Adult Literacy in Developed Countries

Abstract

This chapter focuses on adult literacy in developed countries. The attempt to describe literacy as a fixed inventory of skills that can be assessed outside their context of application is, in reality, an impossible task. In the United States, private agencies have perhaps made their greatest contribution to those who have never learned to read. Basic literacy tutoring and small-group work have enabled those who must start at the very beginning to gain skills and self-confidence to get jobs and enroll in more advanced studies. One reason why research into adult illiteracy in advanced countries has been sparse may be a limited awareness of the problem. Most European countries, for example, the Scandinavian countries, France, the Federal Republic of Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium, have been slow to admit to a problem of adult basic literacy on the scale of the United Kingdom or the United States, except among migrant workers and resident ethnic minorities.