Adult literacy teachers are constantly searching for effective, engaging and distinctly 'adult' ways to develop adult emergent reading and, for at least the past two hundred years, adults have formed themselves into reading circles to read and discuss novels on a weekly or monthly basis. Why then are reading circles rarely used, or studied, in formal adult literacy provision? This book explores adult reading development, novel reading and reading circles in the context of a wider examination of reading pedagogies and practices in the English-speaking world. It discusses reading as both an individual and a communal act and investigates the relationship between literature and literacy development, practice and pedagogy (including a reassessment of the controversial approaches of reading aloud and phonics for adults). Sam Duncan reviews a case study of an adult reading circle in a large London further education college and identifies the wider implications for the teaching and learning of adult emergent reading, for the use and understanding of reading circles and for how we understand the novel reading experience more broadly.

In the UK, the adult literacy provision has become more functional and more assessment driven over the last decade, largely due to funding requirements. However, one result of this is that the clear benefits of reading for pleasure in adult skills development have become less apparent. This book addresses the need to support teachers in the development of adults' skills through reading for pleasure, by incorporating the activity into the curriculum. It focuses on reading for pleasure for adult emergent readers - those who consider themselves non-readers, either because they feel they cannot or do not read - and it draws on the author's research with adult readers and reading circles. The book shows how to incorporate reading for pleasure into adult literacy teaching in a range of non-formal and formal settings.

Adult literacy teachers are constantly searching for effective, engaging and distinctly 'adult' ways to develop adult emergent reading and, for at least the past two hundred years, adults have formed themselves into reading circles to read and discuss novels on a weekly or monthly basis. Why then are reading circles rarely used, or studied, in formal adult literacy provision? This book explores adult reading development, novel reading and reading circles in the context of a wider examination of reading pedagogies and practices in the English-speaking world. It discusses reading as both an individual and a communal act and investigates the relationship between literature and literacy development, practice and pedagogy (including a reassessment of the controversial approaches of reading aloud and phonics for adults). Sam Duncan reviews a case study of an adult reading circle in a large London further education college and identifies the wider implications for the teaching and learning of adult emergent reading, for the use and understanding of reading circles and for how we understand the novel reading experience more broadly.

Exploration of what a reading circle approach can offer adult emergent readers, and what adult literacy learners can tell us about novel reading.