International Adults Literacy Survey, 1994, 1996, 1998

The International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) was a seven-country initiative first conducted in the fall of 1994. Its goal: to create comparable literacy profiles across national, linguistic and cultural boundaries. The survey also offers the world's only source of comparative data on participation in adult education and training. The results, published in the report \"Literacy, economy and society: Results of the first International Adult Literacy Survey\" (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Statistics Canada, 1995), demonstrated a strong plausible link between literacy and a country's economic potential. Since then, a second and a third round of data collection of IALS were conducted in an additional 16 countries in 1996 and in 1998. Several thematic reports and international comparative reports were published following these second and third waves of data collection. In total, IALS includes literacy data pertaining to 23 countries or regions around the world. The Canadian component of the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) was conducted in 1994. The main purpose of the survey was to find out how well adults used printed information to function in society. Another aim was to collect data on the incidence and volume of participation in adult education and training, and to investigate the relationships between initial and adult education, on the one hand, and literacy proficiency and wider economic and social outcomes, on the other. Participants of the first two rounds of IALS are referenced in this guide as part of the first cycle (1994, 1996), whereas participants of the third round are referenced as the second cycle (1998).

国际成人识字率调查（International Adult Literacy Survey，IALS）是一项由七个国家联合发起的项目，首次开展于1994年秋季。其核心目标是构建跨越国家、语言与文化边界的可比较识字能力画像。该调查同时提供了全球独有的成人教育与培训参与度比较数据来源。其研究成果发表于《识字率、经济与社会：首届国际成人识字率调查成果》（经济合作与发展组织（Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD）与加拿大统计局，1995年），结果证实识字能力与一国经济潜力之间存在显著且合理的关联。
此后，IALS分别于1996年和1998年新增16个国家开展了第二轮与第三轮数据采集工作。此两轮数据采集完成后，多项专题报告与国际比较研究报告相继发布。截至目前，IALS累计涵盖全球23个国家及地区的识字能力数据。
国际成人识字率调查的加拿大子项目于1994年启动，该子项目的核心目标是探究成年人运用印刷信息融入社会的能力水平；另一项目标是收集成人教育与培训的参与率及参与规模相关数据，并分别探究基础教育与成人教育，和识字能力水平、更广泛的经济与社会成果之间的关联关系。
本指南将IALS前两轮调查的受访者归类为第一周期受访者（1994年、1996年），而第三轮调查的受访者则被归类为第二周期受访者（1998年）。