The patterns of word recognition errors among native and nonnative speakers of English in adult basic education classes were compared in a study that focused on the 212 of the 676 learners in the Adult Reading Components Study who scored between grade equivalent (GE) 4 and 6 in word recognition. Key findings were as follows: (1) highly similar scores on decoding tests do not necessarily mean that people use similar decoding strategies; (2) the error patterns of native and nonnative English speakers differ; (3) error patterns among nonnative English speakers differ depending on whether exposure to English took place before or after age 12; (4) as readers, the nonnative English speakers more closely resembled normally developing young readers, whereas the native speakers more closely resembled children with learning disabilities. The following were among the study's implications: (1) adult literacy centers should consider offering different approaches to accommodate the needs of different kinds of intermediate readers; (2) teachers must know not only the phonics principles adult learners appear to have mastered but also those that they use automatically when they read; (3) future research should analyze both phonetically regular and nonphonetic words; and (4) a more refined error classification system could be beneficial. (MN)