Resource bank

Braddell A. (2017), Citizens' curriculum guide to non-directive coaching, Learning and Work Institute, Leicester.

Explains how non-directive coaching works and suggests ways to apply it in adult basic education and language learning for migrants, including at work.

See also Coaching to support self-directed literacy and language learning (2016)

Non-directive coaching guide.pdf

German-Austrian-Swiss Leonardo project (2013-15) that developed resources for workplace basic skills classes. Resources available German and English.

A and O project

A and O-manual-materials_eng.pdf

Canadian organisation that promotes quality in language teaching to migrants in Alberta region of Canada.
Includes online resource centre with work-related language learning resources.

ATESL

Information sheet on language mentoring in companies, published in Germany in 2018.

Info_für_Betriebe_Sprachmentoring.pdf

Applied linguistics project that has been collecting recordings of workplace interactions in New Zealand since 1996.
The continuing aims of the project are to:
- identify the characteristics of effective communication between people;
- diagnose possible causes of miscommunication;
- explore possible applications of the findings for New Zealand workplaces.

Website offers practical resources.

Language in the workplace

Language in the worplace project diagram.pdf

Building_site_unit_1.pdf

Eldercare_unit_2.pdf

Sample-Unit.pdf

Online article by Amy Thompson, Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics, University of South Florida, discussing how language learning helps develop cultural competence (including cross-cultural understanding) and tolerance of ambiguity.
Although focussing on higher education the findings will certainly be valid for other levels of society: another incentive for LfW.

How learning a new language improves tolerance.pdf

Ingemann K., Bayer F., Stegman C. P., Villads Vedel P. (eds) (2017), Guide - Good practice in Danish language training targeted at the labour market, Ministry of Immigration and Integration, Copenhagen.

Guide (in English) to work-related language learning in Denmark for Danish municipal councils and job centres (responsible for supporting labour market integration) and also language centres and employers.

Good-practice-Guide-in-Work-related-Danish.pdf

The Erasmus + VIME project (2016-18) focused on the roles and competences of language volunteers to support migrant language learning, integration and participation in society.
The project developed guidance and training materials for volunteers, learning providers and policy makers.
These resources can be downloaded free from the project website.

VIME_Framework_sept2018.pdf

VIME-Project-Model-FINAL-6918-1.pdf

VIME project

Braddell A. and Miller L. (2017), Supporting migrants in low‐paid, low‐skilled employment in London to improve their English, in Beacco J-C., Krumm H-J., Little D. and Thalgott P. (eds) (2017), The Linguistic integration of adult migrants - Some lessons from research / L’intégration linguistique des migrants adultes - Les enseignements de la recherche, De Gruyter Mouton, Berlin / Council of Europe, Strasbourg.

Describes research carried out in 2013 to identify the barriers to and enablers of English language development for migrants in low-paid, low-skilled employment in London, with a view to making practical recommendations on how to help this group improve their English. Sixty migrants were interviewed about their experiences of and preferences for English language learning. Work emerged as a key location for learning, along with a clear set of requirements to support language development in the workplace.

Supporting migrants in low paid low skilled jobs.pdf

Sjösvärd K. and Braddell A. (2017), Using workplace learning to support linguistic integration of adult migrants – Lessons from a decade of work in Sweden, in Beacco J-C., Krumm H-J., Little D. and Thalgott P. (eds) (2017), The linguistic integration of adult migrants - Some lessons from research / L’intégration linguistique des migrants adultes - Les enseignements de la recherche, De Gruyter Mouton, Berlin / Council of Europe.

Short paper that reviews learning from a decade-long series of large-scale projects to support linguistic integration of adult migrants employed in adult social care in the Stockholm region. Despite the assumption that employment was in itself a guarantee of language learning, at the outset it was found that for many migrants, secure long-term employment in the sector had led to very limited progress learning Swedish. The projects set out to remedy this, developing a holist approach that enabled the sharing of responsibility for language development.

Workplace learning to support migrant integration in Sweden.pdf