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The purpose of this study was to (a) examine the underlying assessment structure of the Derivational Morphology Task (DMORPH) and (b) investigate the relation of the DMORPH to vocabulary and reading comprehension outcomes with a sample of struggling adult readers. Specifically, participants included 218 struggling adult readers enrolled in adult literacy classes. We used item-level analyses to evaluate the underlying structure of the DMORPH. Items with phonological (e.g., “music” to “musician”) and non-phonological transformations (“teach” to “teacher”) were examined in relation to adult literacy students’ vocabulary and reading comprehension skills. A bifactor model was the best fit to the data, suggesting that the DMORPH measured a single factor of derivational morphological awareness with some variation due to phonological and non-phonological change items. Follow-up analyses revealed that the DMORPH can essentially be considered unidimensional, which justified the use of a single scoring system for the DMORPH with adult literacy students. However, after controlling for word reading and phonological awareness, the phonological change items uniquely predicted vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension, whereas the non-phonological change items were not significant. The results support the structural validity of the DMORPH and the need to use both phonological and non-phonological change items with adult literacy students. The present findings also provide insight into potential intervention targets for instructors in adult literacy programs who are interested in improving students’ vocabulary and reading comprehension skills.

In a speech, Anne Ruggles Gere, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of English Emerita and Gertrude Buck Collegiate Professor of Education Emerita at the University of Michigan, commends various authors who shaped her thinking as a graduate student and early career professor. Ed Corbett's Classical Rhetoric helped students conceptualize their audiences and purposes for writing. Janet Emig's delineation of composing processes made stages of writing comprehensible. Students' Right to Their Own Language cast the idea of \"error\" in a new light and inspired one of her earliest publications. All of these authors were amazingly approachable and did not shrink away from her \"fan girl\" response to them. In the almost five decades since 1978, she had been coming to CCCC pretty much every year because this is where things happen in their field. They've gone from sentence combining to linguistic justice, from debates about including literature in first-year writing, to considering how AI tools like ChatGPT shape their teaching and research. They've drawn on Maxine Hairston's 1985 \"Breaking Our Bonds\" speech as they've considered whether writing should remain with or separate from English.

The three of us met in 2014 through our shared interest in adult literacy. We are colleagues as practitioners and as researchers; altogether, we have been in the field of adult literacy in Canada since the 1980s. Our experiences working with learners come from our role as volunteer tutors and paid staff in provincially funded programs and grassroots initiatives funded only through private donations. Over the years, we have worked with learners who have diverse physical, mental and cognitive abilities. For many of these learners who have to contend with day-to-day challenges and discrimination stemming from their (dis)abilities, their learning is further compounded with their struggle with poverty due to the paltry financial support from the government. As we develop and evolve our approaches to support learners in their goals, we put into practice the principles from New Literacy Studies (Gee, 2020; Papen, 2023; Street, 1997) to connect literacy education with the social and historical contexts and to support learners in defining their own literacy. In this paper, each of us shares a story from our own practice to highlight how we offer a learner-centred approach to build a social practice of literacy for both the learners and ourselves as educators. While we use our stories to challenge the dominant narrative of literacy education for employment as seen in government policies (Elfert and Walker, 2020; Elias 2023; Walker and Rubenson, 2014), we also share our own learning, unlearning and relearning of how we define adult literacy as educators. The learner-centred approach in literacy education May not appear especially radical on its own; however, under the increasing pressure from the state to use adult literacy as a labour market tool, the possibility of pursuing learning outcomes other than employment could challenge the deficit narratives that are far-too-often attached to literacy learners with (dis)abilities (Elias et al., 2021).

The purpose of this study was to examine the shared, direct, and indirect contributions of three metalinguistic skills (phonological awareness, morphological awareness, orthographic knowledge) to the reading comprehension abilities of struggling adult readers. Across studies, these three metalinguistic skills have individually emerged as important predictors of reading comprehension with samples of struggling adult readers. In contrast to research conducted with children, no studies have simultaneously included and examined the shared and direct relations of these metalinguistic skills as well as indirect relations (via decoding and vocabulary knowledge) to adults’ reading comprehension skills.The results indicated that the metalinguistic skills, decoding, and oral vocabulary knowledge accounted for 91% of the variance in reading comprehension. A second-order metalinguistic awareness factor, decoding, and oral vocabulary knowledge emerged as uniquely predictive of reading comprehension (1–8.9%). Further, metalinguistic awareness was indirectly related to reading comprehension via decoding and oral vocabulary knowledge. The findings help to develop a more comprehensive model of the underlying component processes involved in adults’ reading comprehension skills. The findings may also inform instructional practices and intervention research in adult literacy programs.

