A concern that may arise is the impact of removing literacy skill activities, such as a spelling dictation, which the students expected and wanted while in the classroom. Again, the solution may be found within the students themselves. There is a need to generate more student input in relation to the coffee shop activities. Perhaps the classroom could be used to discuss, plan, and implement ideas in relation to the operation of the coffee shop. These ideas could also help students develop their literacy and numeracy abilities. Perhaps students could come up with new ways to market the coffee shop, explore different products for preparation and sale, begin to track inventory on a database, do simple accounting on a spreadsheet, place food orders, set schedules, and write–up invoices. Many of these activities incorporated the literacy skills and tasks that have been predominant in the classroom. In addition, there will need to be a period of transition during which both students and instructors can be supported in their re–thinking of literacy development.

Emphasizing Practices

A primary question for programs related to the development of literacy practices is, what kinds of practices do adults want to learn? Taylor (2001) suggests there are four key organizing frameworks in adult literacy education: community–based literacy, workplace literacy, school–based literacy, and family literacy. These closely mirror the three goals of adult literacy education in this province: literacy for further education, employment, and independence. It can be argued that there are four domains of adult literacy education: work, school, family, and community that match the goals of students who attend programs. In other words, adults enter programs expressing the need to improve their literacy within one or more of these domains. A mother might want to help her children with their homework and read stories to them; a worker might need to improve literacy in order to apply for a supervisory position; an adult with a disability may want to become more active in a community organization; and a grandmother may want to improve literacy to record her life story for her grandchildren. It will be up to the program to translate an individual's goal into a literacy practice (not just a set of skills and series of tasks), to learn a new vocabulary to describe practices, and to determine how to support the development of new practices. So how does a program translate a goal into learning and literacy practices, and how can this be framed? How can a program get the vocabulary to describe practices? And, how can the development of new practices be supported? Only the final question will be addressed in this section. The first will be addressed in the section related to research contributions, and the second, in the section related to policy contributions.