The evolution of a functional literacy program, with recommendations for resources and methodology

Abstract

A program in functional literacy was undertaken in March 1971, at the Literacy Training Center in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, under the auspices of the Adult Vocational Division of the Nova Scotia Department of Education. According to the original design of the program, training was to be multi-media and largely self-directive, the students being guided by a master chart of the many skills involved in reading. The development and implementation of this program, however, revealed that considerable modification of the original assumption was necessary. Through minute analysis of commercial reading systems for the purpose of supplying materials appropriate to the various skills on the master chart, and through the testing of those materials with students, the research team evolved criteria for evaluating resources. Close work with students on a trial-and-error basis provided experience and knowledge leading to a methodology which combined multi-media individual instruction with the more traditional classroom instruction, emphasizing small groups. This study traces the evolution of this program and provides a methodology for adult literacy training and an analysis of commercial reading systems designed to augment that methodology.