" The ability to understand and employ printed information in daily activities at home, at work and in the community - to achieve one's goals, and to develop one's knowledge and potential."
( Literacy Skills for the Knowledge Society: Further Results from the International Adult Literacy Survey , Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Human Resources Development Canada and the Minister responsible for Statistics Canada, 1997)
Reading
Twenty two percent of Canadian adults can use reading materials to carry out simple reading tasks only in familiar contexts with clearly laid out formats. They do not have the skills to cope with unfamiliar and more complex reading materials. The reading skills of 16% of Canadian adults are too limited to allow them to deal with the majority of written material encountered in everyday life. This percentage covers 5% of people whose abilities are at Level 1 (see below) and 2% report that they have no abilities in English or French, for a total of 7% at the lowest level of reading skills. Older Canadians, part-year workers, and workers from primary industries (forestry, agriculture, fishing) are more likely to have reading problems than other Canadians.
Level 1 - People who have difficulty with printed materials and identify themselves as unable to read.
Level 2 - People who can use printed materials for limited purposes such as finding a familiar word in a simple text.
Level 3 - People who can use reading materials in a variety of situations providing it is simple, clearly laid out and the tasks involved are not too complex.
Level 4 - People who can use a wide range of reading materials and meet most every day reading demands.
Writing
Eighty-eight percent of Canadian adults are able to write a simple message. Two million Canadians were not included in the Statistics Canada results because they: a) did not have sufficient skills in either French or English, b) had limited reading skills in French or English, and c) refused to complete the writing tasks.
Numeracy
Reading and numeracy skills are closely related. The majority (62%) of Canadians have numeracy skills sufficient to handle the numerical tasks normally encountered in every day life. Twenty-four percent do not possess the necessary skills to meet most everyday numeracy requirements but can deal with familiar documents that require simple math skills such as addition and subtraction. The remaining 14 percent of Canadians cannot perform numerical operations consistently but can recognize numbers in isolation or in a short text.
These commonly used words and phrases are the preferred ways to communicate information about literacy...
- Use " low literacy skills " instead of "illiterate"
The word " illiterate " is no longer used in literacy circles, as it represents only a small portion of the Canadian populations (less than five per cent). The term " low literacy skills " is now used to represent the five million adult Canadians (approximately 22 per cent of the population) that have serious problems with reading, writing and math. These are non-readers who have serious difficulty with any printed material.
- Use " low literacy skills " instead of "lack of literacy skills"
- " Literacy " = Grade 8 or under
" Upgrading " = Grade 9 or over
Taken together, they are known as "adult basic education"
- Use " adult basic education " instead of "adult education"
(The preceding is as is defined by the © ABC CANADA Literacy Foundation )
ABC dEcode® is a method that can be applied to people of all ages, from the young child to adults.
ABC dEcode can help the illiterate and functionally illiterate adult attain literacy effectively and efficiently.
