Written materials used in teaching may be of limited use with pre-literate, non-literate, and semi-literate learners, and their retention of class material may be limited because they cannot use educational texts or take notes for later review. Because of their limited educational experiences, they may feel intimidated about learning English. At the same time, they are often highly motivated to learn. They need opportunities to increase their self-confidence in educational situations and to develop positive images of themselves as readers and writers (Goldberg, 1997; Strucker, 1997). They also may have learning disabilities that have not been diagnosed or addressed (Schwarz & Terrill, 2000). Programs should have procedures to identify and meet the needs of English language learners with learning disabilities. (See Artiles & Ortiz, 2002; Schwarz & Terrill, 2000, and Adult English Language Learners and Learning Disabilities for discussions of ways to identify and work with these learners.)

The following groups of learners are literate in their first language, have already developed reading skills, have formed reading behaviors, and know that written language can represent speech. Described below are characteristics and implications for teaching reading to individuals from these groups.

• Learners who are literate in a language with a non-alphabetic script (e.g., Chinese or Japanese) may focus on entire words rather than on letters or other word parts (as English readers do when using phonological decoding to identify words). This is because the symbols in non-alphabetic scripts often represent syllables or entire words. The written symbols in these languages do not represent sounds, as letters do in alphabetic languages. Therefore, like young readers, as described in the report of the National Reading Panel (2000), they must develop an "alphabetic strategy" (Birch, 2002, p. 33) to be able to read and write in an alphabetic script (Adams, 1990).
• Learners who are literate in a language with a non-Roman alphabetic script (e.g., Arabic, Greek, Korean, Russian, or Thai) know how to read with an alphabet, but they may struggle to find English words in the dictionary, and they need time to process written materials presented in class, because the writing system of their first language is different from that of English, both in the letters and, in some cases the directionality of the writing (e.g., Arabic, which is written from right to left).
• Learners who are literate in a language with a Roman-alphabetic script (e.g., French, German, or Spanish) know about sound/symbol correspondences. With regard to vocabulary, they may find many linguistic similarities between their native languages and English. They can study ESL texts and take notes in class to learn new vocabulary or structures, and they can read outside of class. They still need to learn the sound-symbol correspondences of English before they are able to read well (Hilferty, 1996; Strucker & Davidson, 2003).