DOCUMENT RESUME ED 361 500 CE 064 435 TITLE Life at The
DOCUMENT RESUME ED 361 500 CE 064 435 TITLE Life at the Margins: Profiles of Adults with Low Literacy Skills. Contractor Report, Adult Literacy and New Technologies: Tools for a Lifetime. INSTITUTION Tennessee Univ., Knoxville. Center for Literacy Studies. SPONS AGENCY Congress of the U.S., Washington, D.C. Office of Technology Assessment. PUB DATE Mar 92 NOTE 348p.; For related documents, see CE 064 323 and CE 064 432-438. PUB TYPE Reports Research/Technical (143) EDRS PRICE HF01/PC14 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Adult Literacy; Blacks; Differences; Hispanic Americans; *Illiteracy; *Individual Characteristics; *Individual Needs; Literature Reviews; Profiles; *Regional Characteristics IDENTIFIERS African Americans; *Appalachia; *California ABSTRACT As part of an ongoing assessment on adult literacy and the new technologies, this study profiled the similaritiesand differences among Appalachian and Californian adults withlow literacy skills. Two teams of researchers each profiledsix adults with low literacy skills. The study populationwas selected so as to reflect a diverse mix of ages, genders, social and ethnic backgrounds, and literacy skills. Despite their great diversity,the 12 persons profiled had all been marginalized economicallyand culturally by society, had faced hard times, expresseda strong desire to become more self-reliant, hoped to improve theirliteracy skills and thereby obtain a better life for themselvesand their children, and shared common strategies for overcomingtheir illiteracy (including the buildinp of social networksand use of "readers"). Differences among the native andnonnative English speakers profiled were found in relation to the followingareas: uses of technology, impact of first languageusage, connectir-ns between English-as-a-Second-Language literacy, and family relationships,and the clarity of cultural identity possessed by nonnativespeakers in contrast to the white and African Americans profiled.
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