What is it about?
This study investigated the role of technology in Finnish language and literacy training of adult migrants with interrupted/limited educational experience. In addition to an online pre-pandemic teacher survey conducted in 2019, four in-service teachers were interviewed during the COVID-19 pandemic in late 2020. Availability of devices was seen as a major issue, other issues were inadequate user experience of working with smart phones or computers for educational purposes, the lack of IT courses, and insufficient support for learners and teachers. Teachers reported of various ways to ensure and enable device access and learning opportunities, resulting particularly during pandemic times in high workloads. The emergency remote teaching circumstances during this global health crisis posed an enormous additional challenge for teachers and students.
Featured Image
Photo by Windows on Unsplash
Why is it important?
To date, there is unfortunately a lack of relevant research on this special learner population of adults who learn to read and write for the first time in their lives in their second language. Learning to read and write as adults in a language that is not your home language is an enormous challenge. Technology-mediated learning has the potential to enhance adult migrant learners literacy acquisition and promote digital inclusion of such emerging second language readers in highly literate and digital societies such as Finland. However, this study's findings raise questions about the pedagogical cost of the pandemic for adult migrant literacy education in Finland and call for discussions on post-pandemic changes on a national and international level.
Perspectives
I am a member of the international LESLLA (Literacy Education and Second Language Learning for Adults, www.leslla.org) 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 LESLLA 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 want to read more about my previous LESLLA-related research, here is a list of my publications which are 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
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Technology-enhanced or Technology-exhausted Learning in Adult Migrant Literacy Education in Finland: Exploring Teachers’ Experiences and Views in Pre-pandemic and Pandemic Times, International Journal of Technology in Education and Science, May 2023, ISTES Organization,
DOI: 10.46328/ijtes.437.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
