A SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFICALLY BASED RESEARCH PRINCIPLES

to

Teaching

2005

Adults Alphabetics

Fluency

Vocabulary

Comprehension

to

Teaching

Adults

Authors

Mary E. Curtis and John R. Kruidenier

A SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFICALLY BASED RESEARCH PRINCIPLES
This publication was produced under National Institute for Literacy Contract No. ED-03-CO-0026 with 

Kruidenier Education Consulting. It was designed and edited under Contract No. ED-00CO-0093 with 

RMC Research Corporation. June Crawford of the National Institute for Literacy served as the contract

office’s representative. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the policies of 

the National Institute for Literacy. No official endorsement by the National Institute for Literacy of 

any product, commodity, entity, or enterprise in this publication is intended or should be inferred.

The National Institute for Literacy

Sandra Baxter, Director

Lynn Reddy, Deputy Director

The Partnership for Reading, a project administered by the National Institute for

Literacy, is a collaborative effort of the National Institute for Literacy, the National Institute

of Child Health and Human Development, the U.S. Department of Education, and the

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to make scientifically based reading

research available to educators, parents, policy makers, and others with an interest in 

helping all people learn to read well.

The National Institute for Literacy, a federal organization, supports the development of high quality state, regional, and national literacy services so that all Americans can

develop the skills they need to succeed at work, at home, and in the community.

The Partnership for Reading acknowledges the editorial and design support of C. Ralph Adler, Diane

Draper, Elizabeth Goldman, Lisa Noonis, and Robert Kozman of RMC Research Corporation.

2005
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Alphabetics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Fluency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Vocabulary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

Reading Comprehension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

Putting It All Together . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

Contents
This Partnership for Reading publication describes

strategies proven to work by the most rigorous scientific research available on the teaching of reading. The

research that confirmed the effectiveness of these

strategies used systematic, empirical methods drawn

from observation or experiment; involved rigorous

data analyses to test its hypotheses and justify its conclusions; produced valid data across multiple evaluators and observations; and was accepted by a peerreviewed journal or approved by a panel of independent experts. The application of these researchbased strategies will increase the likelihood of success

in reading instruction. Adherence to scientifically

based research in this publication was ensured by a

review process that included representatives of each

Partnership for Reading organization and external

expert reviewers. For detailed information on this

review process, contact the Partnership for Reading

at the National Institute for Literacy, 1775 I Street

NW, Suite 730,Washington, DC 20006.

For additional copies of this booklet, download PDF

or HTML versions at www.nifl.gov/partnershipforreading.To order print copies, contact the National

Institute for Literacy at ED Pubs, PO Box 1398,

Jessup, Maryland 20794-1398. Call 1-800-228-8813 or

email edpubs@inet.ed.gov.
Teaching reading is a complex undertaking, especially

when the learner is an adult. Unlike children, adult learners cannot spend several hours in a classroom every

day. Most adults learning to read find it difficult to

attend classes at all; those who enroll in a basic education program can spend, at most, a few hours a week

working on their reading.

When adult students arrive in the classroom, they can

be at just about any level in their reading development,

from beginning readers working on the fundamentals

to more advanced readers ready to begin study for a

high school level equivalency diploma.

Emotional factors such as motivation, engagement, and

fear of failure play a major role in reading success.

These feelings can be especially intense for adults, particularly for learners who have spent years struggling

with reading and hiding their inability to read from family members, friends, coworkers, and employers.

Given the complexity of the task, what methods should

educators use to help adult learners make substantial

gains in their reading skills? 

This booklet summarizes the emerging principles and

trends in adult reading instruction identified in a report

of the Reading Research Working Group: ResearchBased Principles for Adult Basic Education

Reading Instruction.This group of adult education

and reading experts was established by the National

Institute for Literacy and co-sponsored by the National

Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy. Its

purpose was to identify research-based principles for

adult reading instruction.

We know a lot about how to teach children to read,

including children who find it difficult to master reading.

