'One size does not fit all’: how five tertiary education organisations embed literacy, language and numeracy: case study findings

Penny Haworth

5.1 Introduction

This chapter of the report examines organisational factors influencing provision of embedded literacy, language and numeracy (LLN) at a Private Training Establishment (PTE) offering programmes for adults with English as an Additional Language (EAL). It is presented in five sections: Introduction (context, programmes, funding, the place of LLN, and perceptions about embedding this); Governance and administration (organisational structure, compliance and accountability, flexibility, external networking, staff roles, and internal communication); Staff (qualifications and experience, induction and professional development); Pedagogy(teaching/learning approaches, learner-centredness, student expectations, LLN support, planning, learning resources, and assessment);andConclusion. Individual interviews were conducted with four managers and with a focus group of four tutors from a range of programmes.

Context

The PTE is referred to as Twotowns, and its two campus locations as Downtown and Uptown (all names in this report are pseudonyms). Both regions are designated refugee resettlement areas and both sites now have only EAL students. The primary focus of the case study is Downtown, the ‘Head Office’ (D), which began 15 years ago with a variety of Training Opportunities Programmes (TOPs). Downtown has 100 students, mainly from Asian nations, with equal enrolments from two groups - international students, and permanent residents, including refugees (PRs). About 75% of PRs are studying full-time, and most have some literacy in EAL and first language, although some arrived with no prior computer experience (L). In contrast, Uptown enrols only PRs, many with low or pre-literate levels of English and first language literacy.

Programmes

The core programme at Twotowns is a two-year Certificate of English for Living in New Zealand (ELNZ). This includes in-house modules, ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) unit standards, and general unit standards related to literacy, numeracy (e.g. measurement), business processes (e.g. computer skills), communication (e.g. interview skills), and work and study skills. Students can pursue an academic strand or an employment strand, or a combination of these. A parallel course, taught by a bilingual tutor, is under consideration. Some students with tertiary qualifications in their first language are preparing for examinations such as the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) for university entry, or Occupational English Test (OET) for entry to nursing training. Students can also receive literacy, language and numeracy support that is tailored to meet individual work or study needs, including computer literacy – support provided by the literacy specialist. It may be one to one or in small groups and usually takes place outside the mainstream class. The literacy specialist informally refers to this support as the Foundation Learning Programme (FLP). This enables new students to catch up with class work and is vital to the support of students with a huge diversity of needs (see more below).

Student recruitment

Students are accepted “in order of arrival … or availability of class” (D), and “you can join a class any Monday and you can go up from one level to the next level when you are ready” (A).

Students are mainly recruited through word of mouth. Pamphlets in several languages are also available from Work and Income New Zealand (WINZ).

Funding

Funding comes from several sources including international (at the Downtown campus only), student achievement component, work-related TOPs, and Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) literacy and numeracy support.

The 2008 Investment Plan (IP) indicates that Twotowns is “able to offer a total of 136 [TOPs and student achievement component-funded] places over two sites, but TEC acknowledge this is insufficient” (p. 14). More places are needed for PRs: “We’ve got them coming from WINZ (Work and Income New Zealand). We have them from all over the place … needing the literacy and the numeracy. … We have to say ‘No’” (O).

Each campus has a waiting list: “Today, eight more refugee families arrived in the city. There are 11 adults in that group who … require English language training … and I have five spaces left on my course” (A).

In the past Twotowns has bridged funding shortfalls: “Last year … [the Director] actually provided free places for about 10 students … out of his own goodness really” (A). However, this is no longer possible: “If you have more students registered than 103% you … will have your funding removed” (O).

Retaining funding is a constant concern. A perception in the organisation is: “If we don’t use our funding allocation we lose it the following year” (O). Twotowns has “to be constantly vigilant looking for new funding sources” (D) and changes to regulations have resulted in the need to respond quickly.

Three further factors influence funding. Firstly, it is felt that TEC is geared for large institutions, but “In a small institution just one family going from one place to another can make a difference” (D). Secondly, if students gain employment or move to work-related training at another institution before completing ELNZ, long-term funding is threatened. Finally, it is difficult for some adults to achieve a level 3 qualification (the only level available to a PTE) in just two years: “It’s completely impossible to achieve those results with low-level literacy students. We would estimate it would take probably four to five times that length … maybe 10 times” (D).

The place of LLN

LLN is the priority: “It’s huge. … It’s like the same as breathing – for us. … It’s all we do” (A).

