Digital literacies are critical for adults from migrant and refugee backgrounds as they settle in a new country. However, institutions, leaders, and teachers often feel uncertain about how to teach digital literacies. Using the notions of digital literacy practices and assemblages, this article reports on a qualitative case study and explores how…

English as an additional language (EAL) adult literacy learners have special needs and unique characteristics. The various challenges they face include decoding, comprehending, and developing basic skills for reading and writing. At the same time, it is extremely important to understand EAL adult literacy programming, as the right approaches for…

Offering a new perspective on adult English language education, this book provides theoretical and practical insights into how digital literacies can be included in the learning programmes for newly arrived adults from migrant and refugee backgrounds. "Enhancing Digital Literacies with Adult English Language Learners" takes readers…

In this three-paper dissertation project, I explore how 'English' becomes a recognizable object within the context of adult ESOL education. Building on scholarship on named languages (Garcia, 2019; Makoni & Pennycook, 2006), the historical construction of languages (Bonfiglio, 2010; Irvine & Gal, 2000), and raciolinguistic ideologies…

Existing research shows that identical cognates are read more quickly than noncognates. However, most studies focused on words presented in isolation or embedded in sentences. To address this gap, our exploratory eye-tracking study is the first to investigate the processing of cognates and noncognates in English subtitles. First, we tested whether…

Many second language (L2) learners utilize writing resources (e.g., linguistic tools that help check their language, search engines, and websites) when writing in their L2. Nevertheless, these tools and resources are prohibited in most writing assessments based on the assumption that using them provides an inaccurate or unfair measure of…

This essay describes the decline in the number of participants enrolled in federally-funded adult basic education (ABE), adult secondary education (ASE), and adult English Language (EL) programs. Enrollment data since 1965 indicate a steep and consistent downward trend in the number of adults enrolling in these programs since the 1990s.…

The problem is English language learners (ELLs) in adult education and college programs in the United States need support in achieving learning goals due to a lack of qualified English as a second language (ESL) teachers in their home countries. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to understand how ELL students in Indiana perceive the…

Traditional teacher andragogy models oversimplify teaching multilingual students, overlooking both the complexity of identity and the contexts in which this work occurs. In this paper, we describe our intersectional approach to research, highlighting its affordances for research on teachers' learning to support multilingual students. This…

We must recognize that our current language to describe the work and purpose of adult education sets a "dominant culture" social dynamic between teacher and student. To anchor adult education in a genuine spirit and experience of equity, we must start with a fundamental shift from a one-way savior helper mindset to a two-way mutual…

We have developed a program called Content Integrated Language Instruction for Adults, incorporating research-based practices in vocabulary and language instruction to facilitate a deep and broad understanding of complex content. A subset of words critical to comprehension of the subject matter is covered in each lesson, using group discussion and…

To effectively achieve communicative goals, second language (L2) learners need not only the necessary L2 knowledge, skills, and abilities, but also the relevant topical knowledge. However, in L2 assessment contexts, very few existing tests-in-operation have examined L2 learners' topical knowledge as part of their language performance. This study…

This book centralizes the narratives of adult English language learners, teachers, and trainee teachers in the development of a humanistic language pedagogy; their strengths, concerns, and stories inform this practical guide to adult literacy development and English language-culture learning and teaching. The author sets the need to educate the…

The researchers of this case study explored English language learner (ELL) parents' experience as they supported their children's English language development in an online (virtual) kindergarten programme. One-on-one semi-structured interviews were used to collect data. Then the researchers used thematic analysis to describe the participants'…

Within the Christina School District, the English Learner population continues to increase each year. The Christina School District's English Learner program has a manual that is shared only with administrators and English as a Second Language teachers. At the time of this research, there is little to no professional development available for…