This article presents results from a study of ideologies in the teaching of basic literacy skills to adult second language learners in Sweden. The study is based on 25 interviews with teachers and 17 focus group interviews. The analysis is based on Cummins’ and Halls’ layered models for literacy education. In the study, teachers referred to their link to general language teaching, mainly to a sociocultural and whole-language approach. This was based on students’ perceived needs in their everyday lives, with specific language skills linked to students’ social lives. However, literacy was secondary when it came to basic literacy skills, such as letter–sound relationships, letter recognition, sight words and sounding-out words, and teachers did not reference the relationship to students’ lives or mapping students’ prior knowledge. There was therefore no discussion of adapting these skills to the various needs of a heterogenous student group. While the teachers in the study stated that they used strategies for adults, they seemed to rely less on conscious teaching strategies and research-based knowledge in initial literacy teaching.