Functional Illiteracy - Its Shocking Extent and Seriousness - Its Proven Solution

A recent, careful study of the most thorough andadvanced and developing nations. Several
statistically accurate report on U.S. adult literacy everdistinguished scholars have thoroughly debunked all
commissioned by the U.S. government (a free 200reasonable objections to this solution.
page report available on the internet: search forMost of us who can read, learned to read as children
study title) proves that the extent and seriousnessand have long since forgotten the difficulty we had in
of English illiteracy is a much worse than previouslylearning to read. Our eyes skip easily over a multitude
believed. The good news is that the solution toof traps for beginning readers. Professor Julius Nyikos
English illiteracy is much easier than almost anyoneof Washington and Jefferson College made a study
would ever dare to dream.of six desk-sized dictionaries and found 1768 ways of
Do We Really Have a Literacy Crisis?spelling 40 phonemes in English. (A phoneme is the
As a result of being able to read, we are-to a largesmallest sound in a language or dialect which is used
extent-separated from those who are very poorto distinguish between syllables or words.) A
readers. As a result of the coping methods illiteratescomputer was programmed with all of the rules of
have developed, many of our associates may beEnglish spelling and was able to correctly spell only
illiterate without our knowledge. We therefore mayabout half of a large list of common words. This is
find it hard to believe that we have a literacy crisis,because every spelling rule has exceptions, and some
but a recent study of the most thorough andof the exceptions have exceptions!
statistically accurate study of U.S. adult illiteracy everOur chaotic, illogical, and inconsistent spelling came
commissioned by the U.S. government conclusivelyabout because in 1755 Dr. Samuel Johnson issued his
proves we do have a crisis. This study was awell-received dictionary in which he, in effect, froze
five-year, $14 million study involving lengthythe spelling of words instead the spelling of the
interviews of 26,049 U.S. adults statistically balancedphonemes as linguistic logic demands. His dictionary
for age, gender, ethnicity, and location (urban,froze the spelling, in most cases, as the word was
suburban, and rural from twelve states across thespelled in the language of origin. There were eight
U.S. and 1,100 inmates from 80 prisons) to representdifferent national language groups who had occupied
the entire U.S. population. This report, titled Adultthe British isles by 1755, and we adopted words from
Literacy in America, divided the interviewees into fiveeach of them.
literacy groups according to their ability to respondSince 1755, according to Henry Hitchings, in his book,
properly to material they were given to read. TheThe Secret Life of Words, we have adopted
number of days worked per year and the amountwords-and usually their spelling-from 350 languages.
they earned per hour was reported by literacyMost English words, therefore, are not spelled with
grouping.letters representing sounds but are represented by
Using data from the Adult Literacy in America report,logograms like Chinese characters. Specific letters in a
Literacy Research Associates, Inc., a non-profitspecific order represent the entire word in the same
educational corporation, calculated the average yearlyway that specific strokes in a specific arrangement
earnings by literacy group and compared with therepresent Chinese characters. Although English spelling
threshold poverty level for an individual reported byis less complicated than Chinese characters, it is more
the U.S. Census Bureau. The average annual earningsconfusing. Specific strokes in a specific arrangement
of U.S. adults in the two lowest literacy groups,in Chinese always represent the same word or part
comprising 48.7% of the interviewees were belowof a word. In English a single phoneme can be spelled
the poverty threshold. This means that 48.7% of U.S.60 or more ways and a single letter can represent as
adults read and write so poorly that they cannot holdmany as ten phonemes! As a result, every word in a
an above-poverty-level-wage job. This is anotherperson's reading vocabulary must be learned
way of saying they are functionally illiterate. We doone-at-a-time by rote memory or by repeated use.
