Hello all

These are difficult times for ESOL: borders are strengthening and walls, rather than bridges, are being built between people and nations. It’s important to remember that there is some support in policy at a supranational if not a national level for principled and enlightened adult migrant language education. I’m currently writing a book chapter on policy and practice for language development for bilingual adult migrants, and I’m including reference to the Council of Europe’s LIAM (Linguistic Integration of Adult Migrants) resources: http://www.coe.int/en/web/lang-migrants

On these pages there is a set of guiding principles developed to help member states develop language policy:

http://www.coe.int/en/web/lang-migrants/guiding-principles

Anyone with an interest in language policy for adult migrants should take a look, particularly for what they have to say about the development of the dominant language of the new country as part of a multilingual repertoire, and how multilingualism can be viewed as a resource and not a problem. The principles might usefully feed into documents such as the nascent NATECLA ESOL Strategy for England, for example, or the Action for ESOL manifesto (despite the rather ‘one-way-street’ view of ‘integration’ taken). As the CoE authors say: “Languages are an essential instrument for building intercultural understanding and social cohesion. The language or languages of the host society into which migrants are seeking to integrate, and the languages which are already part of their individual linguistic repertoire, shape their identities as active, democratic citizens. A plurilingual and intercultural approach to the teaching of the language of the host society ensures that languages become instruments of inclusion that unite rather than segregate people.”

An example of one of the CoE principles: “VALUE MIGRANTS’ LANGUAGES OF ORIGIN AND THEIR UNIQUE PLURILINGUAL AND PLURICULTURAL IDENTITIES; their languages of origin play an important role in the integration process; in a plurilingual and intercultural approach to language provision it is important to show that these languages are valued and encourage migrants to transmit them to their children in view of their importance as markers of identity and an asset for the whole of society.”

All the best
James

 

James Simpson

School of Education

University of Leeds

Leeds LS2 9JT

+44 (0)113 343 4687

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www.education.leeds.ac.uk/people/staff/academic/simpson

@jebsim