LLN is vital for learners’ advancement:

[Students] need literacy and numeracy to be able to get jobs … to be able to go on to [polytechnic] to do a trade … do another TOPs training course … go on to university. … If a person doesn’t speak proper English, they are deemed to be dumb [even if] they have huge qualifications in their own country. (O)

Literacy is broadly interpreted, echoing Hymes’ (1967) theory of communicative competence (knowing when to say what and to whom):

We don’t only have language literacy, we have cultural literacy, and we have employment literacy. … If you are trying to transition people into work … you have to make them aware not that they are wrong in what they do, but we do it differently. (A)

Academic literacy is part of this: “In our universities there are tutorials, and labs, and seminars, and people have to give PowerPoint presentations, and … be involved in discussion groups … our learning environments are much more interactive” (A).

Computer literacy was an important “tool to assist the language learning process” (L), and some refugees needed additional support:

They had heard about computers. They had never seen one or used one. Now these people can use Microsoft Word, they can write, play games, make charts and tables, and some of them are even brave enough to ‘teach’ their siblings … [they all have] an e-mail address. (L)

Embedding LLN

Both FLP and ELNZ integrate LLN and content: “It’s woven through. It’s kind of continuous. … It fits with their needs, so it’s not something which is … stand-alone” (L). ELNZ is also described as “parallel embedded literacy” (D).

Embedding supports work-related goals. Some students wanted to be mechanics:

They were paired up with a … tutor. We … got some textbooks from the library on automotive mechanics, the vocab was taught. … Neither of the guys had drivers’ licences, so we got the road code and went through that. … So … when they went out into a work experience placement they had some confidence. (L)

Another student was prepared for work experience in a nursery: “We spent time talking about plants. He helped make the rooftop garden upstairs” (L).

There is also a desire to integrate everyday numeracy: “They need to be able to do that to buy groceries, to go to the bank, to just do ordinary … things” (D).

The benefits of embedding LLN include:

• Embedding is motivating for adults: “You have to embed that literacy and hang it on something that they already have” (A).
• Meaning is emphasised over accuracy in ELNZ, so embedding enhances learner-centred planning and makes assessment more authentic: “Unit standards provide really good bones for learning, really good bones … but … you need to put flesh on them in order to make them worthwhile and … you grow them differently depending on what the student requires” (A).
• Embedding also encourages collaboration between LLN and class teachers.

However, it is felt that ideals are hard to attain: “No matter how much embedding you do it’s not enough” (D). There is also some scepticism: “A motor mechanic or a cook … [is] not necessarily going to be very skilled at doing literacy and numeracy, and ultimately you will end up going back to your specialist person” (D).

5.2 Governance and management

Twotowns is described as “one of the few remaining language schools which offer ESOL at the lowest levels” and aims to help learners achieve their goals (IP, 2008, p. 1). Classes are small, generally around 12 students, and it is believed to be important to “retain class size and quality” (D).

Organisational structure

The academic and administrative leader is based at Downtown. He is supported by a Finance Manager and a National-Regional Office Manager. The Centre Manager at Uptown and the Director collaborate on policy, course review and developing teaching programmes, with input from other staff and students.

Compliance and accountability

External funding necessitates accountability and compliance. WINZ approves learners into programmes; the government collects information about international, migrant and refugee students; and qualification completions are tracked on the official database as well as being accessible to staff: “I have a big wall area … [showing] all our PRs … we put in a square when the student passes [a unit standard]. So, if a student moves … class, the teacher can look up there” (O).

Stakeholders sometimes conflict: “We have to provide a service, not only to the student but to the government” (A), and create pressures: “The compliance burdens are far in excess. Really what we’re trying to do is help the student to move on” (D).

Flexibility

Flexibility is needed: “At the moment we have got quite a heavy academic emphasis … but at other times we might be much more a general institution. It’s constantly changing depending on the numbers and on the needs of the students” (D).

Having several funding sources is helpful: “We have managed because we have four or five different areas of funding coming in, so if one area drops the other comes up, and if the other area goes down the other goes up” (O).

Initially having two branches made financial survival easier: “A couple of years ago we had a shortage of funding in [Downtown] but we had a surplus of funding in [Uptown]” (D). However, “Now … they are [regarded as] two different regions. … We can’t transfer money from one [branch] to the other” (D).

