Examines the relations among phonological awareness, short-term memory, orthographic ability, contextual information, and reading skill in a study of 60 functionally illiterate adults enrolled in Adult Basic Education programs and a group of elementary-school children. Concludes that adults seem to be relying less on phonological decoding, which is an area of weakness for them, and more on remembering specific words and patterns, which is an area of relative strength. (SG)