The reports of the National Reading Panel (Teaching

Children to Read) and the National Research Council

(Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young

Children) describe strategies that work, according 

to the findings of extensive, high quality, and rigorous

research.We know much less about effective strategies

for teaching adults to read. The National Reading Panel

(NRP), using an exacting screening process, found 

more than 400 studies to review. By comparison, the

Reading Research Working Group found only about 70

studies on adult reading instruction and assessment that

met the criteria for quality research. This was true even

when the research criteria developed by the NRP were

expanded to include more descriptive studies of reading instruction.

Introduction

1
Reading is a complex process where all components

may be active at the same time. Instruction, therefore,

should address each major aspect of reading. Also, reading develops gradually over time and a reader’s mastery

of different components may develop at different rates.

Assessing each component provides a complete picture

of an adult’s reading ability. The need to assess and

teach all the components has important implications for

teachers. These are presented in the final chapter,

Putting It All Together.

Another intent of this summary is to encourage teachers to consult reading instruction research. Whenever

a research-based reading principle is presented, it is

accompanied by a page reference to Research-Based

Principles for Adult Basic Education Reading

Instruction. Teachers interested in specific research

studies may find brief descriptions of the research, and

citations for complete articles, in that book. Ideas from

the K-12 research are accompanied by page references

to the National Reading Panel report as well as to

Research-Based Principles, which states the ideas in

the context of adult reading instruction research.

“When alphabetics is a part of adult beginning reading instruction, increases in reading achievement

are found (43).”

The number inside parentheses at the end of this statement refers to a page in Research-Based Principles for

Adult Basic Education Reading Instruction, and indicates that the statement is based on existing research

with adult learners. In this example, information about the research that supports the statement can be found 

on page 43 of Research-Based Principles.

“For word analysis, effective strategies systematically teach letter-sound correspondences directly and

explicitly. They focus on teaching learners how to convert individual graphemes (letters and letter combinations)

into phonemes and then blend them together to form a word. Or, they focus on converting larger letter combinations such as common spelling patterns (e.g., ing, able, un) (NRP, 2-92, 2-93; RBP, 51).”

The abbreviations and numbers inside the parentheses at the end of this statement refer to chapter and page 

references in the National Reading Panel report and to page references in Research-Based Principles for Adult

Basic Education Reading Instruction, and indicate that the statement is based on findings from research with

children and then extended for their implications for teaching reading to adults. In this example, the statement

comes from pages 92 and 93 in Chapter Two of the NRP report, and is extended on page 51 of ResearchBased Principled for Adult Basic Reading Instruction.

Example 1: 

Example 2: 

HOW PAGE REFERENCES ARE USED IN THIS BOOKLET

2
3

Today, researchers are working diligently to expand the

base of scientific research in adult reading instruction.

Several promising studies sponsored by the National

Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the

National Institute for Literacy, and the U.S. Department of

Education are examining methods specifically for teaching

reading to adults. Results from these studies, however, may

not be available for several years. If adult educators want

to use the best practices that the research has to offer,

what can they do as they wait for a critical mass of adult

reading research results to accumulate? Where should

teachers in community-based programs, community colleges, and family literacy programs turn for suggestions on

teaching adults to read when the research has not yet fully

addressed the field’s important topics?

The Reading Research Working Group 

(RRWG) took the following approach to these

questions:

◗ It looked at the adult reading instruction research;

◗ It identified advice for practice (principles) from the

best of this research; and 

◗ It supplemented these findings with those from the

National Reading Panel report.

Supplementary results from the NRP were selected carefully, using criteria that take into account important differences between readers in different age groups.The

RRWG called the suggestions for adult reading assessment and instruction emerging principles and trends

because the small number of available research studies

made it impossible to derive many truly robust principles.

With a few exceptions, the studies used to derive the

emerging principles and trends were published in peerreviewed journals. Of these studies, the greatest weight

was given to those that compared adults in different

treatment groups. Other more descriptive studies were

used as supporting evidence.

This summary presents the results of the Reading

Research Working Group’s review of adult reading

instruction research. Each of the first four sections

addresses one essential component of reading instruction:

alphabetics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.The

same questions are raised for each:

◗ What is the component?

◗ Why teach it?

◗ How do you assess it?

