Abstract
Canadian English language programs have seen a recent increase in enrolment by English as a Second Language adult literacy learners. To date, minimal research has been conducted with these learners, leaving literacy teachers with little guidance. In our literature review we found that, because learners often lose motivation due to their lack of or limited education, building motivation and investment must be at the heart of lesson design when teaching adult literacy learners. Thus, we adopted a transformative and post-structuralist framework to extend proven sociocultural theories to the adult literacy learner population. Our article reviewed past literature, incorporated the autobiographical narratives of experienced literacy teachers and provided six teaching strategies for increasing investment and motivation in adult literacy learners: providing relevance, addressing settlement needs, incorporating life experiences, encouraging learner autonomy, promoting collaborative learning, and building self-efficacy. Our article will demonstrate that further research is required in the arena of adult low literacy English language learners.
 Keywordsmotivation, investment, post-structuralist and transformative framework, teaching strategies, ESL adult literacy learners, limited formal education, English language learner, literature review.
Highlights
Over 50% of newcomers to Canada had less than ten years of education according to a 2016–2017 report (Immigration, Refugee, Citizenship Canada 2018)
Given that adult literacy learners (ALL) are prevalent in classrooms across Canada (Centre for Canadian Language Benchmarks 2016) and the world (Windisch 2015), and that motivation and learning are inseparable (Wlodkowski and Ginsberg 2017), we suggest that learners benefit when teachers adopt strategies that motivate ALL to invest in their educational process
The available literature reveals that ALL require relevant content that focuses on settlement needs, provides space to discuss life experiences, encourages collaborative learning and learner autonomy while fostering self-efficacy
Summary
Over 50% of newcomers to Canada had less than ten years of education according to a 2016–2017 report (Immigration, Refugee, Citizenship Canada 2018). The majority of these newcomers attend classes through Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC). LINC is a nationally funded program addressing the settlement and integration needs of new immigrants, such as permanent residents, refugees and protected persons (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada 2018). Many ALL have had limited or no education, making them unfamiliar with the classroom setting and associated learning strategies (Centre for Canadian Language Benchmarks 2016)
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