2. The range of potential ESOL learners
2.1 Potential ESOL learners fall into four principal broad categories. Each of them brings a wealth of cultural experience and diversity to this country but this very diversity presents challenges to planning and offering appropriate learning provision. The categories are:
- settled communities, principally, although by no means exclusively, from the Asian sub-continent and Chinese from Hong Kong. Challenges include difficult-to-reach groups and problems with access to provision for new spouses (see section on funding). Some would-be students work long and irregular hours in, for instance, the restaurant trade and therefore cannot attend classes regularly;
|
Case study 1
Z. from Bangladesh has lived in England for 7 years but never attended an English class. She has a little spoken English but cannot read and write any English. She has a 1 year old child and 2 children who attend primary schools but has very little contact with agencies such as the school and the health services because of her lack of English. She recently started to attend classes at the local adult education centre after encouragement from a Bangladeshi community worker.
|
|
Case study 2
L is a Chinese person from Hong Kong. He is in his thirties and lives with his wife and two children in a city where there is a large Chinese population. He works in a the kitchen of a Chinese restaurant and has little opportunity to speak English at work. He works 6 days a week from late morning until 1 a.m. He wants to learn English to improve his employment prospects but can only attend classes on Sundays, his day off. He attends a class on Sunday mornings at the Chinese language school but is often tired and finds progress is slow.
|
- refugees, who subdivide into
a) asylum seekers, most of whom are very keen to learn and for whom the chances of effective settlement would be greatly improved by being able to begin learning English but who are faced by, problems with settlement, difficulties understanding the system, housing problems, lack of money, immigration status as well as general culture shock and trauma from their experiences. In recent years the highest number of applications for asylum have been from persons from the former Yugoslavia and Sri Lanka.
b) settled refugees with exceptional leave to remain (ELR) or full refugee status. They may have their status confirmed but many will have English language needs that must be met before they can gain equal access to education, training or work.
|
Case study 3
A. is from Ethiopia. She came to England as a refugee with her four children. She didn't have any education in her country and as a result was not literate in her first language. She joined a part-time class with crèche provision but found she did not make a lot of progress. She was worried about her family in Ethiopia and found the reading and writing very difficult. When her youngest child was at school she joined an intensive course. She now speaks fluently and wants to start her own business but still needs a lot of support with literacy.
|
|
Case study 4
A. is a young Kosovan male asylum seeker. Because of the Serb closure of Albanian language schools when he was 9, he had only 4 years of primary education. He came to Britain to escape the militia who were combing the villages in his area for young men who might or might not be nationalists. He saw several of his friends killed in brutal ways during the searches. His family was targeted; his father arrested and disappeared. He smuggled himself on a lorry and came to South London, where a cousin had been for 4 months, in the summer of 1996 at the age of 16. He was placed in foster care and joined a beginner level ESOL course almost immediately.
He was unused to the discipline needed in a college, or the behaviour expected, and his level of education meant that learning a new language, written as well as spoken, was a difficult task for him. He was on report for disruptive behaviour twice but gradually, with the support of his foster parents, he started to respond and learn. He did a summer term in the beginner class, moved to elementary the next term, and then onto a vocational course in electronic engineering, with language support from an ESOL teacher. Passing the first year of his course with flying colours, he is now on the second year of his vocational studies and is often invited to talk to new arrivals from Kosovo about the need to study hard and not be disruptive. He has moved from foster-care into a small flat with a friend and has been granted exceptional leave to remain
|
|
See also case studies 7 and 8
|
- migrant workers, mostly from elsewhere in Europe. Some of these may be here as short term visitors principally to learn English and so pay for English as a Foreign Language (EFL) training, but many are here to work and settle for all or most of their life and thus need access to ESOL1;
|
Case study 5
M is from Spain where she had a job in the tourist industry. She came to England to learn English and work here. When she arrived she could speak very little English so she joined a beginners ESOL class and progressed to the highest level, where she passed the Pitman Intermediate ESOL examination and also Key Skills NVQ. During this time she became a volunteer English teacher and realised that she really enjoyed teaching adults. She has just completed a City and Guilds Course in teaching languages to adults and now works as a Spanish teacher.
|
- partners and spouses of students from all parts of the world who are settled for a number of years and need to participate in the local community but are prevented by family responsibilities or low income from following intensive EFL courses
|
Case study 6
B. is a 25 year old Iranian student in England with her husband who is a PhD student on a 5 year scholarship. She has 2 children who attend local schools and would like to learn English. She is not allowed to enrol for classes at the local adult education centre as places in their ESOL provision are restricted to permanent residents and she cannot afford to pay the fees for EFL provision at the FE college.
|
2.2 Within these groups the needs of learners will vary considerably depending upon their age, aspirations, educational background, language background and aptitude for learning languages. To illustrate -
a) Language background:
the learner may be
- a fluent speaker, reader and writer of a language(s) with a latin script;
- a fluent speaker, reader and writer of a language(s) with a different script;
- a fluent speaker of one (or more) other language(s) but not very confident at reading and writing in that language/those languages: or
- have very few or no reading and writing skills in any language.
b) Educational background:
- could be anywhere on a continuum from no formal education at all to higher education and professional training.
c) Work experience in their country of origin
- may range from none through a year or two of self-employment in street selling or help in family-run farming to a working lifetime of professional employment in medicine, teaching or the law.
d) Aspirations range across and are likely to include a mixture of
- learning English to help with everyday life
- aiming to progress through the UK system (e.g. NVQs, GNVQs, GCSEs or A levels), particularly the case for many young people;
- aiming for progress in the labour market through vocational training, re-qualification, updating of professional skills or higher education.
Footnote
- EFL is English teaching intended primarily for foreign students who wish to improve their English for recreational reasons or to improve their academic or career prospects in their home country. It is provided largely by private providers both in this country and abroad and when offered by the FE sector in the UK fees are charged. ESOL is English for those whose first language is not English but who live in this country and intend to spend some or all of their working life here. It is provided free of charge through FEFC funded and LEA institutions.
|
