Teaching Strategies that Motivate English Language Adult Literacy Learners to Invest in their Education: A Literature Review

Canadian English language programs have seen a recent increase in enrolment by English as a Second Language adult literacy learners. Minimal research has been conducted specifically on teaching strategies that motivate English language adult literacy learners, leaving literacy teachers with little research-based guidance on how best to motivate these learners to invest in their education. Our literature review found that, because these learners often lose motivation due to their lack of or limited education, building motivation and investment must be at the heart of lesson design.Thus, we adopted a transformative, post-structuralist framework to extend existing psychological and sociocultural theories to the teaching of English as a Second Language adult literacy learners. We reviewed past literature and incorporated the autobiographical narratives of experienced literacy teachers. We outlined 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 aim is to demonstrate that investment and motivation in English as a Second Language adult literacy learners can be achieved through implementing these six teaching strategies. Areas for future research are also identified.