Survey of Literacy Skills Used in Daily Activity, 1989 [Canada]

The objective of the survey was to profile literacy levels among the Canadian adult population. For the purpose of this survey literacy has been interpreted as "Official Language Literacy" and defined as "the information processing skills (reading, writing and numeracy skills) necessary to use printed material commonly encountered at work, at home and in the community". ln the Fall of 1987, the National Literacy Secretariat of the Department of the Secretary of State commissioned Statistics Canada to undertake the development of a survey to assess the literacy skills of the Canadian adult population. The first phase of the study consisted of a feasibility study (Kelly, Murray and Satin, 1988) examining the underlying concepts and definitions of literacy and the different measurement options in a household survey framework. The feasibility study was completed in April 1988. The second phase was the conduct of a pilot survey in April 1989. The objective of the pilot survey was to test the survey methodology and measurement tools. The final phase of the study was the conduct of a national survey in October 1989, The principal objective of the survey was the development of a detailed literacy profile of Canada' s adult population. Translated into specifie data requirements, it was determined that the final database should provide: -a direct multi-dimensional assessment of the literacy skills of the Canadian population aged 16-69 for each officiaI language. -a self-assessment of the literacy skills and associated literacy needs for persons whose mother tongue is other than English or French. -a self-assessment of the literacy skills and associated needs for those at work, for those looking for work and for those outside of the labour force. -data allowing the analysis of the link between assessed literacy levels and other socio-economic indicators such as educational attainment and labour force participation. The central element of the survey was the direct assessment of the skills of Canadians using commonplace tasks of varying difficulty drawn from a range of topic and knowledge areas. This central element was supported by the collection of background information on respondents. ln addition to collecting standard demographic characteristics, the background questionnaire included questions on the selfassessed literacy skills of respondents (in one of the officiaI languages and in their mother tongue), on the perceived barriers to realizing enhanced literacy skill levels and on training which would facilitate such skill enhancement.