Language and literacy development by adult first time readers in a second language is a new and almost unexplored domain. Research has been carried out in different disciplines by linguists, psycho-linguists, psychologists and educational researchers. The aim of the inaugural LESLLA workshop in Tilburg 2005 was to bring together researchers from the different disciplines working on the acquisition of literacy or of a second language by adult immigrants with little or no schooling. The present volume contains the proceedings of this first workshop. The papers provide a multi-country and multi-target language overview of recent developments in the various disciplines, introducing the reader less familiar disciplines. The low-educated and low-literate or non-literate learner is the central theme in all contributions, which are of interest to both researchers and to those working with low-educated second language and literacy learners.

With contributions by: Alan Juffs (Pittsburgh), Astrid Geudens (Antwerp; Leuven), Martha Young-Scholten and Nancy Strom (Newcastle; Proliteracy), Jeanne Kurvers, Roeland van Hout and Ton Vallen (Tilburg), Larry Condelli and Heide Wrigley (AIR, Literacy Work International), Anne-Mieke Janssen-van Dieten (Nijmegen), Nancy Faux (Virginia Commonwealth), and Willemijn Stockmann (Tilburg).