Language skills foster, among other things, social inclusion, access to education and employment. Within this context, non-literate or low-literate migrants have specific educational needs.

This reference guide is meant for language educators, curriculum designers and language policy makers in their endeavour to design, implement, evaluate and improve curricula tailored toward the specific needs of non- and low-literate adult migrants. This group of migrants faces the complex and demanding task of learning a language while either learning to read and write for the first time or developing their literacy skills. They rarely receive adequate instruction in terms of hours of tuition and targeted teaching approaches, whereas they are very often requested to take a compulsory written test.

The reference guide contains: a definition of target users and learners; the rationale related to the development of the descriptors; principles for teaching literacy and second languages; scales and tables of descriptors; aspects of curriculum design at the macro, meso and micro levels and recommendations on assessment procedures and tools within the learning environment.

The guide also contains descriptors that build on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) and the CEFR Companion volume up to the A1 level for adult migrants, with special attention given to literacy learners.

Table of contents:

• PREFACE WITH ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• FOREWORD
• INTRODUCTION
• LASLLIAM WITHIN THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE POLICIES
• LASLLIAM GENERAL PURPOSE
• CHAPTER 1 – THE LASLLIAM REFERENCE GUIDE: AIMS, USERS AND LEARNERS
• 1.1. LASLLIAM LINKS TO THE CEFR AND THE CEFR COMPANION VOLUME
• 1.2. THE USERS
• 1.3. AN ENCOMPASSING VIEW OF LITERACY
• 1.4. THE LEARNERS
• 1.4.1. LEARNERS' LITERACY BACKGROUND
• 1.4.2. ORAL COMPETENCE AND PLURILINGUALISM
• 1.4.3. LEARNERS' PROFILES
• CHAPTER 2 – THE LASLLIAM REFERENCE GUIDE: SOURCES AND RATIONALE
• 2.1. RESEARCH ON NON-LITERATE AND LOW-LITERATE ADULT LEARNERS
• 2.1.1. METALINGUISTIC AWARENESS
• 2.1.2. PROCESSING OF (LINGUISTIC) INFORMATION
• 2.1.3. SITUATED COGNITION
• 2.1.4. ORACY AND LITERACY
• 2.1.5. IMPLICATIONS FOR LASLLIAM
• 2.2. DEVELOPMENT OF THE SCALES
• 2.2.1. TECHNICAL LITERACY: LEARNING THE WRITTEN CODE
• 2.2.2. COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE ACTIVITIES IN READING AND WRITING
• 2.2.3. COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE ACTIVITIES IN LISTENING AND SPEAKING
• 2.2.4. LANGUAGE USE STRATEGIES
• 2.2.5. DIGITAL SKILLS
• CHAPTER 3 – TEACHING LITERACY IN A SECOND LANGUAGE
• 3.1. AN ACTION-ORIENTED APPROACH TO LITERACY IN A SECOND LANGUAGE AND BACKWARD PLANNING
• 3.2. ORIENTATION ON THE CODE: BUILDING TECHNICAL LITERACY SKILLS
• 3.2.1. A FOCUS ON SYLLABLES
• 3.2.2. A FOCUS ON SOUNDS AND LETTERS
• 3.2.3. A FOCUS ON (SIGHT) WORDS
• 3.2.4. A FOCUS ON MORPHEMES
• 3.2.5. IMPORTANT GENERAL PRINCIPLES
• 3.3. ORIENTATION ON THE LEARNER: FOSTERING LITERACY AS A SOCIAL PRACTICE
• 3.3.1. PARTICIPATING IN LITERACY EVENTS
• 3.3.2. EXPERIENCING AUTHORSHIP
• 3.3.3. USING LITERACY FOR LEARNING AND EMANCIPATION
• 3.4. LEARNING STRATEGIES AND AUTONOMY
• 3.5. CONTRASTIVE AND PLURILINGUAL LEARNING
• 3.6. THE POWERFUL EXPERIENCE OF SUCCESS
• 3.7. BALANCING THE VARIOUS PRINCIPLES IN LITERACY AND SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING
• CHAPTER 4 – LASLLIAM SCALES AND TABLES
• 4.1. TECHNICAL LITERACY
• 4.1.1. LANGUAGE AND PRINT AWARENESS
• 4.1.2. READING
• 4.1.3. WRITING
• 4.2. COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE ACTIVITIES AND LANGUAGE USE STRATEGIES
• 4.2.1. RECEPTION ACTIVITIES
• 4.2.2. RECEPTION STRATEGIES
• 4.2.3. PRODUCTION ACTIVITIES
• 4.2.4. PRODUCTION STRATEGIES
• 4.2.5. INTERACTION ACTIVITIES
• 4.2.6. INTERACTION STRATEGIES
• 4.3. DIGITAL SKILLS
• 4.3.1. TECHNICAL SKILLS
• 4.3.2. COMMUNICATION AND COLLABORATION
• 4.3.3. CONTENT CREATION AND MANAGEMENT
• 4.3.4. SAFETY
• CHAPTER 5 – USING LASLLIAM FOR CURRICULUM DESIGN
• 5.1. LASLLIAM AS A REFERENCE GUIDE ON THE SUPRA LEVEL OF CURRICULUM DESIGN
• 5.2. USING LASLLIAM FOR CURRICULUM DESIGN AT THE MACRO LEVEL
• 5.3. USING LASLLIAM FOR CURRICULUM DESIGN AT THE MESO LEVEL
• 5.4. USING LASLLIAM AT THE MICRO LEVEL
• CHAPTER 6 – ASSESSMENT WITHIN THE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT
• 6.1. APPROACHES TO BE ADOPTED
• 6.1.1. CONTINUUM CRITERION-REFERENCING
• 6.1.2. LEARNING ORIENTED ASSESSMENT
• 6.1.3. PROFILING APPROACH
• 6.1.4. PREVENTING MISUSE
• 6.2. THE DIFFERENT PURPOSES OF ASSESSMENT USING LASLLIAM
• 6.2.1. ASSESSMENT WITHIN THE "WELCOME PHASE"
• 6.2.2. ACHIEVEMENT ASSESSMENT DURING THE COURSE
• 6.2.3. ACHIEVEMENT ASSESSMENT AT THE END OF THE COURSE
• 6.2.4. PROFILING THE ACHIEVED LEARNING GOALS
• 6.3. LASLLIAM AS A RESOURCE TO CONNECT LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS ACROSS EUROPE
• 6.4. LASLLIAM AS A RESOURCE TO DEVELOP ASSESSMENT TOOLS
• CHAPTER 7 – LASLLIAM RESEARCH PLAN
• 7.1. THE DEVELOPMENT PHASE AND THE CONSULTATION PHASE
• 7.2. THE VALIDATION PHASE
• 7.2.1. QUALITATIVE VALIDATION
• 7.2.2. QUANTITATIVE VALIDATION
• 7.3. OUTLOOK ON THE PILOTING PHASE
• REFERENCES
• GLOSSARY
• APPENDIX 1 – RESOURCES FOR TEACHING LITERACY AND SECOND LANGUAGE (SELECTED LANGUAGES)
• APPENDIX 2 – EXAMPLE OF A LASLLIAM SCENARIO
• APPENDIX 3 – LASLLIAM CHECKLIST FOR SELF-ASSESSMENT