In addition, for each topic, we briefly describe the implications for teachers.This booklet was not intended to offer

extensive examples of how the research can be translated into practice.We encourage readers to consult other

resources offered by the Partnership for Reading for

examples of scientifically based instructional strategies for

adult literacy (visit www.nifl.gov/partnershipforreading).
/a//l//f//a//b//e//t//i//k//s/

What is alphabetics?

English is an alphabetic language. The letters in its

alphabet represent the sounds of spoken English. The

process of using the written letters in an alphabet to

represent meaningful spoken words is called alphabetics, and includes both phonemic awareness and word

analysis. Phonemic awareness is the knowledge of the

basic sounds (phonemes) of spoken language. Word

analysis is the knowledge of the connection between

written letters or letter combinations and the sounds

they represent.

Why teach alphabetics?

Phonemic awareness and word analysis help learners

become familiar with how the English writing system

works—a crucial step in learning to read. Students with

good phonemic awareness know how to manipulate the

individual sounds (phonemes) of spoken English. They

know, for example, that the spoken word cat is made up

of three sounds: /c/-/a/-/t/. (Note that letters appearing

between slashes should be read as sounds—for example, /b/ is read as the first sound in bob—not as bee.)

Students with good word analysis know how individual

letters and combinations of letters represent the

sounds of spoken English. They know, for example, that

the string of written letters c, a, and t represent the

spoken word cat. They know how to blend sounds

together to form regularly spelled words and how to

recognize irregularly spelled words by sight. As readers

advance beyond the very beginning levels, more complex aspects of word analysis, such as the knowledge of

word parts (for example, prefixes, suffixes, stems, and

compounds) and the use of tools such as the dictionary, may contribute to word reading ability.

Adult non-readers have virtually no awareness of

phonemes (39), and adult beginning readers have difficulty

manipulating phonemes (39).They also have difficulty applying letter-sound knowledge in order to figure out new or

unfamiliar words while reading (40).When adult beginning

reading instruction includes alphabetics, increases in reading

achievement occur (43).

How do you assess alphabetics?

Phonemic awareness is assessed orally through tasks

that ask learners to demonstrate their ability to manipulate the sounds in spoken words.The National

Reading Panel (NRP, 2000, p. 2-10) provides the following summary of these kinds of tasks.

◗ Phoneme isolation: recognizing individual sounds

in words, for example,“Tell me the first sound in

paste.” (/p/)

◗ Phoneme identity: recognizing the common

sound in different words, for example,“Tell me

the sound that is the same in bike, boy, and bell.”

(/b/)

◗ Phoneme categorization: recognizing the odd

sounding word in a sequence of three or four

words, for example,“Which word does not

belong? bus, bun, rug.” (rug) 4

ALPHABETICS
◗ Phoneme blending: listening to a sequence of

separately spoken sounds and combining them

to form a recognizable word. For example,

“What word is /s/ /k/ /u/ /1/?”(school)

◗ Phoneme segmentation: breaking a word into

its sounds by tapping out or counting the sounds,

or by pronouncing and positioning a marker for

each sound, for example,“How many sounds are

there in ship?” (three: /sh/ /i/ /p/)

◗ Phoneme deletion: recognizing what word

remains when a specified phoneme is removed,

for example,“What is smile without the /s/?”

(mile)

Word analysis is assessed through tasks that ask students

to demonstrate their ability to say the sounds in written

words or parts of words. Letters or letter combinations

that represent a basic sound, or phoneme, are called

graphemes. Students can be asked to pronounce singleletter graphemes, two-letter graphemes or digraphs, or

larger word parts such as blends. Sample tasks would be:

◗ “What sounds do these letters make: b, d, f ?”

◗ “What is the short vowel sound made by these

letters: a, e, i?”

◗ “What sounds do these letters make:ch, ck,

oa, ee?”

◗ “What sounds do these letters make: br, st, str, at,

am?”

The ability to pronounce word parts can also be

assessed with whole word tasks. To find out if someone can decode the short a vowel sound, for example,

we might ask him or her to read the word can. Any

response with a short a sound in the middle position

would be correct (can, cat, or ban) because it contains

the short a target phoneme.

