Post-Migration Education Among Refugees in the Netherlands

Refugees face significant barriers in the labor markets of western countries due to limited transferability of educational credentials. Post-migration education can increase refugees’ chances in the labor market, but little is known about the prevalence and underlying patterns of such post-secondary educational investments. I contribute to the literature by analyzing survey data from the Netherlands on post-migration education among more than 3,000 adult refugees who come from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, former Yugoslavia, and Somalia. I find that refugees’ investments in schooling depend on both pre- and post-migration characteristics. Results show that post-migration schooling is more common among adult refugees who are higher educated, who arrived at a younger age, who have applied for recognition of their foreign education, and who have (successfully) participated in integration and/or language courses. When refugees are kept in an asylum center for a longer time, they are less likely to invest in post-migration education.

Is there a rural penalty in language acquisition? Evidence from Germany’s refugee allocation policy

Emerging evidence has highlighted the important role of local contexts on integration trajectories of asylum seekers and refugees. Germany’s policy of randomly allocating asylum seekers across Germany may advantage some and disadvantage others in terms of opportunities for equal participation in society. This study explores the question whether asylum seekers that have been allocated to rural areas experience disadvantages in terms of language acquisition compared to those allocated to urban areas. We derive testable assumptions using a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) which are then tested using large-N survey data (IAB-BAMF-SOEP refugee survey). We find that living in a rural area has no negative total effect on language skills. Further the findings suggest that the ‘null effect’ is the result of two processes which offset each other: while asylum seekers in rural areas have slightly lower access for formal, federally organized language courses, they have more regular exposure to German speakers.

Immigrant–Native Wage Gaps at Work: How the Public and Private Sectors Shape Relational Inequality Processes

We investigate how the institutional context of the public and private sectors regulates the association of workplace diversity policies and relational status positions with first- and second-generation immigrants’ wages. Using unique linked employer–employee data combining administrative and survey information of 6,139 employees in 120 German workplaces, we estimate workplace fixed-effects regressions. Workplace processes are institutionally contingent: diversity policies such as mixed teams reduce inequalities in the public sector, and diversity policies such as language courses reinforce existing inequalities in the private sector. In public sector workplaces where natives hold higher relational positions, immigrants’ wages are lower. This group-related dynamic is not detectable in the private sector.

Alternative Evaluation as a Means of Inclusion

The present study concerns a field research aiming to investigate the stances of primary and secondary school teachers in Greece about alternative assessment methods (AAM). For this purpose, 181 language teachers answered an e-questionnaire. In addition, the curricula for Greek and foreign language courses taught in compulsory state education were analysed in order to explore the type and the extension of references to AAM in them. Data analysis showed that teachers of secondary education use AAM on a more frequent basis and a larger variety of them than those of primary education. Furthermore, from data analysis resulted a strong preference of the respondents for self-assessment, portfolio, and project methods. The curricula analysis revealed extensive reference to AAM in foreign language curricula, mainly to portfolio and project. As the regression analysis indicated, teaching experience was not related to the AAM usage. However, teachers' training on AAM appeared correlated with their positive stances towards it.

Student Perception of Face-to-Face vs Online Language Training

Since the spring of 2020, practically all educational institutions have transferred instruction online. However, questions remain about whether online learning is as effective as face-to-face (F2F) one. This is especially relevant in the case of non-formal adult education, as students have competing demands on their time, established learning habits, and their relationship with a training provider is short-term. This paper compares results of students’ evaluation of teaching (SET) collected from two adult learner cohorts of similar demographic characteristics. While both cohorts had English language courses of the same core content and volume, one studied F2F, the other online. A Likert-type questionnaire form is used for the analysis. Analysis of the results from both groups reveals no statistically significant differences in students’ opinions. Moreover, students are consistent in their overall favorable attitude to both learning formats. A very slight preference towards F2F format is detected in some aspects of the course.

PARTICIPACE STUDENTŮ NA TVORBĚ PODPŮRNÝCH VÝUKOVÝCH MATERIÁLŮ V PŘEDMĚTU NĚMČINA PRO BANKOVNICTVÍ

The students of bachelor’s degree programmes at the Faculty of Economics of the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen have the opportunity to broaden their knowledge and skills acquired in specialized subjects through additional specialized courses taught in German. The language courses in question aim to prepare students adequately for their professional career as well as to provide them with practical competences. This paper focuses on the students’ participation in creating the support materials in the German for Banking course. The graphics online tool called Canva was chosen to present the students’ projects. The individual students’ presentations were created in the form of interactive videos using EdPuzzle, another online tool. The popularity of online tools was also verified using a questionnaire.

TOEIC LISTENING AND READING JAKO SOUČÁST HODNOCENÍ STUDENTŮ TECHNICKÉ UNIVERZITY V LIBERCI

The first part of the article presents the characteristics of the TOEIC test in the context of testing students at the Department of Foreign Languages of the Technical University of Liberec. The analysis of the test results obtained in the period from 2015 to 2020 is described in the next part. The analysis was focused on the comparison of the scores that the candidates achieved in the reading and listening sections of the test. The results of the survey are meant to give a stimulus to propose a modification of the syllabi of language courses so that they focus on the balance of learning activities and support of weaker skills of students, i.e., problems in reading comprehension. The opinions of students who took the TOEIC test and the language course in 2019 are another source of information serving to update the syllabi.

Exploring the Writing Challenges Faced by M.Phil. and Ph.D. Scholars: A Case

Academic writing plays a pivotal role in developing research proposals. The present study aimed to explore the grammatical errors that M.Phil/PhDs scholars commit in academic writing. The present study employed a qualitative case study designed to explore the challenges in the English language faced by the M.Phil and PhDs scholars. The 20 Ph.D. and 36 M.Phil scholars were selected by busing purposive sampling technique. Data were collected by using two self-developed semi-structured interviews protocol. Thematic analysis approach was employed for data analysis. The findings revealed that all the participants reported that correct use of tenses was a big hurdle that entailed the other grammatical mistakes and reduced the report quality because all the lexical aspects are linked with these mechanics. The study recommended that English language courses be offered to postgraduate, M. Phil and Ph.D. scholars to learn the technical aspects of the language and provide students with online interactive programming.