Funds of identity and language development: the case of a Syrian refugee-background child

Abstract

ABSTRACT The aim of this ethnographic study was to trace the English language development of a young boy from Syria (Nate, pseudonym) who relocated to the U.S. at the age of six without any prior exposure to formal schooling. Data were collected over a two-and-a-half-year period and included fieldnotes after weekly tutoring visits and writing samples. Nate had lived in Turkey for three years with his parents and two older sisters and spoke Turkish and Arabic. He entered kindergarten in the U.S. with no English, but two years later his language proficiency improved greatly. While much of his ‘success’ could be attributed to his teachers, this paper focuses at the level of the family and the individual. Specifically, it attends to the interactional dynamics with his mother and the two sisters, his engagement with popular culture and technology, and his own developing academic and interpersonal skills. The implications of this analysis in (re)framing young refugee children as adaptive, flexible, and creative are presented.