Funds can, however, be used flexibly within each branch. For instance, although the goal is to deliver FLP to 50 students over 46 weeks, at an hour per student per week, this can be adjusted according to needs:

The last intake of Bhutanese refugees … was a young group of people who had done two or more years of tertiary study. … They were only here for six months and then I could put someone else in. (A)

[This] group last year didn’t come in until July. I counted their hour a week from July (about 20 hours each). (L)

External networking

Wider organisational links are important: “[The Director] is very, very good at networking” (O). Collaboration rather than competition is critical to survival:

[In this city] … we all offer something different. … Sometimes it’s better for us to say [to a student], … “Have you thought about going to [community college] … before you come here?” … When you are starting from a pre-literate place at 20 [years old], becoming a nurse is a long way away. … You have to get your English up to a certain standard … then look perhaps … [at] another TOPs-funded course … Care of the Elderly. (A)

Students are supported in making a transition:

When we send students off to [the polytechnic] … for the first semester, they come back here and have lunch … and use the computers … but by the end of the semester we see less of them. … I say to the students we are always here and you can always come back and ask us. There are a lot of trust issues, especially with refugees. … They have to build that trust with [polytechnic staff]. (A)

Flexible arrangements are important:

I will often say to a training provider, “I have a student who is ready to go to [a course for training care-givers]. … Can she come and try?” If it doesn’t work out I will take her back. … If the student isn’t ready to move on we will get feedback … which we can feed back to the teachers. (A)

Staff roles

Tutors are employed to teach five days a week, five hours a day, on a 12-week cycle.

Managers’ often hold several roles; for example, the literacy specialist helps to organise work experience, and the Assessment Moderator also looks after assessment and pastoral care. In contrast, tutors feel there are long contact hours without much variety: “Five hours a day – just English, English, English; it can be a bit much at times, especially towards the end of the week” (T).

Separating students into academic and employment streams in the afternoon is being trialled. This helps students get through assessments, but it does become monotonous for the teacher. In particular, teaching low-level students all day is viewed as demanding: “At higher levels you can take a bit of a break, give them a reading exercise and you … can do marking or something. … At the lower level you’ve got to be encouraging them and you are going constantly” (T).

Internal communication

Weekly staff meetings are held, and reporting occurs regularly; for example, the literacy specialist reported to the Director in September on “how we are going in terms of meeting the delivery criteria – the numbers” (L). Informal processes are, however, harder to monitor:

We do have staff meetings, and I will probably call the Director of Studies on a regular basis. We don’t record those anywhere. That’s one of the issues. NZQA do audits. … How many meetings do we have? Where’s your documentary evidence? (D)

Informal exchanges support moderation (A and L); pastoral care (A, L, D and T); and programmes (L and A); as well as communicating student progress and learning: “I talk to teachers. … I keep them up to date about how their students are going in the FLP programme” (L). There are also opportunities to share resources informally:

Teachers will come … and … say, “Have you got something on this?” … “Can you put some work into that before I get into my programme next month?” … We have a half hour at morning tea from 10.30 to 11am. … We finish at 3pm but the majority of the staff hang around till 4.30 or 5pm. (A)

5.3 Staff

Teachers have to be flexible: “You really need staff who are willing to go with constant change, who are willing to set up a programme, and then basically walk away from it and set up something different” (D).

Qualifications

Teachers all have Bachelor’s degrees and several have higher qualifications. It is also useful for staff to have a range of experiences:

[For PRs] English isn’t the only vehicle; it’s getting a job. It’s very difficult to get an English language teacher to refocus their thinking … when they feel the student doesn’t have sufficient English. (D)

Teachers believe that staff should have “some sort of ESOL qualifications”. They also think that overseas experience helps create cross-cultural sensitivity: “[Students] are from overseas, from a different culture … so they look at things differently and you’ve got to have empathy” (T).

Teacher appraisals criteria (classroom skills, lesson management, management skills, and professional development) have an implicit rather than an explicit focus on LLN. Criteria for ESOL pedagogy (speaks clearly and distinctly, speaks in appropriate style, uses appropriate register, pre-teaches essential vocabulary, and corrects students effectively) also suggest a greater emphasis on oracy.

