1. Why the Use of Terminology in Adult Literacy matters Sam Duncan & Irene Schwab NRDC UCL Institute of Education

2. “One in five European 15-year-olds lack the literacy skills required to successfully function in a modern society.” “Seven million people have poor literacy skills.” “One in five adults has less literacy than is expected of an 11-year-old child.” “We need a unified literacy policy to deal with the low- skilled population.”

3. Rationale Precision and respect Who are the literacy experts? Cycles of re-inventing the wheel? And who are we talking about? Learners? Other adults? Literacy vs illiteracy, or a spectrum? Literacy is complex…

4. 1 Terminology should provide precision appropriate to communicative purpose.

5. 2 Terminology should communicate transparently and simply, as appropriate, to audience, purpose and context.

6. 3 Terminology should be respectful.

7. 4 Terminology should be positive.

8. 5 Terminology should recognise people at not at levels, skills are.

9. 6 Terminology should recognise that ‘a beginner reader (or writer) is not a beginner thinker’.

10. 7 Terminology should be appropriate to linguistic and cultural context, as well as to audience and purpose.

11. How can we use these principles? Guidelines not ‘rules’ Raising awareness Promoting discussion Leading the way Challenging usage of terms that do not meet the guidelines Appropriacy for audience and context What next?

12. http://www.eli-net.eu/about-us/news/detail/article/detail/News/elinet- guiding-principles-for-the-use-of-terminology-in-adult-literacy/ http://eli-net.eu/ i.schwab@ioe.ac.uk s.duncan@ioe.ac.uk