The paper presents the theoretical and methodological implications of incorporating Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in learning English as a foreign language (EFL) within the educational context of a Second Chance School (SCS), that is public secondary school for adults who have not completed compulsory education. Our teaching proposal combines project-based learning with action research. On a typical cycle, adult learners work in small groups to create original digital presentations in English on thematic areas of their choice. Their presentations are uploaded on the lesson’s blog and function as sample work for peer learners to get inspiration and create new original content. Learners acquire hands-on experience with ICTs through working with collaborative slides and co-creating digital content. Awareness-raising on netiquette issues is a core constituent of the learning process. In order to gain a profound understanding of the aforementioned EFL learning experience with ICTs a descriptive case study was conducted from November 2023 to June 2024 in the regional SCS of Corfu.

The following research questions guided the study:
(1) which roles do adult learners undertake while participating in ICT-mediated activities?
(2) Which peer-to-peer learning patterns emerge from ICT-assisted collaboration?
(3) Which forms of metacognition are observed in students’ reflections on the learning process?
(4) Which emotions are stirred through their engagement in the activities?
(5) Which literacies are developed though the combined interaction with ICTs and EFL?

The study employed a research design which combined the following data collection methods: semi-structured interviews, classroom observation, document analysis and focus group. Twenty-nine SCS students, graduates and drop outs were interviewed through maximum variation sampling, a purposive sampling technique. The preliminary results show that:
(1) adult learners are willing to experiment with new roles within a peer group, regardless of their familiarity with the English language or the digital media. New roles involve creating, editing and sharing photos and videos, recording sound, using search engines and neural machine translation systems for the first time in order to create multimodal texts in English.
(2) Peer-to-peer learning patterns are observed in three levels: micro (in-goup), meso (in-class) and macro (beyond class).
(3) The learners provide a range of metacognitive comments regarding ways in which they learn with ICTs, such as the role of multimodality in EFL learning enhancement, the contribution of AI to the development of autonomous learning strategies and the role of the student blog in the development of a digital learning community.
(4) They make meaningful connections between their emotions at the first and the final stages of the project.
(5) They highlight elements of ICT-mediated teamwork which contribute to the development of their linguistic and digital skills, as well as in their active involvement in the activities.

Through our research we provide a dedicated framework which pinpoints adult learning patterns cross-referenced by the specific conditions under which EFL learning with the use of digital media is facilitated in the formal adult education context of a Second Chance School.

Keywords: Adult education, ICT, English literacy, Second Chance Schools, experiential learning, project-based learning.