Immigrant Learners Research Articles

Some good news for the school: the levelling effect of the EFL class in FL vocabulary production and FL categorization of autochthonous learners and heritage speaker learners

Abstract Several researchers have drawn attention to the educational challenge posed by multilingual classes where students from different linguistic backgrounds coexist. Current institutional initiatives in Europe, but also elsewhere, advocate for the maintenance and promotion of multilingual and multicultural diversity within both monolingual and multilingual classrooms. In this study located in Spain, we were interested in exploring the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) vocabulary production and FL categorization of a group of heritage bilinguals in comparison with their mainstream monolingual peers. Results from a categorization task revealed that on most measures taken, heritage bilinguals, despite being a more heterogenous group, performed similarly in terms of vocabulary production in general, and as compared against the framework of a standard pre-B1 Cambridge vocabulary list, FL categorization, and typicality structures. The levelling effect of the EFL class is claimed to be accountable for this lack of differences. Furthermore, we dare speculate the generalization of CLIL could play in favour of more inclusive classes where immigrant learners are not left behind and can realise their potential to the fullest.

Immigrant learners traversing the prospects of mastering destination languages: a perspective of globalisation and linguistic competencies

The article adopts a qualitative method to explore and demonstrate the impact of a lack of local language proficiency in a multinational classroom. It contributes to a better understanding of the extent of the language barrier to effective teaching and learning. It also demonstrates how a lack of inclusivity in a multilingual classroom could have negative consequences on a learner's performance and the quality of teaching and learning in general. Despite the extensive literature on how the lack of language proficiency impairs quality teaching and learning in a classroom, further research should be carried out on promoting equal access to quality teaching and learning. The ongoing globalised migration makes it imperative that this study be carried out with much focus on a multinational classroom, Xitsonga in particular. Over the last decade, South Africa has emerged as the major destination for people leaving Zimbabwe. For this qualitative study in one of Xitsonga classroom settings with an unnoticeable number of Zimbabwean migrant learners in the Limpopo Province of South Africa, two Grade 11 immigrant high school learners whose home language is Shona, enrolled in the Further Education and Training (FET) phase, were used as respondents. The researchers used conversation analysis to collect data. The results revealed that teacher-to-learner and learner-to-learner interactions are important in learning an additional language. Besides, all learners have immeasurable prior knowledge, gained from schooling and life experiences, and additional language teachers can build on those experiences. Also, translation, code-switching and translanguaging are necessary for developing broader inter-linguistic and intercultural skills when learning an additional language. The study recommends inculcating in the learners the belief that languages are intertwined and that they all have a social orientation

The multilingual poetry task: Innovating L2 writing pedagogy in the secondary classroom

This multiple case-study explores how a multilingual poetry task can be used to support multilingual writers in mainstream U.S. high school English language arts (ELA) classes. The purpose of the investigation is to closely examine the affordances of a multilingual poetry task and discuss its innovative pedagogical aspects in terms of the results that the task achieves—the learning it promotes—as well as highlight interdisciplinary collaboration between (English as a second language (ESL) and ELA teachers. I argue that the multilingual poetry task can innovate L2 writing pedagogy, address common problems that multilingual writers and their teachers face, and provide resident immigrant learners with affordances such as innovative developments in multilingual writing techniques, an understanding of compositional aspects of writing via open poetic forms, and an opportunity to explore humanistic aspects of language learning. A qualitative evidence-based approach is applied to analyze samples of multilingual poetry from two resident immigrant writers of diverse backgrounds (e.g., Belarus and Myanmar). This analysis is offset with learner immediate post-course and delayed interviews, learner reflective writing, and classroom observations and interactions. Finally, utilizing data from post-course ELA teacher interviews, the article discusses how interdisciplinary ELA-ESL teacher collaboration can better support emergent multilingual writers and move the field of second language writing forward.

The language teacher as a supporter of the linguistic ecosystem among young immigrant learners: Beliefs and practices

The objective of the article is to analyze the attitudes of foreign language teachers towards students’ mother tongues or heritage languages, as migrant students to the city of Gdańsk, Poland, use them as a compensation strategy in formal language learning. On the basis of a survey methodology, the author will try to explore language teacher beliefs regarding the perception of the coexistence and the use of other languages (including Polish) in mainstream FL education and attempt to compile good practices in this regard, reported by the teachers surveyed. Referring to his earlier research (Lankiewicz 2013, 2015, 2019, 2020, 2021), the author hypothesizes that language teachers manifesting higher levels of critical language awareness will be more prone to draw upon students’ linguistic repertoires in the education processes, while others will suppress any form of intercomprehension, code-switching or language meshing.