Alphabetics:

implications for teachers

Alphabetics can be improved by participation in adult 

education (42, 43), and explicit instruction may be the

best way to accomplish this (45). Explicit instruction

consists of direct teaching of letter-sound relationships

in a clearly defined sequence.

The NRP’s review of K-12 alphabetics instruction suggests that phonemic awareness and word analysis should

be taught together. Phonemic awareness instruction is

most effective when letters, not just sounds, are used for

instruction. Research at the K-12 level also suggests that

the most effective strategies for teaching phonemic

awareness focus on a few specific skills, especially blending (putting individual phonemes or sounds together to

form words) and segmenting (breaking a word into its

individual phonemes) (NRP, 2-4, 2-5; RBP, 50).

Effective word analysis strategies systematically teach

letter-sound correspondences directly and explicitly.

They focus on teaching learners how to convert individual graphemes (letters and letter combinations) into

phonemes (sounds) and then blend them together to

form a word. Or, they focus on converting larger letter

combinations such as common spelling patterns into

sounds (e.g., ing, able, un) (NRP, 2-92, 2-93; RBP, 51).

5
6

What is fluency?

Fluency is the ability to read with efficiency and ease.

Fluent readers can read quickly and accurately and with

appropriate rhythm, intonation, and expression. Individuals

who are learning to read often are not fluent. Their reading is choppy and filled with hesitations. They make false

starts and mistakes in pronunciation. But even mature

readers may read less fluently if they try to read texts

that contain many unfamiliar words. Their reading may

slow down and be characterized by more hesitations and

mispronunciations than usual.

Why teach fluency?

Without fluency, readers attend more to decoding than

to understanding the meaning of what they are reading.

Fluency promotes comprehension by freeing cognitive

resources for interpretation. Fluent reading also signals

that readers are pausing at appropriate points to make

sense of the text. When a reader can reproduce the

rhythm intended by the author, he or she can grasp the

meaning more easily.

Fluency is an issue for adult beginning readers, intermediate readers, and for some who read at more advanced

Adult Basic Education levels. In a large-scale assessment

of over one thousand young adults, those with poor fluency had a silent reading rate of about 145 or fewer

words per minute—almost 100 words per minute slower

than the fluent readers (57). The oral reading rate and

accuracy of adult beginning readers closely resembles

those of children who are beginning to read (57).

How do you assess fluency?

Reading fluency can be measured formally with standardized tests, or informally with reading inventories, miscue

analyses, pausing indices, or measures of rate.Typically, a

student reads aloud while the teacher observes and

records reading accuracy and reading rate. Reading accuracy is the number or percentage of words read correctly

in a text. Reading rate or speed is the number of words

read in a given amount of time, such as the number of

words read in a minute, or the average number of words

read per minute.

Sometimes measures of oral reading accuracy and rate are

combined, as in determining the average number of words

read correctly in a minute. Fluency can also be estimated by

timing how long it takes to read a passage of text silently.

Another way to assess fluency is by the rhythm a reader has

while reading. As part of a study conducted by The National

Assessment of Educational Progress, researchers developed a

four-point fluency scale based on pauses. Level one on the

scale represents readers who read word by word, while level

four represents those who pause only at the boundaries of

meaningful phrases and clauses.

Fluency: implications for teachers

Repeated reading is the most effective instructional technique for increasing reading fluency in adults (58-61). In

repeated reading, a student reads a passage many times

while a teacher provides feedback about rate and 

accuracy levels, helps with difficult words, and models 

fluent reading.

FLUENCYfluency
What is vocabulary?

A person’s vocabulary consists of the individual words

whose meanings he or she knows and understands.

Reading vocabulary comprises those words that we

know and understand as we read. Because reading

involves decoding, we can know the meaning of a word

when we hear it spoken but still not be able to read it in

print. This is common for beginning readers, whose oral

vocabulary —that is, their speaking and listening vocabulary—is often larger than their reading vocabulary.

The depth of a person’s knowledge of individual words

can also vary. We may have a deep understanding for

words we use frequently, knowing many or even all of

their dictionary definitions, for example. Or our knowledge may be shallow, as it is when we know only one

of several meanings for a word, or when we have

heard a word only a few times but have never used it

ourselves or checked on its definition.

