Visual media (pictures, photographs) are often used in adult literacy instruction, presumably because they are easy for adult literacy learners to process. However, relatively little research has been conducted on how adult literacy learners comprehend visual media, such as picture stories. Some have argued that picture stories could be used as a scaffold for training higher-level skills, such as inference strategies. Before such interventions can be developed, an understanding of how adult literacy learners process picture stories is warranted. The present study consisted of a contrastive case study in which adult literacy learners, less proficient college readers, and proficient college readers (three individuals per group) thought aloud while viewing picture stories. This comparison was chosen because less proficient and proficient college readers provide an aspirational comparison for many adult literacy learners who want to eventually pursue college. A qualitative analysis of participants’ think-aloud protocols demonstrated that there were strengths and challenges for the adult literacy learners, less proficient college readers, and proficient college readers in comprehending the picture stories. All three groups of participants demonstrated that they were able to establish explanatory coherence, which involves inferring the meaning of story events. However, there were differences in the extent to which efforts to achieve coherence were directed at the context of individual pictures, the local story context, or global story context. These differences will be discussed in terms of exploring the merits of using visual media in adult literacy instruction.
