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A study examined the relation between phonemic awareness and reading across the full range of decoding abilities in adults; determined if phonemic awareness can be taught to low-literate adults in one 45-minute session; and determined the effect of phonemic awareness training on the acquisition of decoding skills by low-literate and illiterate adults. Subjects, 41 upper-division and graduate students, 40 students attending developmental reading classes at a community college, and 36 inmates at a pre-release correctional facility, were administered measures of phonemic awareness, word identification, and decoding. For the training component, 19 of the 35 inmates with phonemic awareness scores of 11 or less correct were randomly selected to receive 45 minutes of phonemic awareness training. Results indicated that: (1) there were significant differences among the three groups of subjects for each of three possible comparisons of group means for word recognition, decoding, and phonemic awareness; (2) phonemic awareness scores were significantly and highly correlated with word recognition and decoding skills; and (3) effectiveness of phonemic awareness training and its effect on decoding skills were not statistically significant. Findings provide further evidence that adults who are expert readers have phonemic awareness whereas adult low-literates have little or no phonemic awareness; and that phonemic awareness is not acquired spontaneously and may be difficult to teach to adults. (Fourteen figures of data are included.) (RS)