Forty-two per cent of Canadian adults lack the literacy skills required to thrive in the global economy, a new report finds.
The Oct. 31 report, “Making the Grade? Troubling Trends in Postsecondary Student Literacy,” published by the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario focuses on two areas of literacy: reading and writing. The report found less than one quarter of Canadians aged 18 to 65 who took the International Adult Literacy Survey scored above Level 3, which is considered the minimum level of proficiency.
It argued that literacy expectations for high school students who go on to post-secondary education are inconsistent, suggesting most Ontario students are only meeting the minimum requirement of literacy proficiency.
The report recommended that post-secondary institutions assess the entering and exiting literacy skills of all students. It also asserts that a consistent standard must be determined for students entering post-secondary education.
“The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) defines literacy as the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate, compute and use printed and written materials associated with varying contexts,” the report stated.
According to the report, people with high literacy levels are more employable, lead to an increase in per capita GDP, and are also correlated with better health and more civic engagement. It also stated that low literacy levels are linked to poverty and increased criminality.
Nicholas Dion, a co-author of the study, said when Ontario and Canada’s literacy scores are compared to international scores, they are staying relatively stable at the middle level.
“Is it enough to do pretty well? Should we be striving for something a little bit higher? This is what we need to be asking,” Dion said.
He said society needs to start looking at what he called “learning outcomes.”
“We need to start looking carefully and measuring what students are actually learning during their time in universities or colleges,” Dion said.
David Stymeist, a contract instructor in Carleton University’s English department, said his second-year undergraduate students have shown consistently good literacy skills. But he said he teaches grammar lessons in class to help students develop their basic grammar and writing skills.
“Most of [the students] indicate that they haven’t received direct instruction on these subjects since elementary school,” Stymeist said. “By offering short mini-lessons that cover some basic elements of grammar, effective writing, and argumentation, I hope to offer my students the opportunity to hone their literacy skills.”
Fellow Carleton English professor Susan Birkwood said many of her students comment that little time was spent on grammar, punctuation, and diction in high school when her lessons focus on these topics.
“I remember having a fourth-year student comment that I was the first person to explain clearly the grammar and sentence structure problems that I had highlighted in her essays,” Birkwood said via email.
She said the most common errors she finds when teaching grammar lessons are sentence fragments, comma splices, and fused sentences.
“There has always been a broad range of abilities when it comes to writing, especially in first-year classes, so it’s difficult to say whether the overall level of writing/reading comprehension has gone down,” Birkwood said. “Some students enter university with strong skills, but others have difficulty composing grammatically-correct sentences.”
