Literacy Services - Glossary

Like any other community, the literacy community has developed its own set of vocabulary and acronyms to talk more efficiently about common programs. Here is a short list of the different words and acronyms you might hear within a literacy program.

• Adult Basic Education (ABE): Refers to programs that assist adults who have not completed high school or the equivalent in improving basic reading, writing, and math skills.
• BEST Plus: Standardized assessment administered to ESL students.
• Computer literacy: Possession of the skills and knowledge necessary for operating a computer.
• English Language Learner (ELL): A term used to describe students who are learning English. See also ESL.
• English as a Second Language (ESL): A term used to describe students who are learning English. See also ELL.
• English as a Second or Other Language (ESOL): a term used instead of English as a Second Language (ESL) that recognizes that learners may learn English as a one of multiple languages.
• Family literacy: Literacy efforts or activities involving more than one generation.
• General Education Development (GED): General Educational Development tests are a group of five tests (Math, Reading, Writing, Social Studies, and Science) which, when passed, certify that the taker has high-school level academic skills.
• Health Literacy: The ability to read and comprehend basic concepts and tasks related to health.
• High School Equivalency Diploma (HSED): The Wisconsin High School Equivalency Diploma is awarded by the Department of Public Instruction. It includes the passing the five GED tests as well as a health, citizenship, employability skills, and career-awareness program
• Learning Disabilities (LD): generic term that refers to a heterogeneous group of disorders manifested by significant difficulties in the acquisition and use of listening, speaking, reading, writing, or mathematical abilities
• Literacy: An individual's ability to read, write, and speak in English, compute, and solve problems, at levels of proficiency necessary to function on the job, in the family of the individual, and in society.
• Native language: The first language one learns to speak and understand; mother tongue; primary language.
• Personal Education Plan (PEP): A written instructional plan that includes goals and objectives, educational services, and dates for services received.
• Quantitative literacy: Fluency in reading and writing computational data
• Test of Adult Basic Education (TABE): Standardized test administered to ABE students
• United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS): A government agency responsible for the admission, control and status of all aliens in the United States. Formerly know as INS.