When conducting two partial replication and a larger scale needs assessment studies with students with limited or interrupted formal education (SLIFE), challenges were met at every step, from the informed consent procedures to data analysis. We will discuss these challenges as well as the benefits from working with non-WEIRD populations.
Very few instructed second language acquisition (ISLA) studies have been carried out with students with limited or interrupted formal education (SLIFE), even though Bigelow and Tarone (2004) have long called for a more systematic integration of this population so as to better understand the impact of first language (L1) literacy skills on formal acquisition of additional languages (Lx) (see also, Young-Scholten, 2013). Since the SLIFE population represents a non-negligible number of French Lx learners in the province of Quebec, Canada (i.e. 72% of the refugees accepted between 2015 and 2018 declared less than 11 years of prior education and the vast majority did not know French), we felt it was urgent that research be carried out with them so that, ultimately, L2 learning opportunities meeting their specific learning characteristics and needs would be offered to them. In this presentation, we will draw on data we collected in two partial replication classroom-based studies (i.e. Vandergrift & Tafaghodtari, 2010 and Shintani, 2012) and a larger scale needs assessment study we carried out with SLIFE to highlight some of the methodological issues encountered. Such challenges include 1) engaging in ethical recruitment and informed consent procedures, 2) adapting data collection materials to minimize the use of print while remaining faithful to the original study’s objectives, 3) critically examining the role of interpreters at various steps of data collection 4) adapting introspective data coding procedures and 5) adapting pre-post test measures to match low literate adult learners’ characteristics (e.g. underperformance in testing conditions, see e.g. Altherr Flores, 2018). Discussion will focus on insights gained from conducting research with SLIFE and the benefits the field of ISLA will gain from paying closer attention to this specific non-WEIRD sample.