What Does Linguistic Distance Predict When It Comes to L2 Writing of Adult Immigrant Learners of Spanish?

This study examined whether the linguistic distance between the first (L1) and second (L2) language is a significant determinant of L2 writing skills of 292 adult immigrants from 39 different source countries, who were beginner learners of Spanish L2. Gender, age, length of residence in Spain, education level as a proxy for literacy skills in L1, enrolment in Spanish language courses, and overall communicative competence in Spanish were also considered. Using both standard procedures for assessing L2 writing and performance-based psycholinguistic measures of accuracy and text-production fluency, the findings highlight the important role of linguistic proximity in achieving greater accuracy, text-production fluency, and overall L2 writing scores. Other significant predictors were age, enrolment in Spanish courses, and education level for accuracy; and length of residence in Spain and education level for text-production fluency. Although length of residence in Spain was negatively associated with text-production fluency in L2 writing, mediation analyses revealed that the effect of age on text-production fluency was mediated by length of residence in Spain and that L2 proficiency level mediated the link between linguistic distance and text-production fluency. Furthermore, most of the errors that these immigrants made were morphosyntactic and spelling errors, while vocabulary errors were rare.

Dilemmas of ‘doing good’: How teachers respond to the care needs of newly arrived refugee and immigrant adolescents in Denmark

ABSTRACT There is growing interest in the role of schools in supporting children facing adversity, including children with refugee and immigrant backgrounds. Based on six months of ethnographic fieldwork (December 2018 to June 2019) and interviews with teachers in two classes for adolescent newcomer refugee and immigrant learners in Denmark, this paper explores teacher responses to everyday dilemmas in supporting and caring for refugee and immigrant learners at school with a focus on three key areas: 1) in relation to teaching while safeguarding the adolescents’ self-image, 2) in caring for the adolescents emotionally, socially and physically, and 3) in building trust and being the adolescents’ confidants. Based on the findings, we argue that caring for newcomer adolescents cannot be reduced to questions of formal training and technical skills. Rather, it is intimately linked to attentiveness, experimentation and sensitivity to learners’ needs. Furthermore, we discuss how scholarly analysis of teacher responses to care-related dilemmas can help generate contextualised insights into the broader support needs of teachers engaging in care work in specific social contexts.

The Relationship Between Informal and Incidental Learning of Volunteers in Adult ESL and Their Intercultural Maturity

Adult ESL is a high-turnover field, and volunteers are a critical component of the adult ESL workforce. Existing research focuses on learners’ experience in the classroom. There is limited attention to how teachers might change as a result of encountering immigrant learners in adult ESL. The purpose of this study was to understand the informal and incidental learning activities experienced by teachers in adult ESL settings and the impact of the learning on their intercultural maturity development. This study is based on survey data from 212 adult ESL teachers. The results demonstrated that adult ESL presented opportunities for informal and incidental learning for teachers. Both volunteers and paid instructors identified learning from teaching as the most important source of learning. Participation in informal and incidental learning activities was positively correlated with intercultural maturity. Further, organizational support promoted informal and incidental learning.

Supporting Immigrants’ Employability? Experiences in Digital Pedagogy Applied with Immigrant Learners in Turku in Southwest Finland

Abstract Labor shortages and labor mismatches are common emergent problems in Finland, ones which will occur on a much broader scale in the future in an aging society. Immigrants constitute an important pool of labor, but sometimes it is difficult for them to find even a first job in local labor markets. Studies have shown that mastering the language of the host country is a crucial factor in the success of immigrants’ employment. The AboaNova development project in Turku, Southwest Finland, funded by the European Social Fund, aimed to promote two-way integration by developing new methods and pedagogical tools to speed up employment and support the linguistic skills of immigrants in the Finnish language. As one example, the project applied interactive digital pedagogy and learning analytics to support both language learning and guidance for on-the-job learning to enter the labor market. However, the challenge in implementing new tools often has to do with resistance and suspicious attitudes encountered at different organizational levels during development projects.

Between- and within-school tracking and literacy skills of multilingual young adults: A cross-national comparative study

This study investigates how school tracking is related to the literacy skills of multilingual immigrant young adults in 17 countries participating in the OECD Survey of Adult Skills. Our results revealed that between-school tracking was negatively related; within-school tracking—ability grouping for some subjects but not for all—was positively related to multilingual immigrant learners. Multilingual immigrant learners tended to perform better in educational systems with less external differentiation and some degree of ability grouping for certain subjects. It suggests that differentiated instruction was only beneficial when implemented in a limited and less segregated manner. We underline the importance of inclusive and flexible learning environments and pathways to mitigate the inevitable initial disadvantages faced by this group of multilingual learners.

