Unlike young beginning readers who start off fresh, adult learners can enter reading classes with varying existing skill levels. Some adult students cannot read at all, whereas other adult students may be familiar with the alphabet or have the ability to recognize a few words. To teach an adult to read, teachers should first perform an assessment to discover the student's strengths and weaknesses and then tailor their lesson plans to address the student's specific needs. Lesson components and objectives should be clearly stated from the beginning. Teachers should apply a flexible approach and adjust lesson plans based on the needs of the adult student.
As with young learners, it is important to emphasize phonics when teaching an adult to read. Teaching phonics to adults involves helping the student to recognize the relationships between letters and sounds. Adult students often tend to become easily bored and frustrated while learning phonics, but it is important for teachers to emphasize the importance of learning phonics to their adult students. Teachers should also make sure that the student has completely mastered phonics before moving onto more advanced topics.
Once an adult student has mastered the principles of letters and sounds through phonics, they will then learn how to use this information to analyze, recognize and put together whole words and sentences. Teachers should gradually introduce adult students to words with more syllables until they have the ability to recognize more complex words. Teachers should show their adult students how to identify unfamiliar words by "sounding them out." Helping adult students learn how to identify words on their own will increase the students' confidence in their own abilities.
When teaching an adult to read, it is important for teachers to choose reading materials that are relevant to the adult world. Reading materials that cover more mature subject matter but that are still basic enough for beginners will help to keep adult students interested. Adult learners like to be able to relate what they learn to their everyday lives. One way that teachers can accomplish this---when teaching students how to spell---is to introduce words that relate to the student's profession or hobbies.