, teacher educators, professional developers, program designers, and graduate students. It's also beneficial to curriculum developers, adult basic education and developmental education instructors, and program administrators, as well as clinicians and counselors who provide services to adults with reading disabilities.

Section I
Cognitive, Affective and Motivational Factors Underlying Adult Literacy

1
Cognitive Processing Challenges Associated with Low Literacy in Adults

John Sabatini, Tenaha O'Reilly, Kelsey Dreier, and Zuowei Wang

Educational Testing Service, USA

Introduction

In this chapter, we examine child‐focused reading models with respect to cognitive processing deficits associated with low literacy in adult learners. Why take this approach? First, there is greater breadth and depth of research focused on children and in‐school, adolescent students; ignoring this literature may restrict our knowledge of adult learner challenges. Second, the challenges adults face in acquiring reading literacy skills often began when they were children or adolescents in formal school settings. The roots of those challenges may not have been identified then, but their influence persists, interacting with current learning. Finally, most measures of the reading or learning difficulties used in studies of adult learners were developed initially for use with younger populations, but often have not been adequately validated with an adult learner population. These assessments may be successfully implemented with adult learners, with the caveat that the validity of inferences need to be reexamined in light of theory and research with adults (e.g., Nanda, Greenberg, & Morris, 2014).

The focus population in this chapter is adults who might be served in adult literacy or remedial postsecondary programs (e.g., developmental courses in community colleges). We exclude adults with postsecondary level skills who have been identified as dyslexic or with specific learning disabilities early in their lives and have subsequently received enough instructional or intervention support to have achieved reading literacy proficiency at the postsecondary level. Although we draw on the theories and literature of reading and learning disabilities in skilled adults, our focus is on adults with reading skills below the postsecondary level.

We view cognitive challenges as any knowledge, skills, or dispositions that have been identified as instrumental or supportive in the acquisition of proficiency in reading literacy. We are agnostic about whether these challenges are congenital, acquired, or stem from the absence of learning opportunities. Adults with low literacy have varied histories that are not typically easy to reconstruct (Fowler & Scarborough, 1993), so we have taken as broad a perspective as possible in understanding which and whether the assumptions underlying cognitive models apply to adults with low literacy.

In the research literature on learning or reading disabilities, what we have termed “challenges” are often referred to as deficits. The Oxford English Dictionary defines the term “deficit” as a “deficiency or failing, especially in a neurological or psychological function” (Deficit, n.d.). For many in the adult education community, this negatively worded definition connotes that the condition is fixed, permanent, or cannot be changed. We have chosen to use, whenever feasible, the terms challenges or obstacles as these terms have a more productive connotation. A challenge is something that one might overcome. An obstacle is something one may need to work around. This is not to deny the existence of individual differences in cognition, some of which are sufficiently severe to make it almost impossible to achieve high levels of reading proficiency without Herculean feats of learning effort and time. Deficits are typically measured as continuous variables that range from mild to severe rather than as all or none. The severity of a deficit defines the challenge level. A mild challenge may be one that can be overcome with the investment of learning and practice in an intervention program. A severe challenge may represent an obstacle best worked around, that is, compensated for with assistive devices or perhaps avoided by executing reading strategies. Also, there are numerous routes to learning, such that investments of learner time and effort can result in significant and meaningful gains in proficiency along alternative learning pathways.

Adult learners with low literacy skills have sometimes not been diagnosed as learning or reading disabled when still in formal school settings, and consequently the history of their academic difficulties is often not documented. In addressing this issue, Fowler and Scarborough (1993) questioned whether adults with reading disabilities should be distinguished from other adults seeking literacy instruction. They concluded that there are few differences between adults with reading disabilities and adults with reading problems stemming from a lack of educational opportunity or other learning factors. On this basis, they noted the relevance of research on reading disabilities as pertinent to adult learners generally. They also recommended that the focus of research should be on targeting persistent difficulties that can be improved. Deficits that emerge in childhood and interfere with reading development are likely to persist into adulthood, unless they have been identified and remediated while the child was still in a formal school setting. Thus, research on which deficits might occur, how to measure their severity, and what are promising options for addressing them instructionally, should continue to be pursued with adults (Vogel, 1998).

With this framework in mind, the organization of the chapter is as follows. We first provide a brief overview of the target population of adult learners. We then summarize child‐focused models of reading, reading comprehension, and reading difficulties. We organize this developmentally, from the skills associated with learning to read to the skills and strategies involved with comprehension. The goal of this section is to determine what cognitive constructs seem most relevant to the challenges adult learners may face in acquiring literacy proficiency. Then, we review the research with adolescents and adults that is pertinent to cognitive challenges and learning. Finally, we review specific cognitive functions implicated in reading development, roughly in a sequence from perceptual processing to complex cognitive abilities.

Who Are Adult Learners with Low Literacy?

An estimated 19% of adults worldwide (17.5% of adults in the United States) are classified as at or below Level 1 Literacy Proficiency and another 33% at Level 2 based on the results of the Programme for International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC: Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development [OECD], 2013). Level 1 texts are short and the tasks involve a single operation such as searching for a piece of information or literal understanding. At Level 2, texts may be longer and tasks may involve the simple integration of information, comparing and contrasting, or low‐level inferences. Most adults at Level 2 are considered b...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Table of Contents
• List of Contributors
• Section Editors and Reviewers
• Acknowledgments
• Conceptual Framework and Overview of the Handbook
• Section I: Cognitive, Affective and Motivational Factors Underlying Adult Literacy
• Section II: Contexts of Literacy for Adults with Low Skills
• Section III: Education of Adults with Low Literacy Skills
• Index
• End User License Agreement