Blended language learning has recently experienced substantial growth, offering numerous potential benefits such as increased learning opportunities and personalization. However, digital inequalities persist, particularly affecting vulnerable groups like migrants with limited education. While the integration of technology in adult education may pose additional challenges for these groups, online learning paradoxically holds the promise of enhancing their basic skills. This study addresses this apparent contradiction, focusing on blended learning in Dutch second language (L2) education in Flanders (Belgium) for L2 learners with emerging literacy and limited formal education, representing the most vulnerable subgroup of L2 learners. This group is referred to as LESLLA learners (LESLLA is an acronym for Literacy Education and Second Language Learning for Adults). Through a combination of a systematic literature review and a needs analysis of stakeholders, including LESLLA learners themselves, the study explores the benefits and challenges of blended learning for LESLLA learners. The study reveals that while many affordances and limitations for adult L2 learners in general also apply to LESLLA learners, the significance varies based on their characteristics, curriculum goals, and context. In order to realize the affordances, while also tackling the challenges, effective blended education for low-literate L2 learners requires (1) a thoughtful design of the blend, in which instructional design principles are integrated with didactic principles for L2 teaching; (2) effective teacher conduct; and (3) powerful policy of adult education centers. This paper outlines the characteristics of each component, offering insights to strengthen blended L2 learning experiences for LESLLA learners.

This article addresses a critical gap in international research concerning digital literacies and empowerment among adults who are English as an additional language (EAL) learners. In the Australian context, where digital communication and services are embedded in all aspects of life and work, proficiency in digital literacies, including advanced technologies like generative artificial intelligence (AI), is vital for working and living in Australia. Despite the increasing prevalence and significance of generative AI platforms such as ChatGPT, there is a notable absence of dedicated programs to assist EAL learners in understanding and utilising generative AI, potentially impacting their employability and everyday life. This article presents findings from a larger study conducted within training providers, spanning adult educational institutions nationwide. Through analysis of data gathered from surveys and focus groups, the article investigates the knowledge and attitudes of students, educators, and leaders regarding integrating generative AI into the learning program for adult EAL learners. The results reveal a hesitance among educators, particularly concerning beginning language learners, in incorporating generative AI into educational programs. Conversely, many adult learners demonstrate enthusiasm for learning about its potential benefits despite having limited understanding. These disparities underscore the pressing need for comprehensive professional development for educators and program leaders. The findings also highlight the need to develop the AI literacy of learners to foster their understanding and digital empowerment. The article concludes by advocating for a systemic approach to include generative AI as an important part of learning programs with students often from adult migrant and refugee backgrounds.

Migrants encounter multiple challenges, such as learning new languages and adapting to a new life. While digital technologies help them learn, limited research has been conducted on their digital skills development. In this article, we report on migrants’ digital skills development while learning language through culture using a web app developed by an EU-funded project that aimed to promote social cohesion through a two-way exchange of knowledge and skills. Forty-six migrant and 43 home community members in Finland, Spain, Türkiye, and the UK participated in intercultural and intergenerational pairs to engage with and co-create interactive digital cultural activities in multiple languages. Participants’ digital, linguistic and cultural gains were measured before and after the workshops. We report on participants’ digital skills, measured by a digital competence self-assessment tool developed based on DigComp, and interviews with the participants. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Qualitative data were analysed deductively using the categories of the DigComp framework. Findings indicate statistically significant improvement in migrants’ self-reported digital skills. Highest gains were in the competency area of digital content creation. Comparison of migrants’ digital skill development with that of home community members did not show any statistically significant differences, supporting our argument against the deficiency perspective towards migrant populations. Interview data suggested overall positive evaluations and highlighted the role of the web app instructions for content creation. We conclude with suggestions for further research and argue for inclusive pedagogies, emphasising how both community members learned from and with each other during the workshops.

Drawing upon Darvin and Norton’s (2015) model of investment, this article examines how Xing and Jimmy (both pseudonyms) as two male Chinese English as a foreign language learners from rural migrant backgrounds negotiate their identities and assemble their social and cultural resources to invest in autonomous digital literacies for language learning and the assertion of a legitimate place in urban spaces. Employing a connective ethnographic design, this study collected data through interviews, reflexive journals, digital artifacts, and on-campus observations. Data were analyzed using an inductive thematic approach as well as within- and cross-case data analysis methods. The findings indicate that Xing and Jimmy experienced a profound sense of alienation and exclusion as they migrated from under-resourced rural spaces to the urban elite field. The unequal power relations in urban classrooms subjected them to marginalized and inadequate rural identities by denying them the right to speak and be heard. However, engaging with digital literacies in the wild allowed these migrant learners to access a wide range of linguistic, cultural, and symbolic resources, empowering them to reframe their identities as legitimate English speakers. The acquisition of such legitimacy enabled them to challenge the prevailing rural–urban exclusionary ideologies to claim the right to speak. This article closes by offering implications for empowering rural migrant students as socially competent members of the Chinese higher education system in the digital age.

