It can be hard to explain what I do for a living.  Usually I start by saying I’m an English teacher, or maybe by saying I’m an ESL teacher.  Depending on the nature of the interaction, it may stop there.  If not, I sometimes go on to explain that I teach adults, not children.  Or that I teach adult newcomers to Canada how to communicate in English.  Usually it ends there.  People have some idea of what that might look like.

After that, it gets trickier.  I might tell someone that I work with adults that have little formal education back home.  Eyes start to glaze over.  I may add that the people I work with aren’t able to read and write fluently in their mother tongue.   Sometimes the best way to explain it is to say that I work with people who are simultaneously learning English AND  learning to read and write for the first time in their lives.

Sometimes this provokes a “oh, too bad” kind of response, but it is out of the realm of experience for so many people that it is truly difficult to understand. Even though I’ve been working with adult ESL literacy learners for more than 15 years, I still have moments where I’m taken by surprise by it.  

If I really want to give someone a feel for what we do in adult ESL literacy, I might tell them that I taught a 50 year old how to sharpen a pencil that day.  Or that we spend time every day practicing where to put papers in binders.  Or that learning how to print for the first time can give a person hand cramps.  Or that not everybody knows what the blue sections represent on a Canada map.  Or that people don’t actually know that precisely when the teacher is giving instructions is NOT the time to use the electric pencil sharpener!  Not even if you just learned how to use it that day and it’s really fun.

Most people are not aware that there is a need for this kind of teaching and learning for adults.  Many experienced ESL teachers are unfamiliar with it, too.  

It’s not surprising then that there’s no consistent way of describing this unique area of ESL.  There’s a growing list of acronyms and terms that are used for describing the learners in these kinds of programs.  They include:

• Adult ESL literacy learners.  This is kind of old-school, but actually pretty easy to understand.  Of course the “second” in English as a Second Language has long been viewed as inaccurate and even patronising, given that for many learners, English is a third, fourth, etc language.

• LIFE: Learners with Interrupted Formal Education.  This term has been used in publications by Bow Valley College in Calgary, Canada. It’s descriptive, but can be somewhat awkward to use in conversation. 

• LESLLA – Literacy Education and Second Language Learning for Adults.  This term is used by the LESLLA, an international organization that advances research and practice in the field.  This term is becoming more recognized in the field.  Again, it is descriptive, but can be awkward in conversation and with the uninitiated.

• SLIFE – Students with Limited/Interrupted Formal Education. This term is often used in American contexts, and may refer to children as well as adults. Like the others previously listed, it can be awkward in conversation.

• ALL – Adult Literacy Learners.   This term is used by the Canadian Centre for Language Benchmarks. It works as an acronym, but again, is difficult to use in informal conversations.

If you add in the acronyms used for the wider field of English language education – ESL, EAL, ELL, TESL, TEFL, TESOL – it really can become a big bowl of acronym soup! 

In this blog and throughout this site, I’ve decided to go old-school and use the term adult ESL literacy learners. Though imperfect, I like its descriptiveness and ease of conversational use. 

What I love about teaching in this field is that I can take nothing for granted.  Not even  what to call it!