Table of contents

  1. Chapter 1: Purpose, theories and methods
    1. 1.1: The policy context
    2. 1.2: Purpose of the study
    3. 1.3: Theory, definitions and instruments
    4. 1.4: Significance and limitations
    5. 1.5: Organization of the report
  2. Chapter 2: Demographic profiles of Canadians with low literacy proficiency
    1. 2.1: Literacy proficiency by age
    2. 2.2: Educational attainment
    3. 2.3: Gender differences
    4. 2.4: Language of assessment
    5. 2.5: Immigrants
    6. 2.6: Mother tongue
    7. 2.7: Frequency of reading books
    8. 2.8: Labour market status
    9. 2.9: Literacy and Income
    10. 2.10: Conclusion
  3. Chapter 3: Theoretical considerations underlying the reading components
    1. 3.1: Components of reading and reading development
    2. 3.2: Contrasting more-skilled and less-skilled adult readers
    3. 3.3: The components assessed in the ISRS
    4. 3.4: Real word reading for accuracy and speed — English only
    5. 3.5: Pseudo-word reading for accuracy and speed
    6. 3.6: Spelling for accuracy
    7. 3.7: Vocabulary
    8. 3.8: Scrambled alphabet, rapid letter naming and Digit-Span
    9. 3.9: Short term memory and working memory
    10. 3.10: Conclusion
  4. Chapter 4: The relationship between reading components and literacy proficiency
    1. 4.1: Reading components and literacy scores
    2. 4.2: Component skills of Native and Non-native language speakers
    3. 4.3: Influence of reading experience and education
    4. 4.4: Interrelationships among components
    5. 4.5: Characterization of components by latent classes
    6. 4.6: Demographic characteristics of latent classes
    7. 4.7: Conclusion
  5. Chapter 5: Conclusions and implications for public policy and instruction
    1. Annex A: Assessment design and survey methodology
    2. Annex B: Statistical models used for proficiency scaling
    3. Annex C: Statistical tables
    4. Annex D: References