Why teach vocabulary?

As one of several components of reading, vocabulary

instruction may be best viewed as necessary, but not

sufficient. Teaching the meanings of individual words will

not ensure that learners can decode fluently or read

passages of text with understanding. But vocabulary

knowledge and skills are crucial for getting meaning

from text. Without knowledge of the meanings of the

key concepts in a text, a reader will struggle to understand the writer’s intended message.

How do you assess vocabulary?

Vocabulary knowledge can be assessed in many ways,

each of which may influence an instructor’s view of a

student’s vocabulary ability. The structure of a test determines the type of vocabulary knowledge being measured, such as receptive vocabulary (listening and reading)

or expressive vocabulary (speaking and writing). The

nature of the test also determines how much knowledge

a reader needs about an individual word (vocabulary

depth) to respond correctly to assessment tasks.

For example, some tasks ask the learner to respond

with oral answers:“Tell me what the word travel

means.” Responses scored as correct could require

very little knowledge (to go on vacation) or more 

depth of knowledge (to move from one place to

another). Another more common task is the written,

multiple-choice question. Multiple-choice items can

also be structured to require more, or less, depth 

of knowledge.

A written multiple-choice question—like other tasks

that require students to read a test item—can measure

abilities other than a learner’s vocabulary knowledge,

such as alphabetics or fluency. For instance, if a learner

cannot decode the words in a vocabulary test item, he

may not be able to respond correctly even if he knows

the word when hearing it. For this reason, oral vocabulary tests may be more accurate measures of learners’

general knowledge of word meanings because they do

not require decoding. 7

Vocabulary: noun

1.All the words of a language. 2.The sum

of words used by, understood by, or at the

command of a particular person or group.

3.A list of words and often phrases, usually arranged alphabetically and defined or

translated; a lexicon or glossary.

Adapted and reproduced by permission from The American

Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. vo

© 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.

●cab ●u●lar●y

VOCABULARY
Very little research exists on the assessment of adult basic

education (ABE) students’ vocabulary knowledge. One study

does suggest that teachers should give special attention to

ABE learners’ vocabulary assessment. This research compared the oral vocabulary knowledge of children and adults

who had word recognition scores between grade equivalents 3 to 5. The adults’ vocabulary knowledge appeared to

be no better on average than children’s by the time both

were able to read (decode) text written at about the fifth

grade level (68). In other words, we should not assume that

ABE students will have well-developed vocabularies just

because they are older and more experienced. After a certain point, vocabulary growth seems to depend on reading

ability.

Vocabulary: implications for 

teachers

Does participation in ABE increase students’ vocabulary

achievement? Overall, results from the research are inconclusive: several studies found that participating students’ vocabulary knowledge improved, but others found no improvement

(69-72).

Initial research suggests that the longer ABE students

remain in effective programs, the more their vocabularies

will improve (70, 73). But more research is needed to

identify teaching practices that are related to factors such

as learner characteristics, specific instructional methods or

materials, or the effects of teacher training.Two of these

topics, learner characteristics and instructional materials,

have been addressed by vocabulary instruction research

with children. The NRP review of K-12 vocabulary

instruction identified five methods (NRP, 4-3):

Explicit instruction: students are given definitions or

other attributes of words to be learned. An example

would be teaching students about the meanings of

common roots, prefixes, and suffixes.

Implicit instruction: students are exposed to words

or given opportunities to do a great deal of reading. As

experiences with words increase, so do opportunities

to learn new word meanings.

Multimedia methods: students learn vocabulary by

going beyond text to experience other media such as

graphic representations, hypertext, or American Sign

Language that uses a haptic (contact) medium.

Semantic mapping, where visual representations are

used to illustrate the relationships among new and

known word meanings, is an example.

Capacity methods: students practice extensively to

increase their vocabulary capacity through making reading automatic. For instance, increasing a reader’s fluency

enables him or her to make better use of the clues in a

text that help in learning new word meanings.

Association methods: students learn to draw connections between what they do know and words they

encounter that they do not know. Pairing a new word

with a known synonym is an example.