Induction and professional development

Each new teacher is inducted by the Academic Director, with input tailored to the particular position. A number of resources support this, for example Putting IT in Adult LITeracy: Tips and strategies for integrating computer and information technology into adult literacy programs (see: www.ns.literacy.ca). Specific EAL development is also provided through the English-as-a-second language tutor training kit: a learner-centred approach to tutoring adult ESL learners – tutor training manual (Rutten-James, 2003). This covers: adult learning; culture and communication; learning styles; assessment; integrated teaching strategies; strategies for different levels; teaching reading, grammar, speaking and pronunciation; lesson planning; EAL literacy; and assessment of pre-literate and non-literate learners.

The strong collaborative culture supports staff induction: “Because this team is so robust I got heaps of help. It doesn’t take long with people guiding your footsteps” (T).

It is also recognised that EAL students pose special professional challenges:

I can’t assume that I understand somebody else’s life, somebody else’s background, somebody else’s culture. … I’m white, middle aged and grew up in New Zealand. I have nothing in common with somebody who has lived for 23 years in a refugee camp. (A)

Student roles can be different: “Students usually sit back, until they see that speaking out and being involved does not involve a penalty” (A); and there different cultural expectations: “This unit on taxation … a lot of students come from backgrounds where they think cheating the government is acceptable” (D).

The Assessment Moderator and the Literacy Specialist have attended external courses: “We did a moderator’s course together the year before last, and so we know what to look for to achieve consistent standards” (L). This supports mentoring of other staff: “We marked the standard together, so that she had a benchmark” (A). As teachers are well qualified, however, some external requirements are seen as rigid:

It’s virtually been imposed on us that we upskill staff to do adult literacy certificates. … It seems a bit strange because some people can get those skills through other means, like primary school [teacher] training or secondary school [teacher] training or various forms of literacy and numeracy training. (D)

Authentic experiences could contribute usefully to professional knowledge. For example, (L) sits in the back during a driving test so that he can observe and later provide more authentic language input for his students.

5.4 Pedagogy

ELNZ work preparation modules include work experience placements, but mainly classes are taught face to face. Computers are also important, and Moodle is used for quiz work and discussion.

Teaching/learning approaches

An English-only approach is mainly used:

English is the only language that we use in the classrooms. … If you allow the two Korean speakers to speak, it excludes the rest of the class. … We do … some Māori language. … So when someone says “It’s kai time”, you have to know what that means, or “Kia ora”, or “Bring your whānau around”. … That’s part of the culture of the country they are in. (A)

ELNZ emphasises communicative teaching methods; therefore oracy is a priority: “Nobody is going to be able to get a job without a reasonable level of communicative skills … oracy is an important [part] of the literacy” (L); and literacy can be delayed: “We use a lot of speaking and listening. … Writing can come later” (A).

Communicative methods are also visible in tutor performance review criteria like: “Facilitates rather than instructs”, and “Restricts teacher talk to a minimum”.

There is an awareness of different learning styles, but learners are encouraged to take responsibility for their learning: “That’s not … the teacher’s sole responsibility” (A).

Learner-centredness

Student needs are central, and this is led from the top: “I would probably talk to [all students] on a weekly basis … some more than others … juggling different classes, with the different programmes, with the different funding, with different student aspirations” (D).

Students are interviewed on arrival: “I see 95% of them, so I know which class they go into, I get a good idea of where they are heading” (D). Meeting everyone’s needs is, however, difficult: “I can’t design courses quickly enough to suit all student needs” (D), and class placement is complex. The IP indicates older migrants can “not [be] well catered for” (p. 3) in classes with younger students who learn more quickly.

Formal and informal evaluation of student satisfaction is ongoing:

It’s not something we do once. It’s not always formal, because formal things often don’t work that well. It’s casual – like: “How are you going? Your class is good? Your teacher is good? You’re doing the work? … How are the kids? Would you rather come in the morning instead of all day? … Is this the right place?” (A)

An effort is made to include students’ cultures in class work, and to select modules and unit standards appropriate to students, but teachers feel it is much easier to individualise input in one-on-one and small group provisions.

Pastoral and community concerns are frequently linked to FLP content: “Students … will seek my help assisting them to read, interpret, understand and respond to everyday matters such as power and telephone accounts” (L).

Student needs underpin LLN embedding, even when help with English grammar is sought; for example, a student asked about the use of ‘in’ and ‘at’, “particularly in the application of these when making appointments to see people” (L).

Student expectations

Student expectations can be at odds with institutional requirements: “[I’m caught between] NZQA and TEC and the aspirations of the students” (D).

