1998

This manual was developed for health providers by the national literacy and health program of the Canadian Public Health Association (CPHA), which worked in partnership with 26 national health associations to raise awareness about the links between literacy and health. It offers information, tips, techniques and stories to help health-care workers improve the way they communicate with patients.

This document provides an introduction to the observable characteristics and neurological aspects of dyslexia. The author has included recommendations on screening for dyslexia; information for parents; suggestions for classroom teachers; and tips for dyslexic adults.

The author has also included a section on increasing awareness of “dyslexic talents” and the role they can play in the new knowledge-based economy.

This paper was presented at a workshop on teaching English as a foreign language, held at the Universidad de Holguin in Cuba in 1998. In it, the author grapples with the idea of Canadian English as something more than a simple mixture of British and American usages.

An article in this issue focuses on the political issues underlying the development and delivery of essential-skills programs in the workplace. During a two-day workshop, practitioners and expert speakers discussed the need to understand the values and positions of stakeholders in workplace education.

This issue includes an article about a partnership between Bow Valley College (formerly Alberta Vocational College – Calgary) and educational institutions in South Africa and Zimbabwe. Funded by the Canadian International Development Agency, the project combines skills-based technical instruction with hands-on entrepreneurial experience. Canadian labour representatives are also involved in the project.

This issue features an article on the movement by organized labour, particularly in western and northern Canada, to increase its role in providing basic education to working people. The goal is to see literacy become a tool for workers to effect social and economic change.

This workbook describes a step-by-step process for developing an evaluation strategy for municipal workplace literacy programs. The approach is based on collaboration and on-going assessment. The workbook describes how to prepare for the evaluation, how to plan the evaluation, and how to carry it out.

The acronym CLAD stands for Clear Language and Design. This clear-language thesaurus suggests simpler, plainer alternatives for a variety of relatively complex yet common English words. The more complex words are listed alphabetically on one side of a page and the plain-language suggestions are listed opposite them.

This booklet promoting literacy by the National Literacy Secretariat touches on the following topics:
- the importance of literacy;
- the role of the National Literacy Secretariat;
- the importance of partnerships in expanding the literacy skills of Canadians;
- the concept that literacy and learning are inseparable and the importance of being committed to lifelong learning.

The International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) was a seven-country initiative conducted in the fall of 1994 to create comparable literacy profiles across linguistic and cultural boundaries. This is a report of a study that analyses the New Brunswick data collected for the IALS in order to better understand literacy in the province.