In response to Kathy's comments.  I can only say that I heartedly agree.
 Adults come not only with varying degress of reading abilities, but
varying degrees of schooling (good and bad) that affect how and what
kinds of approaches they might need to make progress.  We are talking
about folks who may have some very specialized reading needs as well. 
In my experience, most adults lack fluency and experience,  decoding is
simply one of many issues they need to conquer.  I might refer to my
colleague Pat Campbell in Alberta who has written an excellent guide for
teachers of adults called "Teaching Reading to Adults: A Balanced
approach."

Dr. Robin Millar
Executive Director
Centre for Education and Work
515 Portage Avenue
Winnipeg, MB R3B 2E9
204-786-9395


>>> kolson2 at columbus.rr.com 12/16/05 12:02 PM >>>

John,  

The lack of research on evidence-based adult education is a major
reason why
the ESOL lab school in Oregon was established. It provides
documentation
through video and audio for teachers/researchers to observe what
happens in
the classroom and which particular teaching approaches are more
successful.
This issue of Focus on Basics describes some of the research that has
been
carried on to date. It is my hope that we will someday (soon, I hope!)
have
research which shows or at least hints at which reading methods produce
the
best results.  Having said that, though, I am well aware that the
answer is
not so simple as our students come with varying degrees of reading
abilities
in their native languages and thus are not starting out from the same
minimal reading abilities that entering school children are. In
addition,
while primary teachers have their students for six or more hours a
day,
adult education teachers do not. We have no way to determine whether
our
students actually learned their reading outside of class, through
self-study, from their children, etc. In other words, there are so
many
variables to control for that it does make scientifically-based
research
very, very difficult. 

Kathy Olson



-----Original Message-----
From: focusonbasics-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:focusonbasics-bounces at nifl.gov] 
On Behalf Of John Nissen
Sent: Thursday, December 15, 2005 5:52 PM
To: The Technology and Literacy Discussion List
Cc: familyliteracy at dev.nifl.gov; Debbie Hepplewhite;
focusonbasics at nifl.gov 
Subject: Re: [FocusOnBasics] [Technology] New Issue of "Focus on
Basics"


Hello all,

I am trying to find out how one should teach literacy skills to adults.
 It 
has been suggested on several lists to visit the NCSALL web site, and
look 
at research.

So I looked at the site and found the EBAEP model (draft for comment),
http://www.ncsall.net/fileadmin/resources/research/ebaep_model_monograph.pdf

,
which is about Evidence-Based Adult Education, to find out what
evidence 
there was to support particular approaches to literacy, such as 
systematic/synthetic phonics versus whole language.  There was almost 
nothing there.  Worse, the teachers are expected to evaluate the
research 
themselves, to decide how best to teach!  But no sources were given as
to 
where there is good evidence for one method or another.

In particular I looked at pages 77-78, the section 27 on "Instructional

approaches".  Quoting from this:
"Teachers need to understand why to use a particular technique, not
just how

to use it; they need the underlying foundational theory of teaching and

learning that will allow them to integrate new thinking with new
actions."

Now I know for children about the foundational theory, and evidence in

practice, that systematic phonics works.  On the other hand, there is
no 
scientific theory, or evidence, that the whole language approach works
- 
because it doesn't.  See Scientific American, March 2002.  (And mixing

methods doesn't work either.)

The March 2002 Scientific American put it well: "Because the
controversy 
[between phonics and whole-language] is enmeshed in the philosophical 
differences between traditional and progressive approaches. The
progressives

challenge the results of laboratory tests and classroom studies on the
basis

of a broad philosophical skepticism about the value of such research."
In 
other words, they are willing to ignore solid research that contradicts

their beloved theories, theories that keep kids from reading.

So I am trying to find if anybody has used systematic/synthetic phonics
on 
adults, because if it works on children I see no reason why it should
not 
work on adults, given suitable initial teaching material (so as not to

appear "childish").  The phonics approach must:

 1.   establish that the alphabetic principle is fully understood by
the 
student;
 2.   work on phonemic awareness, so that all 44 phonemes can be
recognised 
within words;
 3.  make sure common letter-sound (grapheme-phoneme) correspondences
are 
known;
 4.  work on the basic skill of segmentation (for spelling);
 5.  work on the basic skill of blending (for decoding and reading).

After a basic reading skill level has been reached, with simple reading

material:

 6.  add vocabulary to allow comprehension of increasingly advanced
reading 
material.

It seems to me, as a scientist by training, that the above approach is

sound.  The evidence of the Clackmannanshire study, shows that the
approach 
works for everybody, including 'dyslexics' and childen with special
needs. 
In this study of 300 children in a deprived area of Scotland there were
no 
non-readers after synthetic phonics had been introduced!

Anyway, the UK government is now convinced, and is going to adopt
synthetic 
phonics for schools.  See
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4485062.stm. 
Should we adopt it for adults?

Cheers from Chiswick,

John


John Nissen
Cloudworld Ltd - http://www.cloudworld.co.uk 
maker of the assistive reader, WordAloud.
Try WordAloud with synthetic phonics:
http://www.cloudworld.co.uk/teaching-synthetic-phonics.htm 
Tel: +44 208 742 3170  Fax: +44 208 742 0202
Email: info at cloudworld.co.uk 



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mariann Fedele" <mariannf at lacnyc.org>
To: "The Technology and Literacy Discussion List"
<technology at nifl.gov>
Sent: Wednesday, December 14, 2005 9:04 PM
Subject: [Technology] New Issue of "Focus on Basics"


Hello All,
The following message is from Barb Garner.
Best,
Mariann

***************
The newest issue of "Focus on Basics" is now on NCSALL's web site,
http://www.ncsall.net. It's on ESOL and features research from
NCSALL's
ESOL Lab School. 

----------------------------------------------------
National Insitute for Literacy
Focus on Basics mailing list
FocusOnBasics at nifl.gov 
To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to
http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/focusonbasics 


----------------------------------------------------
National Insitute for Literacy
Focus on Basics mailing list
FocusOnBasics at nifl.gov 
To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to
http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/focusonbasics