Although “They are generally quite happy … [if they are placed] at similar levels” (D), student expectations can negatively influence self-assessment:

A lot of [PRs] will tell us, “I can’t get a job.” … We say, “Why is that?” and they will often say, “Because my English is not good enough.” … Unfortunately if they get told often enough about their English they start to believe it. (D)

If you are surrounded by people who can’t speak English and you can speak a little bit you seem to think you are very good. … They think they are better than what the teacher is telling them. (D)

It is therefore helpful to have external examinations:

They will go to either [the university or a private tertiary institution] to sit their IELTS. … It’s an outsider who has no interest in trying to keep the student longer. … That’s good because it reinforces what our teachers are trying to tell them. (O)

Moving students on can be hard, but it is also rewarding:

It would be very easy if there could be an expectation that you could just stay here … especially if you come from a background of uncertainty and unrest. … I don’t think it empowers people to let them do that. … It’s our responsibility to transition them on. (A)

LLN support

The literacy specialist provides some in-class support: “I’ll go in at a teacher’s request and help deliver a particular part of their programme. … You don’t push it. … Eventually the trust between teachers develops” (L).

PR students can receive additional literacy and numeracy, either one to one or in small groups of no more than five students (A). (L) refers to this as FLP, but acknowledges that “other people … may talk about it as the ‘One-to-One Programme’”.

FLP appears to have “a remedial role” (L): “The focus is on a specific skill or knowledge set needed to overcome a barrier to learning encountered in the core programme” (L). Nonetheless, it supports both teachers and learners:

I will … work intensively … to close the learning gap, and then I do the retesting … and report back to the class teacher. (L)

If a teacher has 12 or 14 students in the class, and there is a student struggling with a specific aspect, then they work with [L] to bring them up to speed with the rest of the class. (A)

When you have one student wanting to do mechanics out of 14 you can’t concentrate on that in the class. (L)

Consultation also informs content: “Every six weeks I meet with teachers, individually, and we have a look at the TOPs students and the PRs who qualify [for literacy funding] and identify the areas of learning that their teacher says they are having difficulty with” (L).

Flexibility is important:

I go around and ask, ‘Can I see so and so on Monday from 9.45 to 10.30 – is that convenient?’ … [A teacher may] say, ‘I don’t want you to have anyone on Friday morning because I’m doing an assessment’. … I can alter my programme to accommodate. … I try to vary the times of withdrawing the students from each class, so … they are not always absent for a critical part of that teacher’s day … so the same students don’t miss out on the same things each day. (L)

FLP is embedded with class content; otherwise “the student ends up doing two curricula for two different people. It becomes an imposition of extra learning. The essence of support is lost. … There is also the need to consider the continuity of the student’s core programme” (L).

Individual time is also important: “If you are going to hurry the student along because you have three-quarters of an hour, then the lesson erodes value from the person” (L).

It is felt that more recognition could be given to excellence: “Providers who have successful literacy and numeracy programmes should be rewarded in some way as encouragement to persevere” (L).

Planning

Planning is integrated with learning needs and assessment:

We put a resource pack together for the teachers to utilise – to teach in their programme – and then when … they have hit those performance criteria in a unit standard, we do the testing. (A)

Planning requires a sense of progression:

We have the [Twotowns] modules which we have developed in-house on areas that our students require. … There are level 1, level 2 and level 3 modules. … For example, we have got shopping for food at level 1 … identifying this is meat, this is fruit, this is dairy and this is where you buy them at the supermarket … this is the money, a $10 note and a 50c piece. … [At level 2] you identify different food groups, there is a trip to the supermarket, lots of role playing. … Level 3 … gets more into consumer law and what your rights and responsibilities are … hire purchase … so it’s … shopping in the retail environment. (A)

Planning also has to accommodate a few part-time enrolments:

The teachers know that the full bulk of the learning is done in the mornings, because … if any part-timers came they came in the morning. … There’s two hours in the afternoon, and some of our classes are slightly smaller in the afternoon as there are no part-timers. (L)

Learning resources

Textbooks and materials are kept in a central resource bank from which tutors select in consultation with the students. Tutors can also devise their own modules, which are then added to the bank. The resource bank supports teacher preparation, but also ensures overall programme coherence:

We work across those eight levels … teachers do have specific resources for their class that they have created … but there is nothing more disheartening for a teacher … [than when] the students say, “Oh we’ve done that!” … So there are specific resources for each level. (A)

Materials often emerge from collaborative endeavour:

[With the] module on civil defence we start with the performance criteria. … We look at the resources that are needed. … We go to the teachers, … the library. … [The Ethnic Centre] had just received copies of the civil defence emergency procedure in several different languages, so I picked up copies of those to add to the resource pack. Our Office Manager … might come across something on a website, or … when she’s out she might see something and bring it back. … We work really well as a team here. (A)

Collaboration also occurs between campuses: “I e-mailed [Uptown] to say, ‘What are you using and can we can switch resources?’ … [D] will take stuff down and bring things back” (A).

