8 Institutional Educationscapes for New Speakers in Flanders: Language Learning Campaigns and Linguistic Integration

2022 ◽  
pp. 173-192
Author(s):  
Mieke Vandenbroucke
Author(s):  
Jörg Dollmann ◽  
Frida Rudolphi ◽  
Meenakshi Parameshwaran

Proficiency in the language of a new country is perhaps the most important precondition for the successful integration of immigrants in various other integration aspects, like educational and vocational success, interethnic relations and ethnic identify formation. Explaining ethnic disparities in linguistic integration therefore has the potential to aid our understanding of ethnic differences along various other integration dimensions. In the present contribution, we first demonstrate substantial heterogeneity of adolescents’ language proficiency in four European countries depending on their ethnic origin and their migration history. In order to further understanding these differences we examine very different individual and family factors that can be hypothesised to influence language learning processes. Besides an influence of social background on language learning, we show that ethnic specific factors such as language use in the family are at least partly relevant for the language acquisition process.


2017 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 294-296
Author(s):  
Nicola Bermingham ◽  
Gwennan Higham

This seminar was held at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, on 27 May 2016. It was jointly organised by BAAL members Nicola Bermingham (Heriot-Watt University) and Gwennan Higham (Swansea University) in collaboration with COST Action IS1306 New Speakers in a Multilingual Europe: Opportunities and Challenges, and supported by the Intercultural Research Centre and the Department of Languages and Intercultural Studies at Heriot-Watt University. Ten papers and two keynote speeches were given. The keynote speakers were Professor Alison Phipps (Glasgow University) and Professor Máiréad Nic Craith (Heriot-Watt University). A round-table discussion was also held, with invited speakers including Ms Mandy Watts from Education Scotland; Professor Bernadette O'Rourke, chair of COST Action IS1306; Dr Cassie Smith Christmas, University of the Highlands and Islands; and Dr Kathryn Jones, Director of Language Policy and Research at the Welsh Centre for Language Planning.


Author(s):  
Charo Reyes ◽  
Sílvia Carrasco Pons ◽  
Laia Narciso Pedro

This article analyses the structural barriers affecting the processes of linguistic integration among adult migrants and refugees by focusing on both teachers’ and learners’ experiences in the context of an EU-funded project for good practice exchange. Reflections and assumptions of language teachers for migrants and refugees from four European countries (Spain, Germany, Italy and Poland) are set against the linguistic needs and expectations of their students through the case of a Pakistani migrant woman in Barcelona. Although language training for migrants’ labour integration and participation is widely emphasized by supranational, national and regional institutions, it is not a genuine priority in most of the countries of reception. Limited training focused on issues related to language and anti-immigration and/or nationalist discourses condition well-intended initiatives from third sector organisations. Moving away from purely pedagogical factors, this article aims to contribute to locating language learning as social integration under the lens of social justice.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Stuart S. Dunmore

Abstract The notion of the ‘new speaker’, and its salience particularly in relation to minority language sociolinguistics, has become increasingly prevalent in the last decade. The term refers to individuals who have acquired an additional language to high levels of oracy and make frequent use of it in the course of their lives. Language advocates in both Scotland and Nova Scotia emphasise the crucial role of new speakers in maintaining Gaelic on both sides of the Atlantic. As a result, Gaelic language teaching has been prioritised by policymakers as a mechanism for revitalising the language in both polities. This article examines reflexes of this policy in each country, contrasting the ongoing fragility of Gaelic communities with new speaker discourses around heritage, identity, and language learning motivations. Crucially, I argue that challenging sociodemographic circumstances in Gaelic communities in Scotland and Nova Scotia contrast with current policy discourses, and with new speaker motivations for acquiring higher levels of Gaelic oracy in North America.


Author(s):  
Leanne Hinton

There are many paths language revitalization can take, but they are not mutually exclusive. A central aspect of language revitalization is the creation of new speakers. One path is for families to learn and transmit the endangered language at home. Schools are major venues for language learning. Language nests and immersion schools have been especially effective. Adult language education has also become a critical part of language revitalization. Universities and “bootstrap” methods such as the Master-Apprentice Program have been able to bring adults to high proficiency. Linguistic archives have been useful for access to language, especially when there are no speakers left. Modernization of the language is also unavoidable, including new vocabulary and the development of writing systems if necessary. Most importantly, language revitalization should involve increased use of the language, by native speakers and learners alike.