Objective To determine whether a decision aid designed for adults with low education and literacy can support informed choice and involvement in decisions about screening for bowel cancer.Design Randomised controlled trial.Setting Areas in New South Wales, Australia identified as socioeconomically disadvantaged (low education attainment, high unemployment, and unskilled occupations).Participants 572 adults aged between 55 and 64 with low educational attainment, eligible for bowel cancer screening.Intervention Patient decision aid comprising a paper based interactive booklet (with and without a question prompt list) and a DVD, presenting quantitative risk information on the possible outcomes of screening using faecal occult blood testing compared with no testing. The control group received standard information developed for the Australian national bowel screening programme. All materials and a faecal occult blood test kit were posted directly to people’s homes.Main outcome measures Informed choice (adequate knowledge and consistency between attitudes and screening behaviour) and preferences for involvement in screening decisions.Results Participants who received the decision aid showed higher levels of knowledge than the controls; the mean score (maximum score 12) for the decision aid group was 6.50 (95% confidence interval 6.15 to 6.84) and for the control group was 4.10 (3.85 to 4.36; P<0.001). Attitudes towards screening were less positive in the decision aid group, with 51% of the participants expressing favourable attitudes compared with 65% of participants in the control group (14% difference, 95% confidence interval 5% to 23%; P=0.002). The participation rate for screening was reduced in the decision aid group: completion of faecal occult blood testing was 59% v 75% in the control group (16% difference, 8% to 24%; P=0.001). The decision aid increased the proportion of participants who made an informed choice, from 12% in the control group to 34% in the decision aid group (22% difference, 15% to 29%; P<0.001). More participants in the decision aid group had no decisional conflict about the screening decision compared with the controls (51% v 38%; P=0.02). The groups did not differ for general anxiety or worry about bowel cancer.Conclusions Tailored decision support information can be effective in supporting informed choices and greater involvement in decisions about faecal occult blood testing among adults with low levels of education, without increasing anxiety or worry about developing bowel cancer. Using a decision aid to make an informed choice may, however, lead to lower uptake of screening.Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00765869 and Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry 12608000011381.

The benefits of adult literacy programs to socioeconomic development have been well researched and documented. Salient among researchers, organizations, and policymakers is the ability to increase enrollment rates and retain adult learners in the programs. While several African countries have implemented different adult literacy interventions to curb the level of illiteracy, this study specifically examined the factors that motivate adult learners in South Africa and Nigeria and investigated the one that is most prominent. Furthermore, the study ascertained if there is a significant difference in the level of motivation between adult learners in South Africa and Nigeria. The study deployed a survey research design where adult learners from literacy centers in both countries were randomly selected to complete the research instruments. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics of percentage and frequency counts and inferential statistics, that is, a T-Test to test for differences. The findings of the study revealed that adult learners in the two countries have similarities in their motivation to learn. There was, however, no statistical difference in the motivation among adult learners in South Africa and Nigeria. In conclusion, the study established that in planning or implementing any adult literacy program, the factors that should be considered—especially in the African context and this model—can effectively help adult learners respond to classes and increase the level of adult literacy rates in the two countries.

This study examines the underlying motivations that drive adult learners to participate in Morocco's \"Literacy for Empowerment\" program, implemented by the national Agency for Adult Education. While the program constitutes a government initiative, the research analyses learners' perspectives through the lens of Mezirow's Transformative Learning Theory. Guided by one main research question and a sub-question addressing gender differences, a qualitative methodology was employed, drawing on focus group discussions with male and female participants from both rural and urban areas. Thematic content analysis highlights how the application of transformative learning theory helps to illuminate the ways adult learners evolve through disorienting dilemmas, self-reflection, and identity reconstruction. A key finding is that enrolment was often triggered by a powerful disorienting dilemma, particularly the shame, stigma, and social exclusion linked to illiteracy, which prompted participants to reassess their situation and imagine new possibilities. The study offers practical implications for the design and delivery of adult literacy programs, emphasising the need for flexible, learner-centred approaches that respond to participants' evolving motivations and lived realities. Furthermore, it contributes to ongoing national and global efforts aimed at achieving inclusive lifelong learning opportunities for all (UNESCO, 2015).

The purpose of this case series was to explore whether adults who did not have the opportunity to acquire reading skills during childhood are able to do so rapidly if trained with an adequate literacy program. After 14 weeks of training with a new, optimized, literacy course based on cognitive research, six out of eight participants became able to read words they had never encountered, hence demonstrating that they were definitely engaged in decoding processes that allow autonomous reading. Moreover, they showed enhanced phonemic sensitivity and phonological memory. The latter finding implies that functional changes can take place rapidly outside the reading domain even when reading is acquired in adulthood. Thus, there is no major plasticity impediment preventing rapid eradication of illiteracy in adults.

This paper recounts our journey of changing practice from teaching adult literacy to helping other teachers by creating digital and printed learning resources and tutor training materials to support a foundational literacy program designed to help those who teach English speaking adults to read and write.

Many library literacy programs are more flexible and responsive than comparable adult education services bound by curriculum requirements, Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) funding requirements, and more. This article explores how family literacy workshops lean into the strengths of the public library to use traditional adult learning practices, such as reflection, in adaptable and responsive ways to build learning and social outcomes.