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“I want to speak like the other people”: Second language learning as a virtuous spiral for migrant women?

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Abstract

This article contributes to scholarship on migrant women’s second language (L2) education in North America and Europe. Questioning reductionist understandings of the relationship between female migrants, their receiving communities and L2 education, the authors consider existing literature as well as their own qualitative work to investigate the challenges, opportunities and agency of migrant women. Weaving together and thematically presenting previous scholarship and qualitative data from interviews, participant observations and classroom recordings from a mixed-gender L2 adult migrant classroom in Austria and an all-women L2 migrant classroom in the United States, they trouble conceptualisations which position women primarily as passive recipients of education and in need of emancipation, while simultaneously elevating communities as agentic providers of these. Specifically, the authors emphasise that (1) L2 proficiency is not a guarantee for migrant women’s social inclusion or socioeconomic advancement; (2) migrant women’s complex challenges and agency need to be recognised and addressed; and (3) all involved in L2 education of migrant women do well to become learners of their own experiences of oppression, including their complicity in it.

Résumé

« Je veux parler comme tout le monde » : l’apprentissage d’une seconde langue, cercle vertueux pour les femmes migrantes ? – Le présent article contribue aux connaissances scientifiques sur l’enseignement d’une seconde langue (L2) aux femmes ayant migré en Amérique du Nord et en Europe. Remettant en question les conceptions réductrices de la relation entre les femmes migrantes, leurs communautés d’accueil et leur apprentissage d’une seconde langue, les auteures examinent la documentation existante ainsi que leur propre travail qualitatif en vue d’explorer les défis, les opportunités et l’agentivité de ces femmes. Par le croisement et la présentation par thèmes de données scientifiques et qualitatives antérieures issues d’interviews, d’observations de participants et d’enregistrements dans un cours d’enseignement de la L2 pour adultes migrants des deux sexes en Autriche, ainsi que dans un autre uniquement pour femmes migrantes aux États-Unis, les auteures remettent en cause les conceptualisations qui positionnent les femmes essentiellement comme bénéficiaires passives de l’éducation et ayant besoin d’émancipation, et qui en même temps élèvent les communautés au rang de prestataires agentiques de ces biens. Concrètement, les auteures insistent sur les conclusions suivantes : 1) La maîtrise d’une seconde langue n’est pas une garantie d’inclusion sociale et de progression socio-économique pour les femmes migrantes. 2) Les défis complexes ainsi que l’agentivité des femmes migrantes doivent être reconnus et pris en compte. 3) Toutes les personnes impliquées dans l’enseignement d’une seconde langue aux femmes migrantes ont tout intérêt à devenir les apprenantes de leurs propres expériences d’oppression, y compris de leur complicité dans ce contexte.

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Notes

  1. All names of persons and places are pseudonyms to protect participants’ identities.

  2. This article is part of a special issue on “Language learning to support active social inclusion: Issues and challenges for lifelong learning”, guest-edited by Marie-Christine Deyrich and Suzanne Majhanovich.

  3. The Council of Europe’s Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) was created to facilitate second and foreign language curricula and instruction, textbook development, teacher education, and more. CEFR posits that language learners’ levels range from A1 (absolute beginner) to C2 (superior mastery). For descriptions of those levels, see http://www.coe.int/en/web/common-european-framework-reference-languages/table-1-cefr-3.3-common-reference-levels-global-scale [accessed 6 July 2017]. A1 assumes basic reading and writing in one’s home language. A2 is deemed “waystage” and refers to the ability to deal with simple straightforward information and beginning ability to express oneself in familiar contexts.

  4. CEFR level A1 assumes basic reading and writing in one’s home language. Thus, some learners at REC were at a pre-A1 level.

  5. See https://esl-literacy.com/readers/ [accessed 9 June 2017].

  6. See https://www.uscis.gov/citizenship/learners/should-i-consider-us-citizenship [accessed 12 June 2017].

  7. See https://www.uscis.gov/citizenship/learners/study-test [accessed 9 June 2017].

  8. The term “Fortress Europe” originally refers to Nazi-occupied territory on the European continent during the Second World War. More recently, the term has been used alluding to the tightening of European border controls (including the construction of fences) in 2015/2016 at the height of the wave of incoming refugees from Syria, Kosovo, Afghanistan and many other countries.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland

    Johanna Ennser-Kananen

  2. Youngstown State University, Youngstown, OH, USA

    Nicole Pettitt

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  1. Johanna Ennser-Kananen
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Correspondence to Johanna Ennser-Kananen.

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Ennser-Kananen, J., Pettitt, N. “I want to speak like the other people”: Second language learning as a virtuous spiral for migrant women?. Int Rev Educ 63, 583–604 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11159-017-9653-2

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