WHY WOULD PEOPLE IN THE LEVEL 2 GROUP WANT AND/OR NEED TO IMPROVE THEIR LITERACY SKILLS?
IALS shows that adults in the lowest literacy skills group (i.e. Level 1) are clearly the most disadvantaged in terms of income, income source and employment status, and that they are substantially more disadvantaged than people in the Level 2 group. Based on similar findings in US data, the National Institute For Literacy (1998) concludes, “While we are concerned about improving the literacy of all adults, we consider those scoring at the lowest level (Level 1) to be most urgently in need of nationwide attention”. In many respects the Level 2 group from IALS looks more like higher-level groups than it does like the Level 1 group. Reading the Future (1997) shows similar levels of employment and unemployment and nearly identical average numbers of weeks worked among Canadian adults (age 16 years and over in the labour force) at IALS Levels 2 and 3 (see Statistics Canada, Reading the Future, Tables 2.5 and 2.6). Also noted is that “the data suggests that differences in skill may have lit
