National Adult Literacy Database

Authors: S. Grenier, S. Jones, J. Strucker, T. Scott Murray, G. Gervais, S. Brink

This report uses data from the International Study of Reading Skills to describe in depth the reading abilities of the least-skilled adult readers in society and to identify the basic reading profiles of these adults, based on their strengths and needs in reading. The goal is to supply policy makers, researchers and practitioners with new information useful for making decisions about how to plan and deliver appropriate and efficient reading instruction for different adult learners.

This report consists of the following five chapters and a several annexes.
Chapter 1 - Purpose, theories and methods
Chapter 2 - Demographic profiles of Canadians with low literacy proficiency
Chapter 3 - Theoretical considerations underlying the reading components
Chapter 4 - The relationship between reading components and literacy proficiency
Chapter 5 - Conclusions and implications for public policy and instruction

Added: 2008-09-23

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See also:

• L'apprentissage de la littératie au Canada : Constatations tirées de l'Enquête internationale sur les compétences en lecture

Series: On the Job: ESL and Essential Skills for Work

Authors: Centre for Canadian Language Benchmarks (CCLB)

There are different purposes for reading leading to various levels of complexity. Complexity is based on how much processing of information is required to arrive at an accurate outcome. These levels range from level 1 (the least complex) reading relatively short texts to locating a single piece of information to level 5 (the most complex) interpreting dense and complex texts and making high-level inferences and using specialized knowledge.

Added: 2009-06-30

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Series: Unlocking Language

Authors: William DuBay

This document offers a guide, chronologically arranged, to theories about readability.

The author begins in 1893 with the work of L.A. Sherman on the analytics of literature and continues up to 1948 with the Dale-Chall readability formula and Rudolph Flesch’s work on reading ease.

The author also describes other milestones, including the contributions of psychologists Harry D. Kitson and Edward L. Thorndike; the development of the Winnetka formula for predicting text difficulty by grade level; and the work of William S. Gray and Bernice Leary on what makes a book readable.

Added: 2009-10-23

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See also:

• Smart Language: Readers, Readability, and the Grading of Text