Integrating adult-oriented, contextually relevant material into literacy programs may lead to increased reading achievement.

Studies: Aderman, 1987; Curtis & Chmelka, 1994; McDonald, 1997; **Mikulecky & Lloyd, 1997; Sticht, Armstrong, Hickey, and Caylor, 1987, and Sticht, 1989, 1997

Research Summary: Instructors' use of workplace-oriented material was investigated in a study of workplace literacy programs (Mikulecky & Lloyd, 1997). Experimental results suggest that in classrooms where workplace-oriented teaching material is used at least 20-30% of the time, adults' comprehension of work-related texts improves. These programs all had high retention rates, and the adults were intermediate to advanced readers (reading at about GE 6 or higher).

These results are supported by another, non-experimental study that took place in an ESL vocational education classroom (McDonald, 1997). Instructors in this class integrate job-oriented tasks and material with language instruction. This leads to a greater increase in general reading comprehension (as measured by the ABLE) than non-integrated approaches.

One study that has not been published in a research journal, but that is cited frequently in the ABE research literature, also finds that work-related literacy programs using job-specific content during instruction appear to increase job-specific reading comprehension achievement (Sticht et al., 1987, 1989, 1997). It may also increase non-job-specific reading comprehension achievement (as measured by tests that do not use job-specific comprehension passages, for example)

One more non-experimental study supports the use of material that is relevant to adults. In this study, a popular adult literacy phonics and sight word instructional program was modified so that it included practice with more challenging, adult-oriented words. Words were chosen that incorporated the letter-sound correspondences that instructors were teaching. The use of more challenging words appears to lead to a faster rate of growth in reading comprehension (Curtis & Chmelka, 1994). Although the use of adult-oriented content may be more motivating and relevant for adults, its effectiveness in this program is attributed to its complexity. In programs teaching word recognition, adults may rely on their sight word knowledge to read simpler words instead of applying word analysis strategies, such as sounding words out. Using more complex words during instruction, words that are not a part of an adult's sight word knowledge, means that these words will need to be sounded out, which requires the application and practice of letter-sound knowledge.

Finally, results from a descriptive study suggest that re-writing information in a nutrition pamphlet using ABE students' language results in increased recall of the information (Aderman, 1987). This was true for the four students in this study even though the two versions were written at the same level of difficulty.