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‘I didn't speak for the first year’: Silence, Self-Study and Student Stories of English Language Learning in Mainstream Education

2008; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 2; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/17501220802158875

1750-1237

Kimberly Safford, Tracey Costley,

EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning

Abstract Abstract The paper draws on interviews with 17- and 18-year-old students learning English as an Additional Language (EAL) in mainstream secondary schools in the UK, where the students describe their experiences as new arrivals and their resources and strategies for accessing and learning English in multiple social and academic contexts. Silence and self-study emerge as key survival strategies for these students, whilst multilingual family and friendship networks play key roles in supporting their day-to-day schoolwork and future ambitions. In these student narratives, school policies and practices do not appear to take account of the multilayered nature of learning English for a wide range of purposes which demand the integration of discrete linguistic skills with culturally situated registers and practices. Although the UK daily grows more, not less, multilingual, interviews over several years with different cohorts of students learning EAL seem to suggest that their experiences and strategies have not changed. The paper reflects on how the mainstream classroom looks and sounds to such students, and how their voices might effectively influence pedagogy and practice in these contexts. Keywords: bilingualismEnglish as an Additional Language (EAL)language and identitylanguage learning experienceslanguage learning strategiesmultilingualism Notes 1. These student accounts in relation to academic literacies in university settings and widening participation in UK higher education are discussed in Leung and Safford (2005 Leung , C. and Safford , K. 2005 Non-traditional students in higher education: English as an Additional Language and literacies . In B.V. Street Literacies Across Educational Contexts: Mediating Learning and Teaching (pp. 303 – 324 ). Philadelphia : Caslon Publishing . [Google Scholar]) and Safford and Costley (2006 Safford , K. and Costley , T. 2006 'I try to open my ears': Experiences and strategies of students learning English as an Additional language and studying for higher education . NALDIC Occasional Paper 20 . Luton : NALDIC . [Google Scholar]). 2. All of the students quoted here have been given pseudonyms. 3. Bruner (1994: 53) wrote that 'We become who we are through telling stories about our lives and living the stories we tell.' 4. In this paper, Street's third conceptualisation of literacy is Academic Literacy. For this paper we find the notion of social practices more fitting to our purpose. 5. Advanced Level qualifications which prepare students for university entrance examinations. 6. General Certificate of Secondary Education: subject examinations at the end of compulsory schooling in England. 7. Interestingly Manson (1994 Manson , A. 1994 By dint of . In J. Flowerdew Academic Listening: Research Perspectives (pp. 199 – 218 ). Cambridge : Cambridge University Press . [Google Scholar]) has documented this same approach among PhD and MBA students with EAL.