This book provides a lively introduction to the theory and research surrounding adult learning of English by speakers of other languages. Offering an accessible discussion of contemporary debates, the book examines a wide geographical and social spread of issues, such as:
- How to understand the universal characteristics of learning an additional language
- What makes a 'good' language learner
- Multilingualism and the taken for granted assumptions about monolingualism
- Learning the written language
- Learners coping with oral communication outside the ESOL classroom
- The effect of recent Government immigration policy on language learning processes.
As a majority of adults learning ESOL are made up of communities of immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers, the diversity of social and personal histories of the learners is a critical dimension of this unique book. The question 'what is the relationship between themental processes of language learning and the social and cultural contexts of learning?' is one that threads through the entire text, bringing in discussion of types of classroom and language teaching methodologies.
Full of practical activities and case studies, this book will be essential reading for any basic skills teacher undertaking a course of professional development, from GNVQ through to post-graduate level.

This book provides a lively introduction to the theory and research surrounding adult learning of English by speakers of other languages. Offering an accessible discussion of contemporary debates, the book examines a wide geographical and social spread of issues, such as:
- How to understand the universal characteristics of learning an additional language
- What makes a 'good' language learner
- Multilingualism and the taken for granted assumptions about monolingualism
- Learning the written language
- Learners coping with oral communication outside the ESOL classroom
- The effect of recent Government immigration policy on language learning processes.
As a majority of adults learning ESOL are made up of communities of immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers, the diversity of social and personal histories of the learners is a critical dimension of this unique book. The question 'what is the relationship between themental processes of language learning and the social and cultural contexts of learning?' is one that threads through the entire text, bringing in discussion of types of classroom and language teaching methodologies.
Full of practical activities and case studies, this book will be essential reading for any basic skills teacher undertaking a course of professional development, from GNVQ through to post-graduate level.

This book presents a critical discourse analysis of official representations of family literacy programmes, a globalised pedagogic discourse introduced into the UK in the 1990s. This new educational practice brings social action in the private domain of the home into the institutional domain of the classroom. Boundaries are crossed both within the educational fields and between public and private spheres. Family literacy aims to reach marginalised families with few educational qualifications. The author explores this pedagogy's potential contribution to creating a more equal society through analysis of British teacher training films produced for educators new to the practice. She shows how representations of interaction with the written language are transformed by the social relations of the genre, and how power relations are interwoven into them. The analysis draws on Basil Bernstein's theory of pedagogic discourse to critique these representations of literacy education and argue that they are based on tacit class-based assumptions about literacy practices in the home. It should be of interest to scholars and postgraduates in education and discourse studies