Four Tips in Integrating Digital Literacy into ESL and VESL Programming

As our society becomes more and more digitized, refugee service providers are increasingly expected to support newcomers’ digital literacy in addition to their English language learning. Low English proficiency and limited technology skills feed into each other, making these challenges especially hard to address. This blog post is for resettlement service providers who deliver or coordinate English as a Second Language (ESL) and Vocational ESL (VESL) programming, including instructors and program managers. Below we present four trends to help you effectively integrate digital literacy into your ESL and VESL programming.

1. Embed Digital Literacy Directly into Language Instruction

English instruction and digital literacy (DL) have most often been structured as two separate offerings for newcomers. However, embedding technology skills and terminology directly into the English curriculum makes instruction more efficient.

• Build a two-axis understanding for each client’s skills. For example, a learner may have intermediate digital skills but low-level English skills, or vice versa. Provide a short yes-or-no questionnaire or conduct a hands-on assessment of each client’s technology skills in addition to your regular language assessment. Your questions should include how often the client uses technology and how confident they feel about using it. Use these results to place each client on the instruction plan at the right starting point. Clients with strong digital skills but low English can move straight into real-life task and language work, while someone still building their digital comfort may first need instruction on how to use the digital interface.
• Incorporate digital interfaces and clients’ real-life needs into your lessons. The more your instruction mirrors the learner’s daily life, the more likely they will retain the information. For example, have clients respond to a realistic text message to both build their language use and help them become more comfortable with texting. Other useful topics include navigating online banking, school communications, and health care websites.
• Coordinate across program areas. Integration works best when English as a Second Language (ESL) and Vocational ESL (VESL) instructors, employment specialists, and caseworkers know which digital tasks clients face at each touchpoint. Integrating digital literacy across all program areas reinforces the same skills in different contexts.

2. Pair Device Access with Corresponding Instruction

A device, such as a smartphone or laptop, is a necessary starting point but not enough on its own. Distributing hardware without structured instruction produces limited results. Clients who receive a device but lack systematic support on how to use it may leave it largely unused, rely on a family member to manage it, or limit their use to social messaging while remaining unable to navigate health care, benefits, or other service platforms on their own. Here are some tips for overcoming these barriers:

• Distribute devices at the start of instruction, not after. When clients receive a device at the start of a program rather than as a reward for completing it, they can apply skills immediately, carry that practice home, and build confidence through repeated real-world use. Begin with the device the client already has and knows best, usually a smartphone, then progress to other devices as their needs develop. Introduce basic software and hardware vocabulary when you first distribute the device.
• Standardize device setup before distribution. When possible, configure all learner devices with the same home screen layout and default browser, and save useful bookmarks before the devices leave your hands.
• Design take-home tasks matched to the actual device the client has. For example, if the client has a smartphone, teach them how to photograph a document and upload it as an online form, use a translation app, or find a specific service in a mobile browser.
• Connect hardware to the Internet when devices are distributed. Helping clients navigate the Internet and apply for an Internet service subsidy is an important digital literacy task embedded in a language class.

3. Design Lessons for Mobile-First and Home-Based Learners

Most ESL curricula are built for students who use computers, but most newcomers navigate daily digital life on smartphones. This is especially true for clients with caregiving responsibilities, those in rural or transportation-limited areas, and those who struggle to attend in-person sessions.

• Build instruction around smartphone interfaces, not just computers. Navigating a mobile browser, managing app notifications, locating downloaded files, and switching between apps require different skills than navigating a computer. Teach mobile-specific vocabulary such as tap, swipe, screenshot, and app store, and address the visual differences between mobile and desktop versions of platforms clients use.
• Extend instruction into household digital dynamics. In many newcomer households, one family member manages digital tasks for everyone. Conduct assessments that capture each learner’s independent ability, separate from what the household can do collectively. Building up a client’s digital confidence is a meaningful outcome.
• Connect mobile-first design to safety. When clients access the Internet mainly through smartphones, the risks they face are also mobile in nature: text-based scams, unfamiliar app permissions, unsecured networks, and platform-based exploitation. Teaching clients to review app permissions, spot suspicious texts, and adjust privacy settings is foundational, especially because newcomers are more likely to be targeted.

4. Teach Online Safety Early and at Every Level

Online safety instruction faces two challenges in ESL and VESL programming. First, it is often categorized as advanced content, taught only after learners reach basic digital and English fluency. Second, it is often the first thing cut when class time is tight or when other priorities appear more urgent. Use the tips below to address these challenges:

• Introduce safety concepts through scenarios, not rules. “What would you do?” questions allow many different levels of learners to engage and connect concepts to real situations. For example: “You are on your computer looking for a job and you are asked to pay to apply. What would you do?,” or “You are on your phone and receive a text that your bank account will be closed unless you tap on a link. What would you do?”
• Teach visual cues for risk recognition. Help learners recognize lock icons, warning screens, unfamiliar senders, and too-good-to-be-true offers. Build their visual literacy around warning signals first; then reinforce the English terminology through repetition. This will reduce risk while learners are still developing their language comprehension.
• Connect privacy instruction to what clients are already concerned about. Many newcomers have real concerns about digital surveillance and data privacy. Show them how to review what data an app collects (for example, their location) and adjust app permissions to protect their privacy.
• Extend online safety instruction to entire households. Discuss scam awareness, privacy settings, and phishing as family topics rather than an individual skill.

Conclusion

By embedding digital tasks into English instruction, pairing device access with language lessons and homework, and teaching online safety early, your programs can equip newcomers with language and technology skills simultaneously. Next steps include reviewing your current assessment tools for both ESL and DL, identifying where in your existing curriculum digital tasks can be integrated, and reviewing the helpful resources below.

Resources

• Tip Sheet: Introduction to Digital Literacy
• Assessments: Measure basic digital skills in 18 areas and 10-Question Assessment
• Framework: Teaching digital literacy in English programs
• Guide: UNHCR Digital Literacy Interventions
• Library: Education and technology resources by Edtech
• Report: Advancing Workforce Integration through Digital Literacy for English Language Learners
• Research Review: DL and Technology Integration in Adult Basic Skills Education
• Resources and Research: Classroom practices

The IRC received competitive funding through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Grant #90RB0053. The project is 100% financed by federal funds. The contents of this document are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families.