The results in Table 6 indicate a difference between younger and older respondents. Those 35 years and under reported that sounding out letters and words and looking at pictures helped them; those over 35 years reported that hearing the stories read to them and learning to recognize letters and words helped them. These two different beliefs about what helped the respondents learn to read appear to correspond to changes in teaching philosophy which occurred in New Brunswick schools. The younger adult learners preferred to use phonics and contextual visual cues while the older adult learners preferred to use word/letter recognition and contextual auditory cues.

Over 80% of the older respondents reported that they had learned to print by copying letters, while 40% of the younger respondents reported learning to print by copying words.

The early experiences of the CASP learners in this study reflect findings from the literature. For example:

. . . Taylor and Dorsey-Gaines (1988) explored the ways in which home settings provide dynamic literate environments where writing and reading are an integral part of the family life. Similarly, Heath's study (1983) of low-ses families from rural communities described the many functional ways that literacy was used by adults and their children (Madigan, 1996, p.272) .

The personal literacy histories of the individuals in this study indicate the ways in which literacy was a part of their homes: hearing stories, having reading materials, the belief that one learns to read in school, and perceptions about how they learned to read. Poor home life, poor teaching and school failure were perceived as reasons why they had not learned to read. Learners showed a great awareness of their antecedent literacy experiences and the effect of these experiences on subsequent literacy activities.