What is it about?
Growing academic interest and emerging Literacy Education and Second Language Learning for Adults with little or no schooling (LESLLA) research in Finland, with focus on reading literacy skills, is discussed. Essential components of developing reading literacy, drawing on relevant previous research on pre-literates are reviewed. The role of orthography, particularly the shallow transparency of the Finnish language, is critically examined with regard to alphabetic literacy. The article highlights the possibilities of technology to enhance the individual literacy process for LESLLA learners and presents the Digital Literacy Instructor (DigLin) as one technology-enhanced practice environment for the very first steps in learning to decode the alphabetic code. Conclusions on LESLLA learners’ late literacy acquisition and a future research perspective are drawn, emphasizing the potential of computer-assisted language learning (CALL).
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Why is it important?
As adult late literacy is a relatively new phenomenon in the highly literate society of Finland, there is a scarcity of research on how adults with emerging alphabetic literacy skills acquire Finnish. The article begins by outlining the pressing necessity for research on this special group of L2 learners who has traditionally been ignored by mainstream second language, education, and literacy research. Against the backdrop of increasing global humanitarian migration to highly literate countries and the resulting necessity and challenge to provide language and literacy education to adult second language learners with limited/interrupted education experience, this article calls for more research on a new population of late literacy learners, particularly in Finland.
Perspectives
I am a member of the active LESLLA (Literacy Education and Second Language Learning for Adults) research community who promotes interdisciplinary research with and for second language learners with emerging literacy & limited/interrupted formal education. My own research focuses on the use of educational technology in adult late literacy and second language training and the design of suitable digital learning environments for LESLLA learners, particularly in the form of so-called serious games, which have an educational purpose. If you are interested and want to read more, here a list of my previous LESLLA-related publications (not listed on kudos): Malessa,E. (2023). Enhancing ethical research participation and inclusion of marginalized adult migrant learners: An early career researcher's perspective. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung, 24(3), Article 17. https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-24.3.4100 Malessa,E. (2023). How Covid-19 intruded and improved my applied LESLLA research in progress: Reflections on research-design and research ethics of an empirical serious game study on L2 literacy support of adult migrants in Finland. LESLLA Symposium Proceedings, 17(1), 111–126. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8075621 Malessa,E. (2021). From computer-assisted to technology-enhanced learning. Lessons learnt and fast forward toward (digital) literacy of LESLLA learners. LESLLA Symposium Proceedings, 14(1), 327–345. https://lesllasp.journals.publicknowledgeproject.org/index.php/lesllasp/article/view/6262 Malessa, E., & Filimban, E. (2017). Exploring what log files can reveal about LESLLA learners’ behaviour in an online call environment. LESLLA Symposium Proceedings, 12(1), 149–158. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8058969
Eva Malessa
Jyvaskylan Yliopisto
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This page is a summary of: Learning to read for the first time as adult immigrants in Finland, Apples - Journal of Applied Language Studies, February 2018, Apples - Journal of Applied Language Studies,
DOI: 10.17011/apples/urn.201804051932.
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