Assessment

Due to regular Monday intake and promotion, learner selection relates to spaces within existing classes. There is “an entry test when students first come in” (O).

EAL assessment includes writing about goals for the next five years; multi-choice grammar items; and a short oral interview. Numeracy is also assessed. Although an NZQA unit standard might involve simple calculations with whole numbers, problems might be expressed in quite complex language (e.g. Unit 8489) (A).

Course tutors undertake assessment, and internal and external moderation is undertaken so materials are consistent with Twotowns and NZQA policies. Samples (10% of student work, across 25% of units taught per year) are collected and reassessed as part of internal post-assessment moderation. Moderation also occurs across campuses to ensure consistency in delivery, teaching, and unit standard version (A).

ELNZ students complete at least 10 modules or unit standards at both levels 1 and 2. They must also complete 40 credits at level 3. The aim is to achieve one credit per 10 hours of student study time, and complete ELNZ within two years. Students are expected to complete a module every one to two weeks, after which they are assessed as competent or not and receive feedback related to the learning outcomes. Procedures are in place for re-evaluation and/or independent evaluation. Students who do not pass are encouraged to repeat that module.

Non-unit standard assessments also provide regular feedback on progress in reading, writing, listening, speaking, vocabulary and grammar related to class and home work.

Several assessment issues emerge:

• Level of ESOL unit standards: “We have always believed that … an ESOL unit standard … was below the English level of a native speaker; but … they are … say[ing] that a level 1 ESOL is a level 1 core skill. … So around the country there is an inconsistency” (O).
• Coherence between ESOL and general unit standards: “Those very low-level ones … by the time we get to the unit standard … we would have hoped they would have learnt such a basic skill” (L).
• National Student Index: Sometimes several Chinese people registered under the same name (O).
• ELNZ level: “We need to … [be able to] register qualifications at level 1 and level 2, especially for all our ESOL and beginners’ levels” (O).
• Course completion and student goals: “They passed every one of our courses. That’s a 100% pass rate [although] they didn’t … [complete] the qualification” (O).
• Discrepancies in credits: “A very, very simple low level ESOL unit standard perhaps shouldn’t carry five credits when a significant unit standard – like developing a CV – only carries two credits” (L).
• Change: “Now I have to work out how we are going to put this other system [Adult Literacy Progressions] in place” (D).
• Adult Literacy progressions: “Many of the migrant learners have not reached the basic level the progressions start at” (L).
• Conscientious staff: “Because it’s … micro pieces of learning, assessments go on forever, and if you are a conscientious teacher it does take a lot of time. … I think you have to go back to allowing teachers to make judgements” (D).

Shared experiences are helpful:

I’ve written a story about a school trip to the beach. … Most students … by the time they get to this unit standard … will have gone on a bus … with people from different cultures; they will have played games – football, volleyball – on the beach; they will have had lunch; … so that is a shared experience. … We can test [comprehension] for this unit standard. (A)

It is generally agreed that assessment has to be meaningful and appropriate: “I will not test a unit standard … just because it’s there. … It’s got to fit. … If I focus on achieving [it] … just because it’s a unit standard, then we all fail” (L).

5.5 Conclusion

Key organisational factors influencing LLN delivery in this case study:

• Embedding LLN creates authentic, contextualised learning that addresses functional needs.
• Staff and organisational flexibility is necessary to cope with external and internal changes.
• Funding-driven and assessment-oriented organisational cultures can be counterbalanced by student-centred approaches.
• Student-centred approaches become an integral part of organisational culture when driven from the top.
• Collaborative teamwork enhances the effectiveness of planning, meeting student needs, assessment, materials development, and professional support.

Emerging issues:

• Links between ESOL and general assessment measures may need clarifying.
• Adult Literacy Progressions may be inappropriate for lower-level EAL needs.
• Prioritising oracy over literacy needs in LLN provisions for EAL learners can be problematic.