诺思克特的成人语言运用水平研究取得了成果,而把这一成果应用到成人基础教育中去使能力-基础教育(competency-based education)方面得到新的进展。把能力-基础成人教育(competency-based adult education)扩大到以英语为第二语言的课堂教学中,乃是理所当然的,因而,探讨一下用于能力-基础成人教育中的术语也是及时的。成人的语言实用能力(function competency)原先在成人语言运用水平研究中叫做读写(Literacy),诺思克特等人著的《成人语言实用能力述要》一书中所下的定义,是为适应 Northrop has achieved fruitful results in the study of adult language use, and new progress has been made in applying this to competency-based education in adult basic education. It is only a matter of course to extend competency-based adult education to classroom teaching where English is the second language, so it is also timely to explore the terms used in competency-based adult education. The definition of adult’s functional competency, originally referred to as literacy in adult language proficiency studies, is the definition of practical competence in adult language by Northkrit et al.