not see this level of poverty because most familiesThe "proven solution" mentioned above is due to the
have more than one employed adult and becausefact that Dr. Frank Laubach, founder of Laubach
most low-income families receive assistance fromLiteracy International, went around the world
government agencies, family, friends, and charities.teaching illiterate adults to read in over 300 alphabetic
Literacy Research Associates also calculated thelanguages. He found that in 90 percent of these
combined average yearly earnings of the two leastlanguages he could teach them to read in from one
literate groups and compared with the combinedto 20 days. In some of the simpler languages-as in
average yearly earnings of the three most literateone or more dialects of the Philippine language-he
groups. These data prove that 31.2% of U.S. adultscould teach adults to read in one hour! In 98 percent
who are functionally illiterate are in poverty and thatof the languages, he could teach them to read in less
they are more than twice as likely to be in povertythan three months. The grammar and syntax of
because of their illiteracy as for all other reasonsEnglish is neither the easiest nor the most difficult,
combined. A total of.312 times 48.7 or 15.2% of allbut the spelling is by far the worst of any alphabetic
U.S. adults are in poverty, a figure in close agreementlanguage. The grammar and syntax of English is
with poverty estimates from other sources.easier, for example, than several European languages,
Another reason we do not see this level of povertyin every one of which students can learn to read
is because the way that media presents informationfluently in less than three months. Most students
often hides the true dimensions of the problem. Mostrequire two years or more to learn to read English.
people have not read the above-mentioned report;Dr. Laubach believes the U.S. wastes
their only knowledge of it comes from newspapertwo-and-one-half years in teaching American
accounts of the study. The only known newspaperschoolchildren to read. He states on page 48 of his
reports about the study, a New York Times articlebook, Forty Years With the Silent Billion, "If we
and a Washington Post article, appeared in somespelled English phonetically, American children could be
newspapers the day after the Adult Literacy intaught to read in a week." Rudolph Flesch, in his
America report was released. Both of these articlesbook, Why Johnny Still Can't Read, states that
badly obscured the true extent of the problem.Russian schoolchildren are taught to read 46 of the
A 28 page follow-up report by the same agencies130 national languages of Russia in first grade and
who conducted the 1993 study was issued in 2006that there is no reading instruction, as such, after
(available free on the internet: search for the title "Afirst grade! Although learning to read English fluently in
First Look at the Literacy of America's Adults in thea week may be somewhat optimistic for some
21st Century."). It used a smaller, 19,417 interviewee,students, every student of normal intelligence can
database. There were no overall statistically significantcertainly be expected to learn to read fluently in less
differences in the annual earnings of thethan three months-perhaps much less for some
interviewees, by literacy level, between the 2006 andstudents.
the 1993 reports. Although there are several ways ofDespite activity following the 1983 "A Nation At Risk"
determining functional illiteracy, the employment ofreport about education, nothing done in the last
workers in for-profit businesses is undoubtedly theeighty years has made a statistically significant
most accurate. Businesses will not keep someone onimprovement. All changes made to improve the
the payroll who reads so poorly that they cannot beteaching of reading to date really amount to merely
a profitable employee.tweaking the existing system to combat the
Poverty, of course, is not the only problem thatsymptoms of the problem rather than making
must be constantly endured by functional illiterates.changes to solve the problem.It is like taking aspirin
Jonathan Kozol's 1985 book, Illiterate America, told ofto cure the symptoms of pneumonia instead of
about 34 different types of serious physical, mental,antibiotics to cure it. This is similar to, for example,
emotional, medical, and financial problems thatacquiring new reading books to overcome the
illiterates must constantly endure-problems that mostdisadvantages of English spelling instead of solving the
of us would consider a crisis if we had to endureproblem by making the spelling phonetic. Furthermore,
them.whatever changes we make to the teaching method
The Simple, Logical Solutionfor present English reading material, the students will
An understanding of those problems was the mainstill have to contend with the chaotic, illogical,
impetus behind several years of research performedinconsistent spelling and will require well over a year
by a non-profit educational corporation. This researchto learn to read traditionally spelled English-one word
resulted in the modification and perfection of aat a time.
proven solution to the problem of English illiteracyA non-profit educational corporation and a 509(a)(2)
that has been recommended by dozens ofprivate charity have found and perfected a solution
educational and linguistic scholars for over 250 years.to the serious problem of the functional illiteracy of
It is a solution that has been implemented by severalthe hundreds of millions of English-speaking people
nations smaller and larger than the U.S. and by botharound the world.