LEO Study: Living with Low Literacy
The LEO study is a study carried out by the University of Hamburg and Anke Grotlüschen's team to record the reading and writing skills of the German-speaking adult population (18–64 years of age). Above all, the lower levels of reading and writing skills - the so-called alpha levels - are differentiated. So far, there have been two implementations of the LEO study: the first was in 2010, with the title “leo. - Level-One study ", carried out the second in 2018 as" LEO 2018 - Life with low literacy ".
the aim of the study
The aim of the study is to capture the current magnitude of the phenomenon of low literacy among adults. More than the previous study from 2010, it is devoted to specific questions of participation, everyday practices and competencies in various areas of life:
- Digital practices and basic skills
- Finance related practices and basic skills
- Health related practices and basic skills
- Political Practices and Basic Skills
- Scriptural practices in the context of work, family and everyday life
- Reading and writing skills in the context of continuing education
- Reading and writing skills in the context of migration and multilingualism
Attachment of the study
LEO 2018 is based on a random selection of people living in Germany in private households between the ages of 18 and 64. The net sample includes 6,681 people. It was supplemented by an additional sample of 511 people in the lower education sector. The interviewees were people who spoke German sufficiently well to be able to follow a one-hour survey. The sample was weighted using key socio-demographic data from the microcensus.
After the standardized survey on various aspects of the life situation, the people surveyed completed a competence test with reading and writing tasks. All 7,192 people received a so-called anchoring test. The respondents needed an average of just under twelve minutes to complete the tasks. Those who only achieved a few correct solutions in the submitted test items received additional, simpler items from an in-depth test. The average processing time for this second round was seven minutes. The interviews were carried out by the Kantar Public survey institute as computer-assisted face-to-face interviews ( CAPI: Computer Assisted Personal Interview ).
Meaning "low literacy"
Low literacy means that a person can only read and write sentences down to the level of simple sentences. In the system of the LEO study, the area of low reading and writing skills is described with alpha levels 1 to 3 (cf. for more in-depth information on the system of alpha levels: Grotlüschen & Riekmann 2012).
Competencies at alpha level 1 correspond to the letter level . It is very rare in Germany that someone is literalized at best on the level of letters.
Competencies at alpha level 2 correspond to the word level . At this alpha level, people are able to read or write individual words, but fail at the level of sentences. Even common words are often put together letter by letter when reading and writing.
Competencies at alpha level 3 correspond to the sentence level . At this alpha level, people are able to read and write individual sentences, but they fail at the level of coherent - even shorter - texts.
Low literacy encompasses these three alpha levels. Affected people are restricted in their independent participation due to their limited written language skills in various areas of life. Reading simple written work instructions also fails, for example.
Competencies at alpha level 4 describe conspicuously incorrect spelling, even with common and simple vocabulary.
Results on reading and writing skills in Germany 2018
Of the German-speaking adults, 12.1 percent still read and write at a low level of competence in 2018. Compared with the results of the LEO - Level-One study from 2010, this means a decrease of 2.4 percentage points. The change is statistically significant (p <0.01). Extrapolated to the population, around 6.2 million adults remain in the low literacy range (2010: 7.5 million adults).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Anke Grotlüschen, Wibke Riekmann (ed.): Functional illiteracy in Germany. Results of the first leo. - Level-one study. Waxmann, Münster ( uni-hamburg.de [accessed on August 7, 2019]).
- ↑ Anke Grotlüschen, Klaus Buddeberg, Gregor Dutz, Lisanne Heilmann, Christopher Stammer: LEO 2018 - Life with low literacy. In: press brochure. Retrieved August 7, 2019 .