Towards the adoption of a balanced approach to literacy instruction in LESLLA classrooms in Québec, Canada

Authors

  • Catherine Maynard Université Laval
  • Suzie Beaulieu Université Laval
  • Véronique Fortier Université du Québec à Montréal
  • Carl Laberge Université Laval

Keywords:

LESLLA learners, literacy development activities, identity texts, human library

Abstract

The current study reports on an action research project taking place in two Quebec adult education centres and aiming to create learning opportunities for LESLLA learners of French to pursue their literacy development journey beyond the
advancement of their technical skills. More specifically, our research objective was to highlight the challenges and affordances faced by the participating teachers during the study in order to show how instructional change in favour of a more balanced approach to literacy instruction can occur during an action research project involving close mentoring for teachers. To do so, we first described the participating teachers’ meaning-focused literacy teaching practices during non-participant observation sessions in four teachers’ classrooms over the course of 6 weeks, totalizing 25 hours of observed teaching practices. Although the vast majority of all practices observed were code-focused, some instances of meaning-focused teaching practices were identified. During two training sessions, these practices acted as a starting point for
exploring new meaning-focused practices that were then piloted with their students. We observed that, in the course of an action research project consisting of iterative cycles of reflection, action, and evaluation, implementing activities aligned with a more balanced approach to literacy instruction seems possible among teachers who typically rely on code-focused activities. 

Section
Special Issue: Literacies in second language education for adults & adolescent

Published

2024-10-08 — Updated on 2024-10-09

Versions

How to Cite

Maynard, C., Beaulieu, S., Fortier, V., & Laberge, C. (2024). Towards the adoption of a balanced approach to literacy instruction in LESLLA classrooms in Québec, Canada. Apples - Journal of Applied Language Studies, 18(2), 21–38. https://doi.org/10.47862/apples.132066 (Original work published October 8, 2024)