Originally posted by Ushgarak
Yes, you will find information finding is a seperate skill from just being able to read words at all. I have plenty of learners who can read a book but cannot read a timetable or any reference work to save their lives.
Now that is interesting, amazing how the brain works.
(in response to Bardock)
It's not really like that unless the person is some sort of memory freak.
The default way of handling text when you first learn it is to start at the beginning and go through to the end. The idea of starting a page, a paragraph or even a sentence halfway through is alien by default.
If you don't learnt that skill, then confronted with a refefence material- like the Yellow Pages, or a timetable, your only coping mechancism is to try and rwad the whole thing through from start to end, which obviously effectively gives a nonsense response.
And whilst such a person is likely to be intellectually capable of recognising the concept of, say, looking through a book alphabetically for the right reference, they are pracitcally simply unable to do it, and become confused.
Originally posted by Bicnarok
Now that is interesting, amazing how the brain works.
There's a limit, though. If a person can read a reasonably complex novel, they would only be unable to use a reference work if they had a specific issue in that area.
By which I don't mean a learning disability! Some people are just bad a things. Some people cannot add in their heads, some people are clumsy, some people just won't ever be able to use a timetable.
But generally speaking if you have good literacy you'll be able to use reference works too. It's just worth bearing in mind that if a person cannot read a timetable- something which by our definition would make them illterate- it does not necessarily mean they literally cannot read.
So I would look at this study in the same light.
Originally posted by Ushgarak
Also just a note- looking at the methodology this US study used, they include adults who were unable to take the assessment at all due to a language barrier. Obviously that is an important perspective- it includes people that are not illiterate at all, they simply cannot understand English.
Well I mean it would be hard to function in Japan without knowing Japanese, right?
The number could get far worse, especially if the economy gets so bad that the state governments cut or cease funding for quality education. Future generations might get all the technology in the world, but an education taught by a properly-run institution might not ever reach them. Pro-business and corporation-minded people most likely see this little statistic as a perk, justifying their belief that plebian society resides purely in cog and wheel workloads and nothing more than that.
It starts off at a young age. Too many electronic gadgets make reading Twain's "Huckleberry Finn" a nightmare to many middle school students. By the time high school runs through, testerone and estrogen clearly make a mockery of literature classes. Quality education may not ever have a chance to match wits with those two frontlines in urbanite environments. To the dismay of the greater good of all us 300,000,000 residents.