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Adults' perceptions of internal and external influences upon their acquisition of reading skills
Abstract
The purpose of this qualitative study was to elicit adults' perceptions of internal and external influences upon their acquisition of reading skills. Volunteer subjects were purposefully selected for the study. Each subject was identified by an Adult Basic Education (ABE) instructor as either a nonreader or a low-level reader based upon the ABE testing procedures in use at the time of the study. Two females and six males, ranging in age from 25 to 70, comprised the subject pool. Taped interviews were conducted with individual subjects in private settings located on the site of their ABE classes. The interviews were semi-structured and focused upon the subjects' experiences with literacy acquisition both in childhood and adulthood. Interview notes, interview transcriptions, and the researcher's field journal were used as sources of data. Two of Lincoln and Guba's (1985) steps of qualitative research, member-check and external audit, were included to ensure the reliability and validity of the research data. A major internal influence upon the subjects' acquisition of reading skills both in childhood and adulthood was their self-esteem. External influences were personal support systems, school attendance, classroom demographics, the process of learning to read, peer relationships, teacher/pupil interaction, classroom oppression, occupational experiences, social networks, personal survival skills, and the ABE experience.
Subject Area
Adult education|Continuing education|Literacy|Reading instruction
Recommended Citation
Stone, Marcia Elaine, "Adults' perceptions of internal and external influences upon their acquisition of reading skills" (1990). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9118478.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9118478