2021 ◽  
Vol 48 (6) ◽  
pp. 571-581
Author(s):  
Karen Schramm

Zusammenfassung Dieser Beitrag stellt das vom Europarat geförderte Projekt Literacy and Second Language Learning for the Linguistic Integration of Adult Migrants (LASLLIAM; 2018–2022) vor, das die Entwicklung von qualitativ hochwertigen Lernangeboten für gering literalisierte erwachsene Migrant*innen unterstützen möchte. Dazu werden zunächst die Zielsetzungen des Projekts und seine Entwicklungsschritte beschrieben, bevor das LASLLIAM-Handbuch und seine Einzelkapitel genauer charakterisiert werden. Im Zentrum stehen dabei die Skalen und domänenspezifischen Tabellen, die an Beispielen aus dem Bereich Lesen illustriert werden.


2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tulay Caglitutuncigil Martínez

AbstractDuring the last decades, changing intra-state and inter-state immigrant profiles in Spain has generated an interesting landscape for sociolinguistics research. There has been a shift from temporary migration to permanent settlement, which means that there is an increasing number of individuals who need to speak the locally legitimate forms of language for different reasons. Apart from this, recent statistics indicate that female immigrants’ profiles are also changing, and they are becoming more and more forerunners and active participants in the formal Spanish labour market (Aja et al. 2011). Therefore, this dynamic, ever changing profile of female immigrants suggests that they move across existing boundaries, acquiring and developing their linguistic knowledge to access other forms of symbolic capitals in Spain. Building on my ethnography of two sites in Madrid and Barcelona between 2011 and 2014, I shall explain how African immigrant women become new speakers and how their language learning process intersects with socially constructed boundaries such as political, economic, and linguistic hierarchies and ascribed gender roles.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (10) ◽  
pp. 284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bianco ◽  
Ortiz Cobo

The creation of laws regarding the linguistic integration of migrants has contributed to the change in Italian language teaching, which has had to adapt its materials and methodology to migrants. However, the specific case of refugees has not been specifically assessed, with the exception of experimentation with the Council of Europe toolkit for refugees. This paper aimed to study the linguistic integration of adult refugees in Italy by conducting an ethnography through participant observation and semi-structured interviews between Italian language teachers and refugees. The results of this work show both the teachers’ perceptions of the refugees’ linguistic integration and the refugees’ perceptions of linguistic integration practice. The conclusions highlight the need for more hours of Italian language courses as well as lessons based on specific integration needs. Moreover, this study emphasizes that the integration practice itself implies language learning. A final consideration is made concerning the current integration situation of refugees in Italy.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart S. Dunmore

Abstract The concept of the ‘new speaker’ has gained currency in the sociolinguistics of minority languages in the past decade, referring to individuals who have acquired an additional language outside of the home and who make frequent use of it in the course of their daily lives. Policymakers and language advocates in both Scotland and Canada make frequent reference to the role that new speakers may play in the future of the Gaelic language on both sides of the Atlantic, and Gaelic language teaching of various kinds has been prioritised by policymakers as a mechanism for revitalising the language. This article examines reflexes of this policy in the two countries, juxtaposing the ongoing fragility of Gaelic communities with new speaker discourses around heritage, identity, and language learning motivations. In particular, I consider Nova Scotian new speakers’ sense of identity as ‘Gaels’, an ethnonym largely avoided or problematised by Scottish new speakers. (Ethnolinguistic identity, heritage, language revitalisation, new speakers)*


Author(s):  
María del Carmen Quiles Cabrera ◽  
Mar Campos Fernández-Fígares

Resumen: La realidad multicultural en las aulas españolas está exigiendo convertirse en foco de atención de docentes e investigadores desde hace ya algunos años. Almería es una de las provincias donde hay un mayor porcentaje de alumnos inmigrados y una mayor variedad de nacionalidades. Tras los años de inmigración acceden a las aulas un número muy importante de estudiantes “hijos e hijas de emigrantes” que ya son propiamente españoles pero cuya integración social y lingüística aún no es plena, por lo que se convierte en el escenario ideal para el análisis. En esta ocasión el estudio de caso se centra en el lenguaje y su aprendizaje como lengua segunda de este conjunto de estudiantes, que queremos considerar no ya descendientes de inmigrantes sino nuevos españoles. Planteamos un estudio cualitativo sobre la base de un trabajo empírico que nos permita obtener muestras escritas en las aulas de adaptación lingüística (ATAL) y ofrecer una descripción de los rasgos más significativos de su manejo del código escrito. Abstract: The multicultural reality in Spanish classrooms is demanding become focus of teachers and researchers from several years ago. Almeria is a province where there is a higher percentage of immigrant students and a greater variety of nationalities. After years of immigration, there is a significant number of students "children of immigrants" who are already properly Spanish but whose social and linguistic integration is not complete yet, so it becomes the perfect setting for analysis. Nowadays it focuses on language and language learning as two of this group of students, we want to consider not only new immigrants but descendants of Spanish. We propose a qualitative (and in some way quantitative) research, based on an empirical study focused on two sources: first the characteristics of applications written in the second language by these students, and the other in the types of writing practices in Spanish as a second language class that are held in several schools in the area studied (Almeria East).


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