Hard-spell advertising.

• Position: English literacy - Brief Article

Even in this age of Internet pop-ups and text-message marketing, many small businesses still, advertise with low-tech, hand-lettered signs. And these often come with fractured grammar and creative spelling that provide insights into new immigrant communities taking root in U.S. cities. Elyse B. Rudolph, director of the Literacy Assistance Center, which helps newcomers learn English, says that many immigrants, though smart and ambitious, are not Literate in English or their native Language. Overlapping of nationalities often compounds the language problem: With Mexicans working...