In their report Adult ESL language and literacy instruction, the Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL, 2000) goes further, including in their definition the ability to use technology effectively in both an educational and work setting:
Literacy involves more than the ability to communicate effectively; it includes as well the ability to advocate on behalf of ourselves, our families, and our communities and to use technology effectively for education and work, in whatever languages are appropriate for the task and the purpose (p. 6)
Expanding the definition to include technology raises the stakes considerably. It requires that literacy learners, including ESL literacy learners, be given access to computers and computer training as part of their education and their work preparation.
There is no commonly accepted answer to this question. “ESL literacy” is a concept that is even more difficult to define than “literacy”. Furthermore, we know very little about the learners themselves. In a 2007 discussion paper for the Movement for Canadian Literacy, Sue Folinsbee (2007) affirms that “Overall, there is not a complete or common understanding of who might be considered an ESL literacy learner.” Furthermore:
“Nor is there is systematic, detailed, and formalized knowledge about immigrants and refugees with low education and literacy in their own language in Canada. (…) Overall, we do not know what literacy skills and learning strategies people bring in their own language. We do not know the proportion of those immigrants and refugees who have high oral skills in English or French but limited literacy skills. Additionally, the particular needs of refugees with ESL literacy needs are not reflected in the literature.” (Folinsbee, p.12)
In the literature, individuals are generally categorized as ESL literacy learners based on level of education and native language alphabet. However, the designation is defined differently by various organizations or researchers. Florenz and Terrill (2003) define a literacy-level learner as a person with 6 or fewer years of education in their native country. They also place people into six groups, depending on their native tongue:
The Centre for Canadian Language Benchmarks (2000) include in the category of “ESL literacy learner” people with up to eight years of schooling who have not acquired “study skills” and may have “preconceived notions of reading and writing that may hinder progress in the class” and anyone who comes from a country with a non-Roman alphabet whether or not they are literate in their first language (p. ii ). By contrast, the U.S. organizations The National Center for Family Literacy and The National Center for ESL Literacy Education at the Center for Applied Linguistics (2004) exclude those who are literate in a non-Roman alphabet, on the grounds that such learners know that written language represents speech, which is a necessary piece of prior knowledge for second language acquisition, and so are able to transfer their skills and adapt more quickly.