Theory and Practice in Teaching Immigrant Adults with Limited Education and Literacy

Abstract

Skilled and knowledgeable teachers are the key to student success. For practitioners working with adult immigrants with limited education and literacy in their home language, who are developing oral and literacy skills in the language of their new country, there is limited access to specialized training and professional development. The EU-Speak project is addressing this need. Here we report on the project, starting with the results of two international surveys of teachers and program managers that aimed to determine existing and desired knowledge, skills, and attitudes. The survey results and consultations with experts informed the content of six online modules in five languages for practitioners around the world. The modules focus on the educational needs of the learner population, bilingualism and multilingualism, language and literacy in their social contexts and from a psycholinguistic perspective, vocabulary learning, and acquisition of morphosyntax.