In addition, the NRP identified some trends that may assist

adult educators:

◗ Repetition and the use of multiple contexts are

important in vocabulary instruction (NRP, 4-4; RBP,

75-76);

◗ Active engagement is important in vocabulary

instruction (NRP, 4-4); and

◗Clarifying or restructuring vocabulary learning 

tasks may be especially useful for at-risk 8 learners (NRP, 4-4, 4-21).
What is comprehension?

Reading comprehension is the process of constructing

meaning from what is read. To comprehend, a reader

must decode words and associate them with their

meanings. Phrases and sentences must be dealt with

fluently enough so that their meanings are not lost

before the next ones are processed. Since understanding the message must occur without face-to-face contact with the writer, comprehension relies on what a

reader can derive from the text, based on prior knowledge and past experience. Finally, readers must continuously monitor their construction of meaning to identify problems in understanding as they arise and make

repairs as needed.

Why teach comprehension?

Whether one reads for work or for pleasure, comprehension is the goal. Comprehension is an active

process; readers must interact and be engaged with a

text. To accomplish this, proficient readers use strategies or conscious plans of action. Less proficient readers often lack awareness of comprehension strategies,

however, and cannot develop them on their own. For

adult literacy learners in particular, integrating and synthesizing information from any but the simplest texts

can pose difficulties (78). Consequently, most ABE students will benefit from direct instruction in reading

comprehension strategies as well as time spent 

practicing and discussing strategies for comprehending 

(80, 86-88).

How do you assess comprehension?

To prepare for instruction and to measure progress,

ABE instructors should assess learners’ ability to acquire

and use information from text. Typically this can be

done by asking students to read and answer questions

about what they have read. Formats include multiplechoice, short answer, and cloze or fill-in-the-blank questions. Teachers can assess learners’ knowledge of comprehension strategies, such as asking questions while

reading, writing summaries, or creating outlines, by

observing students while they read or by asking them

about the strategies they use.

Because results from comprehension assessments may

vary widely (depending on the test used and when it is

administered),ABE instructors should choose comprehension tests carefully (79). They should also decide

whether any secondary issues related to reading comprehension difficulties need to be addressed. For

example, adults whose first language is not English or

adults with a learning disability are more likely to have

reading comprehension deficits (80). For adults in

ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) programs, knowledge of the English language will be an

issue. For adults with a reading disability, problems with

enabling skills such as alphabetics or fluency can be the

source of the difficulty.

9

READING COMPREHENSION

reading comprehension
Comprehension:

implications for teachers

Research indicates that participation in adult basic education can improve comprehension (81), and points to

some very general approaches that may be effective.

Direct instruction in the use of comprehension strategies

is one approach that may be effective (86). As summarized by the NRP, direct instruction includes:

◗ Helping learners to develop an awareness and

understanding of their own cognitive processes;

◗ Guiding learners and modeling the actions that readers can take to enhance comprehension; and 

◗ Providing learners with opportunities to practice

strategies with the teacher’s assistance until a gradual internalization and independent mastery occurs.

At the K-12 level, several effective strategies have been

found: answering questions, asking questions, writing summaries, monitoring comprehension, using graphic and

semantic organizers, using story structure, and learning

cooperatively (where students work together while learning strategies). Teaching students to use more than one

of these strategies, and when to use them, is especially

effective (NRP, 4-6, 4-40; RBP, 97).

ABE research also suggests teaching comprehension in

tandem with instruction in other reading components

(88), an approach supported by very strong evidence

from research at the K-12 level (NRP 2-4, 2-5, 2-20, 2-

116, 3-3, 4-4; RBP, 96).

In some ABE instructional settings, student comprehension

has been improved by manipulating the classroom environment. Some enabling factors in the classroom environment include: emphasizing learner-centered activities (89);

providing assistance to teachers in the classroom with volunteers or paid assistants (90); and dealing explicitly with

adults’ motivation and how they feel about their reading

(95).

Other suggestions supported by research include:

◗Use adult oriented material, which can be motivating

and necessary for decoding instruction (which, in

turn, enables comprehension) (91).

◗ Devote sufficient classroom time to reading and

writing instruction; one study suggests spending at

least 70% of classroom time on reading and writing instruction (92).

