An implication for practitioners is that if programs aim to produce highly literate adults, they should produce graduates who can score well on any of these "verbal" or "literacy" assessments.

Part II: Special Topics

Listening and Reading

Less Skilled Readers are Less Skilled Listeners. A limited number of studies were reviewed that used group-administered or individually-administered tests to compare reading to listening skills. These studies indicate that, as a general trend, adults who score low on reading tests also score low on listening tests. In most cases, they do not perform any better by listening than by reading, except at the very lowest reading levels (e.g., below the second grade level). This line of research is important because the "gap" between a person's reading level and his or her "reading potential" identified by an orally-administered "intelligence" test is used to identify adults who are "learning disabled" or "different." The "intelligence" test is very similar to a "listening" test. Hence, studies of listening and reading are important in the diagnosis of adult learning disabilities.

Knowledge and Listening. An implication of the finding that less literate adults may also be underdeveloped in listening vocabulary and comprehension is that less literate adults possess a more limited knowledge base than more highly literate adults. Therefore, programs that aim to make large increases in adults' reading skills by a brief program of decoding will find that this does not tend to happen. Even though high levels of reading decoding might be developed (though not in a brief period of time), if the person does not possess a high amount of knowledge expressible in language, then considerable time will be required in extensive wide- ranging reading to acquire the vocabulary and conceptual knowledge that is needed, along with efficient decoding skills to achieve at high levels on literacy assessments.

The Intergenerational Transfer of Literacy

Parents' Education Level is Related to their Adult Children's Literacy Skills. Data are presented showing that parent's, and especially mother's education level is related to the literacy skills of their children at ages 9, 13, 17, and in adulthood. This is true for both military and civilian assessments and for whites, blacks, and Hispanics. However, for the minority groups studied, the higher educated parents do not transfer higher levels of skills to the same extent that whites do. For instance, white mothers who are college graduates have adult children who score on the average at the 80th percentile on the Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT) while African-American mothers who are college graduates have adult children who score on the average below the 50th percentile. Research is needed to determine whether adult basic education or family literacy programs can improve the amount of intergenerational transfer of literacy from parents to children over that which occurs naturally in the situations that produced the data summarized in Part II of the Compendium.