Motivation as a Passport for Immigrants’ Life: A Different Perspective for English Teachers

Motivation is one of the main elements that affect SLA (second language acquisition) and the process that the students face when learning the target language. Normally, the factors that influence the amount of motivation of the learners are not controlled due to the fact that these latter are in distinct sociocultural contexts, educational settings, among others. In this study, the factors that affect motivation in immigrant learners are investigated as an issue that SLA teachers must consider in order to transform the educational settings into an inclusive environment in such field.

Chinese literacy learning by immigrant learners

Abstract For both second and foreign language students, mastery of the Chinese writing system typically presents itself as a special learning challenge. This report begins with a summary of relevant aspects of an exploratory study of East Asian immigrant language learners. It serves to set the stage for a discussion of theoretical problems that hopefully will lead to new directions in research focused on second language (L2) learners of Chinese in general. In particular, the discussion will highlight the circumstances of that population of learners who come to the task of L2 Chinese literacy as already literate in their first language. In this regard, what is the role of language awareness in learning to read and write, in particular regarding the link between characters and their pronunciation? The participants in the study were young adult immigrants from Vietnam who today look back on their experience of language learning in the host country over the course of the last 20 years.

“I Can Go Slapsticks”: Humor as Humanizing Pedagogy for Science Instruction With Multilingual Adolescent Immigrant Learners

Research shows that humor can play an important role in students’ language learning and literacy development. However, studies on how teachers intentionally enact humor as a pedagogical tool are still limited. This classroom discourse study examines the interactional construction and pedagogical functions of humor in one U.S. multilingual high school science classroom. Drawing on the theoretical frameworks of languaging and affect, we took a discourse analytic approach to analyze classroom interactions and interview data to examine how the teacher used humor as humanizing pedagogy. We illustrate that the teacher held a humanizing teaching approach to working with immigrant students and viewed “slapstick humor” as part of his humanizing pedagogy. He co-constructed humor with his multilingual students in classroom interaction, and his pedagogical humor worked towards simultaneously humanizing learning, teaching scientific content, and building authentic caring relationships with students through care and empathy. We conclude the article with a discussion of the implications of this study for the research and practice of using humor in language and literacy classrooms with immigrant multilingual students.

Representing transition experiences: A multimodal critical discourse analysis of young immigrants in children's literature

Because literature can serve as a mirror for children's self-reflection and a window into humanizing insights on immigrants and immigration, it can be a powerful educational tool to promote understanding of immigrant learner's experiences and needs. However, this has not always been the case. As such, informed by our theoretical framework of critical discourse studies (CDS) and raciolinguistics, this study explores the representations of immigrant children's experiences in children's literature. Employing multimodal critical discourse analysis, the authors analyze the visual and verbal representations of immigrant children (and the ideologies behind them) in 18 picture books with immigration themes. Findings reveal how the children are represented visually and/or verbally in ways that create understanding and empathy for the characters, but other times in more problematic ways. The authors conclude with suggestions for how to select (visual and verbal) curricula that avoids problematic ideologies of immigrant children and how to teach children to de-construct these ideologies when they encounter them.

Identity Construction and Second Language Acquisition: A Multiple Case Study of Thai Immigrants in Hong Kong

ABSTRACT A growing body of research on identity and language learning has investigated how immigrant learners construct their identities in the process of acquiring a second language (L2). Much of the research, however, is situated in Western contexts. This study looks at how three Thai immigrants acquired an L2, Cantonese, and constructed their identities in their host society—Hong Kong. Drawing on the data collected from semi-structured interviews, onsite observation, and informal conversations, this study shows that the three Thai immigrants built multiple identities that allowed them to have access to the target language learning resources and practices. They embraced selective acculturation by maintaining their Thai identity and preserving their cultural heritage, which had a positive influence on their acquisition of the target language. The study suggests that language learners need to claim powerful identities and exercise human agency in their interaction with target language speakers to facilitate language learning.