◗ Encourage students to spend more time in ABE

programs, which is associated with greater gains in

reading comprehension achievement (92).

◗ Employ certified or experienced teachers for ABE

instruction (93).

10
The ultimate goal in reading is comprehension: people

read to learn and understand. Readers must interact

with a text for comprehension to occur, combining its

ideas and information with what they already know.

They understand more when they are familiar with

the basic vocabulary or concepts presented, or when

they can develop their understanding of new words as

they read. When a reader does not have adequate

prior knowledge and cannot figure out key concepts,

comprehension suffers.

Comprehension may also suffer when readers cannot

recognize individual words in a text. A reader may be

conceptually ready to understand a text, for example,

but will be unable to do so if he or she cannot read

the individual words. Alphabetics instruction gives readers the tools they need to decode individual words. To

read individual words, the reader must know how the

letters in our alphabet represent spoken words (alphabetics). This includes knowing how words are made up

of smaller sounds (phonemic awareness), and how letters and combinations of letters represent these

sounds (phonics and word analysis).

The ability to decode individual words, however, is not

sufficient. Readers must also be able to recognize

strings of words rapidly as they read sentences and

longer texts. Fluent reading is crucial to adequate

comprehension.

As the previous sections have indicated, each major

component of reading (alphabetics, fluency, vocabulary,

and comprehension) develops through specific practices. But just as all the components must function

together for reading to be effective, they must be

taught together to maximize instructional effectiveness.

One way that teachers can better prepare to address

all of the components together in instruction is by 

creating reading profiles. A reading profile combines

information from tests in several components to 

create a picture of a reader’s strengths and needs for

instructional purposes (Chall, 1994; Chall & Curtis,

1990; Roswell & Chall, 1994; Strucker, 1997). It

involves assessing a student in each major component

of reading and using a common measure, such as

grade equivalents, to create an outline of strengths 

and needs.

Because reading profiles present a comprehensive

view of learner strengths and needs across many

aspects of the reading process (and for all kinds of

readers, including those with reading disabilities and

English language learners), teachers can use them to

design a program of instruction that addresses all

aspects of the reading process. Assessing only one

reading component may not be sufficient to identify

strengths and needs for instruction (32). Students 

with different profiles may need different mixes of

11

Putting Together It All
12

instructional approaches. Developing specific approaches

to instruction for different reading profiles may lead 

to more efficient instruction. This ensures a balanced

approach in which no one aspect of the reading 

process is over- or under-emphasized (National 

Reading Panel, 2000; Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998;

Snow and Strucker, 2000).

We conclude our summary of the results from the

Reading Research Working Group review of adult reading

instruction research by acknowledging an area that has

received very little attention: motivation, or the need and

desire to learn to read. Most educators maintain that

effective reading and reading instruction cannot occur

without sufficient motivation on the part of the learner.

Motivation would seem to be especially important in

adult literacy because—in addition to an initial desire to

learn to read—adults must address many barriers to participation, set aside the time necessary to receive effective

instruction, and overcome any embarrassment resulting

from the stigma associated with seeking help for poor

reading skills. When researchers have looked at motivation, results suggest that dealing with adults’ literacy beliefs

and goals for learning may increase their reading comprehension achievement (95).

Use of research-based principles will assist the adult 

educator in selecting teaching and learning experiences

that will provide the greatest opportunities for success.

The Adult Literacy Research Working Group continues 

to examine research and materials that will assist the

adult educator in teaching reading so that adult 

learners can achieve their goals in the workplace,

family, and community.

The classroom connection

This booklet is designed to summarize key findings from

scientific research about teaching adults to read. For more

information on how these research findings relate to

instructional strategies, visit the Partnership for Reading

website at www.nifl.gov/partnershipforreading, and click

on the link for adult literacy.
Chall, J. S. (1994). Patterns of adult reading. Learning

Disabilities, 5(1), 29-33.

Chall, J. S., & Curtis, M. E. (1990). Diagnostic achievement

testing in reading. In C. Reynolds & R. Kamphaus (Eds.),

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Kruidenier, J. R. (2002). Research-based principles for Adult

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13

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