The students in the employment preparation program want to make changes in their lives. Simply enrolling in a literacy program suggests that they have gone through a period of unease and dissatisfaction in their lives, and are now taking action in order to make changes (Fingeret & Drennon, 1997). One could argue that the students in the program are compounding their desire for change by addressing both literacy and employment issues. The students want new roles and responsibilities; they want to be working; they want to be able to independently handle the literacy demands in their lives; and they want to see themselves in a different way. They are in essence attempting to create new roles and subsequently new identities. These changes will not only affect their lives but they will also affect the lives of the people around them, usually their families. How do these dynamics fit into a situated learning framework?

Formal Education

Staff at the employment preparation program have long recognized that students with lower levels of formal education—in addition to students who have weak or non–existent first language literacy skills, and students with modified levels of formal education experience—reach what they term a plateau in their literacy skill development. According to the students' reports and instructors' experience, these students do not often progress beyond LBS Level 2 (well within the IALS Level 1 range). In comparison, students who have a level of formal education beyond elementary school, coupled with strong first–language literacy skills that are used regularly, were able to show ongoing progress in skill development beyond LBS Level 2. The link between formal education levels, first language literacy abilities, and progress in adult literacy programs is a sorely neglected area that needs to be explored in greater depth.

Of the eight students who participated in this study, only one of them completed high school. The two students Martha and Tom, each attended special education programs until they reached the age of 21, but neither had obtained a high level of literacy and both were working on reading and writing activities well within LBS Level 2 (or IALS Level 1). Stacey never attended school in Vietnam; Rouda and Nadine left before completing eight years of formal education; and Maritza and Marion left soon after completing eight years of education. The students' levels of formal education combined with their literacy skills in their native languages had a direct influence on their literacy skill progress in the program.