Immigrant Parents' Voices on Children's Right to Education in South African Schools: Connecting the Disconnected

This paper focuses on the school's protection of the right to education for immigrant learners as perceived by their parents. With its approach to the subject from the human rights-based educational perspective, this paper sought to examine immigrant parents' views on their children's right to education against their background as vulnerable and marginalised school community members. The assumption on which the study presented in this paper is based is that meaningful discussion on the right to education for immigrant learners cannot be disconnected from the challenges their parents face in educating them. Immigrant parents have their views and experiences relating to children's educational rights, which are seldom studied. Guided by this view, a qualitative approach was followed to gather data through semi-structured individual interviews held with parents of immigrant learners from four purposively selected South African township schools. The results show that immigrant parents experience enormous challenges in the education of their children in South African schools. While some of the challenges are transferred from them to their children because of non-citizenship, they attribute most of the challenges to people who teach their children, namely, teachers. 
 
 Received: 2 August 2021 / Accepted: 3 October 2021 / Published: 5 November 2021

Implementing co-teaching to support the language socialization process of immigrant students (La práctica de la coenseñanza para fomentar el proceso de socialización lingüística de los alumnos inmigrantes)

ABSTRACT This study describes a project in a school district in New Jersey that aimed at preparing all teachers to understand and address the needs of immigrant students and English language learners (ELs). Co-teaching was implemented between the general education and the ESL teacher in elementary school classrooms to educate, inform and engage content area teachers in the education of ELs, to create a system of accountability by having both teachers share instructional responsibility for immigrant students and to facilitate the language socialization process of these students. We identify specific aspects of co-teaching that support the development of content-based English language proficiency of immigrant students while also promoting more teacher collaboration and engagement with linguistically and culturally diverse students. By engaging in co-teaching, teachers needed more common planning time, learned to use specific scaffolding and instructional strategies and made language an object of study in the classrooms.

The Impact of Loss and Alienation in English Language Learners

Educational institutions have the capacity to support immigrant students and English Language Learners through their emotional struggles with racial melancholia, dissociation, and cultural assimilation by utilizing validating curricula that promotes critical consciousness. Unfortunately, many secondary educational institutions routinely neglect the persistent emotional impact of racial melancholia and dissociation while instituting oppressive Eurocentric curriculum teeming with white privilege that undermines cultural diversity. A primary reason why so much modern humanities curricula is devoid of diversity and humanity is because it is subordinate to standardized testing leading to rote, ineffectual academic experiences negating the development of critical thinking skills and critical consciousness for immigrant students and English Language Learners.

‘The good English’: The ideological construction of the target language in adult ESOL

AbstractThis project problematizes hegemonic conceptions of language by looking at the construction of ‘English’ in a nonprofit, community-based adult ESOL program in New York. I use ethnographic observation and interviews to uncover the discursive and pedagogical practices that uphold these hegemonic conceptions in this context. I find that the structural conditions of the program perpetuate a conception of ‘English’ shaped by linguistic racism and classism, despite the program's progressive ideals. Linguistic authority is centralized through the presentation of a closed linguistic system and a focus on replication of templatic language. This allows for the drawing of linguistic borders by pathologizing forms traditionally associated with racialized varieties of English, pointing to the persistence of raciolinguistic ideologies. Nevertheless, students destabilize these dominant ideas, revealing a disconnect between mainstream understandings of language and the way adult immigrant learners actually use language, and pointing to possibilities for alternate conceptions and pedagogies. (Language ideology, raciolinguistics, Standard English, adult ESOL)

Immigrants and the politics of belonging: Learning in the shadows

AbstractIn the United States, issues facing immigrants are fundamentally intertwined with racial justice. Through a critical, human‐rights perspective, we examine how immigrants engage with adult learning, paying particular attention to the history of immigration and policy as it frames lives often described as lived “in the shadows.” Challenges facing immigrants vary by country of origin and motivation for migration, as well as reception to the United States, their White race, and immigration status. We describe educational services and opportunities in adult and higher education for immigrant learners as well as how adult education can support immigrant incorporation. We conclude by discussing the incorporation of nontraditional, critical literacies into adult education curricula to build supportive learning environments not only for immigrant, but all adult learners.

The emancipation continuum: analysing the role of ESOL in the settlement of immigrants

This article explores connections between language and the social inclusion of immigrants. It analyses three different models of immigration settlement: assimilation, integration through social capital, and inclusion. It then explores how education - and in particular the teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) - can promote values and develop capacities in immigrant learners that either restrict or promote their ability to flourish as active, included members of society. I present these concepts on a continuum, as a framework that can be applied to analyse the role of ESOL in the settlement of immigrants. This continuum is then applied to the ESOL context in Scotland and reveals that, despite the emancipatory language in Scottish government policy discourse, the impact of ESOL provision is largely limited to the empowerment of individual learners and has little impact on addressing structural inequalities or injustices.