Integrating digital literacies in teaching English to adult migrants and refugees

Virtual Paper ID: 55961
  1. aaa
    Edwin Creely
    Monash University
  2. aaa
    Ekaterina Tour
    Monash University

Abstract: Research suggests that along with their learning of English as additional language (EAL), new migrants and refugees also need digital literacies. This is a vital part of their settlement into an increasingly digitized world, and is especially significant, given the limited experience of many migrants and refugees with digital technologies. This paper employs an Australian example of EAL practice and considers English language teaching and learning in the context of the use of personal smartphones. Using data from an ethnographic case study of a government-funded adult learning organisation in Melbourne, Australia, we focus on the ways of integrating digital technologies into English language learning as a means of not only effective English language learning but also for promoting digital literacy skills that are essential for the settlement of migrants and refugees in Australia. In the paper we report and discuss the experiences of one teacher and describe a class in which she effectively used the students’ smartphones as an enabler of their language learning and digital literacy. Her work is contextualised within the broader organisational issues about the integration of technologies in language learning.

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