Thursday, October 20
Schedule

This paper investigates the benefits of promoting language mediation among refugee-background adults, particularly in teaching and learning contexts that focus on Literacy Education and Second Language Learning for Adults (LESSLA). This will include a discussion of how translanguaging activities can facilitate language, literacy, and agency development.

This session traces of long arc of my LESLLA advocacy journey, from doctoral studies, to district drama surrounding my high school LESLLA classrooms, to creating the MinneSLIFE organization, to lobbying the legislature, and serving as expert witness on a federal lawsuit on behalf of high school LESLLA learners.

Participants will discuss and collaborate on practical and trauma-informed measures to empower low-level language learners to play an active and choice-driven role in their own learning.

Miranda Rights require LESLLA learners to understand and use legal jargon, complex speech acts, grammar structures, silence, and written documents. In this workshop we discuss and provide opportunities to share how we can teach learners their rights and navigate the power dynamics, and ambiguities of the American justice system.

It's a new day: Research in how the bilingual brain works and studies in translanguaging invite us to reimagine language development and cross cultural interactions in the LESLLA classroom. We invite questions and discussion.

The presenters will tell the story of a collaborative effort among educators in Indianapolis to develop a program for adult ELL emergent readers. They will describe and demonstrate the curricular materials and an alternative assessment tool, and will discuss the challenges faced, and the future goals for collaboration.

This presentation, developed collaboratively by a LESLLA teacher and a physician, challenges the standard “body parts and symptoms” approach to ESL health curriculum in favor of more essential language and concepts that are important in improving healthcare outcomes, and providing students with knowledge of their rights as patients.

This presentation reports on a large-scale research project conducted in Québec (Canada) to propose the first account of LESLLA learners of French in this province. We will provide an extensive overview of the LESLLA communities’ needs and realities from the perspectives of the learners and the teachers.

We present first results of a word spelling task in L2 German to diagnose basic spelling skills and learning effects of low-literate second language migrant learners with L1 Farsi-Dari in context of multiliteracy. The contribution will discuss findings in terms of strategies in spelling acquisition as well as cross-linguistic influences.

What is the added value of blended education for LESLLA-learners and how can potential barriers be overcome? Based on a literature review and a needs analysis, we present 12 building blocks related to thoughtful course design, effective teacher conduct and centre policies to create equal digital learning opportunities for LESLLA.

Assessment tools are important for continuously improving teaching and learning. I will share my jouney of researching, creating, and iterating a LESLLA-specific foundational literacy skills assessment tool (available at abceng.org/assess). I'll also share personal examples of using assessment to understand student progress and improve my teaching of phonemic awareness, phonics, and fluency.

This workshop is all about the oral skills in LESLLA teaching. When and how do reading and writing become helpful for the acquisition of the oral skills? What do we know from research? The presenter will give an overview of some relevant theory and cases from the Netherlands and Belgium.

Hyflex instruction is becoming increasingly popular, combining hybrid options (learners can attend class remotely or in-person) with flexibility (learners can easily switch between the two). Learn how teachers are incorporating technology, intentional classroom setups, with patience and creativity. We’ll discuss classroom cohesion and ideas to keep LESLLA learners on the same page, both literally and figuratively!

Drawn from a critical ethnographic dissertation with Syrian refugee young adults living in Turkey, this presentation highlights participants’ responses to intersectional linguistic, sociopolitical, and racial marginalization. Participants speak back to xenophobic public perceptions about refugees in the Turkish and international context and advocate for greater understanding of the Syrian diaspora.