[AAACE-NLA] Re: AAACE-NLA Bridges to Practice

[roberta mcknight]

Hal, Heide, and all,

I have been reading the Health Literacy literature recently, and notice 
a paucity of discussion regarding adults who may have a learning 
disability such as dyslexia. The Bridges to Practice curriculum 
addresses this issue pretty well, and I wonder if we should be doing 
more screening across the board. It strikes me that many folks who 
manifest "low literacy skills" may, indeed, have comprehension 
difficulties that are more complex than we assume.

Best to you,
Roberta McKnight

>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Today's Topics:
>
>   1. RE:  immigrants with a high school diploma (Hal Beder)
>   2. RE:  Funding Update (Sissy Kegley)
>   3. RE:  immigrants with a high school diploma (AndresMuro at aol.com)
>  
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Subject:
> RE: [AAACE-NLA] immigrants with a high school diploma
> From:
> Hal Beder <hbeder at rci.rutgers.edu>
> Date:
> Tue, 13 Jul 2004 10:14:15 -0400
> To:
> National Literacy Advocacy List sponsored by AAACE 
> <aaace-nla at lists.literacytent.org>
>
>
> This discussion leads to another issue.  In NJ, CA and other 
> port-of-entry states a high proportion of students in basic literacy 
> (not ESL) are immigrants.  In NJ it's about 70%.  Based on 
> observation, these students have difficulty with things native born 
> students do not.  Vocabulary is an issue, for example, and reading 
> becomes frustrating when learners have to continuously look up words 
> in the dictionary.  Pronunciation is also an issue, especially, when 
> doing phonics.  There may be other issues that are difficult to 
> identify purely through observation.  The interesting thing is that I 
> have not seen reference to this in the adult literacy literature nor 
> have I am aware of any techniques to help this population. I think its 
> a very big thing that seems not to have shown up on anyone's radar 
> screen.
>
>
> At 09:26 AM 7/12/2004 -0700, you wrote:
>
>> Hal, if I understand you right, this means that many of the 
>> immigrants from English speaking countries may have completed 
>> highschool and beyond, but may have learned English "imperfectly". My 
>> guess is that the "low literacy skills" you mention show up 
>> particularly in their writing (and they may have difficulties reading 
>> texts that use sophisticated
>> structures and vocabulary.
>>
>> Or do you mean by "low literacy skills" skills equivalent to NAAL 
>> levels 1?
>>
>> Cheers
>>
>> Heide Wrigley
>>
>> Heide Spruck Wrigley
>> LiteracyWork
>> San Mateo; Vancouver, B.C.
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: aaace-nla-bounces at lists.literacytent.org
>> [mailto:aaace-nla-bounces at lists.literacytent.org] On Behalf Of Hal Beder
>> Sent: Monday, July 12, 2004 5:50 AM
>> To: National Literacy Advocacy List sponsored by AAACE
>> Subject: RE: [AAACE-NLA] immigrants with a high school diploma
>>
>> Based on our research in New Jersey, it is not uncommon to find
>> immigrants who had relatively advanced educations in English-speaking 
>> African
>> countries and India who have very low literacy levels.
>
-- 
Anyone can dabble, but once you've made that commitment, your blood has 
that particular thing in it, and it's very hard for people to stop you.
Bill Cosby
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