The volume has four parts: I. The construct of functional literacy, II. Literacy and development, III. Attaining literacy in developing countries, and IV. Attaining literacy in industrial societies. Contributions were originally presented at an international conference in Tilburg, October 1991, and are by: L. Verhoeven, H. J. Graff, C. Blanche-Benveniste, L. Noordman & W. Vonk, B. Street, K. Levine, D. R. Olson, P. Bertelson & B. de Gelder, P. Leseman, D. Barton, E. Ferreiro, N. Hornberger, M. van der Westen, C. J. Daswani, J. Yambi, F. Coulmas, C. Doets, C. Pontecorvo, A. van der Leij, D. Bouwhuis & H. Bunt, W. Loxley, L. Dubbeldam, J. Hammond & P. Freebody, J. Ooijens, D. Wagner.