This three-year longitudinal case study explored how trilingual Uyghur intranational migrant students utilized digital technologies to learn languages and negotiate their identities in Han-dominant environments during their internal migrations within China, a topic that has been scarcely researched before. Adopting a poststructuralist perspective of identity, the study traced four Uyghur students who migrated from underdeveloped southern Xinjiang to northern Xinjiang for junior high school education, and to more developed cities in eastern and southern China for senior high school education and higher education. A qualitative approach was adopted, utilizing semi-structured interviews, class and campus observations, daily conversations, WeChat conversations, participants’ reflections, and assignments. Findings reveal that Uyghur minority students utilized digital technologies to bridge the English proficiency gap with Han students, negotiate their marginalized identities, integrate into the mainstream education system, and extend the empowerment to other ethnic minority students. This was in sharp contrast to the significant challenges and identity crises they faced when they did not have access to digital technologies to learn Mandarin in boarding secondary schools. An unprecedented finding is that, with digital empowerment, Uyghur minority students could achieve accomplishments that were even difficult for Han students to attain and gain upward social mobility by finding employment in Han-dominant first-tier cities. The implications of utilizing digital technologies to support intranational migrant ethnic minority students’ language learning and identity development are discussed.

Language is central to issues of displacement and education. This paper examines how English language teachers in refugee settings negotiated and exercised autonomy in teaching and learning in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. It draws on the notion of autonomy and its dynamics in language classrooms in refugee settings. The paper focuses on one displacement context – Jordan’s refugee settings – to offer a fine-grained analysis of teachers’ accounts to synthesise how teachers negotiated the transition to online teaching and developed practices and relations across different sites. The study recognises teachers’ rights in contributing their own experience and expertise and draws on the Participatory Ethnographic Evaluation Research (PEER) methodology, which involved working closely with a group of six language teachers as peer researchers, who conducted in-depth interviews with two of their peers. The analysis examines the ways in which autonomy was exercised, mobilised, resourced, constrained and shaped by contextual factors during the pandemic and thus provides a nuanced understanding of teachers’ experiences. The study points to the importance of understanding teacher autonomy in the context of language teaching in technology-poor environments. By providing critical insights into the dynamics of teacher autonomy in unique professional settings, it contributes to the broader discourse on digital language learning and agency, roles and skills needed by teachers to support crisis preparedness for the future.

The highly digitalised nature of contemporary society has made digital literacy important for newly arrived migrants. However, for teachers, the use of information and communication technologies can be challenging. The aim of the present study is to gain a deeper understanding of how teachers perceive digital resources as useful for teaching migrants language and subject skills. The research question is, In what way do teachers at the language introduction programme for newly arrived migrants in Sweden articulate the use of digital resources in relation to language teaching and in relation to subject teaching? This qualitative study is based on observations of 28 lessons in different subjects in the language introduction programme, as well as interviews with the observed teachers. In analysing the material, we first used the TPACK in situ model (Pareto & Willermark, 2019) to organise the data on the use of digital resources, and thereafter discourse theory (Howarth, 2005) was used to analyse the data. The results show that the teachers limited their students’ use of digital resources during the lessons, which is apparent in two discourses: distrust and dichotomy. In the discourse on distrust, digital technology is seen as an obstacle to teaching, and the discourse dichotomy is about the opposition between the digital and the physical. Moreover, articulations were often expressed in terms of identity; the teachers talked about themselves in relation to digital resources, rather than talking about how they use digital resources in their teaching.

Increasing global digitalization is changing the everyday language skills required to participate in society, to carry out professional activities, and to take advantage of educational opportunities. As a result, new linguistic and digital competences are required for migrants. At the same time, digitalization offers new potential for learner-oriented language learning. In this article, we compare the results of two studies on teachers of adult multilingual migrant learners. These teachers instruct learners at different levels of literacy and with varied prior formal learning experiences. Both studies are situated in the German education system. The results illustrate how teachers and learners can work together using digital technologies to promote language learning. We explore the opportunities for effective, multilingual, and motivating language learning, as well as the challenges faced by learners and teachers, pointing to the need for further training in digital technology for both groups.