Working with Bilingual/Multilingual Adult Migrants

1. Working with Bilingual/Multilingual Adult Migrants Belma Haznedar Boğaziçi University haznedab@boun.edu.tr Erasmus + YouRNI Project: Integration of Young Refugees-Using Mobile Devices Leading to Better Language Acquisition and Relevant Career Guidance İstanbul University, Cerrahpaşa, İstanbul 23 May2019

2. Outline of the talk • Migration flows in the world • Literacy problems associated with refugees and migrants • LESLLA • EU-SPEAK Projects • Online modules • The Bilingualism/Multilingualism Module • Some preliminary results • Discussion

3. Massive influx of migrants in the world68,5 Million (UN Refugee Agency Global Trend’s (2018) report) Most of them comefrom many different countries and situations. Other countries include Bhutan, Nepal, and Sudan. (Eurostat Statistics, 2018) • Top 10 countries

4. Migration Flows in Europe Millions of refugees in Europe 589,000 1,029,900 378,100 300,800 414,700 (Eurostat Statistics, 2018)

5. Migration Flows in Turkey and the Middle East • Turkey: 2011-2018: • Turkey is the world’s leading country • 5,000,000 asylum seekers • 3,688,000 Syrian refugees • (Directorate General of Migration, 2018) • Over 40% of the migrants in Turkey, under 18. • (Şirin & Rogers-Şirin, 2015) • Lebanon:is home to the largest number of refugees compared to its national population • over 1,000,000 Syrian refugees • http://www.welfareassociation.org.uk • Jordan: 1,200,000 Syrian refugees • A survey of Syrian refugees. International Rescue Committee

6. Migration of peoplewithlittleformalschooling • Adult and child second language (L2)learners with limitededucationand literacy

7. Migration of AdultswithLittle Formal Schooling • 750 million adults worldwide (15 – 65+ years old) lack basic literacy in their nativeor any other language • 68million displaced persons; economic and other reasons • (UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2017) They are expected to integrate in the post-industrialised countries where they resettle. This means gaining oral proficiency in that country’s majority language and learning to read - for the first time - in that language. Their progress in literacy is much slower than their educated counterparts’. (Condelli et al., 2003; Kurvers et al., 2010; Schellekens, 2011; Tarone et al., 2009)

8. Who’s addressing their educational needs? In 2005, Literacy Education and Second Language Learning for Adults was formed LESLLAis an international, interdisciplinary forum whose members meet annually in North America or Europe to discuss problems and solutions from a research, classroom and policy perspective: http://www.leslla.org 2019 symposium in Pittsburgh (28-30 August 2019) 2018 symposium in Palermo, 2005 symposium in Tilburg, NL

9. EU-SPEAK PROJECT The three-phase EU Speak project has contributed to addressing the educational needs of these adult migrants EU-Speak 1 2010-2012Workshops by project partners considered all aspects of practice to see where a difference in educational outcomes could be made. Decision to focus on teacher training & continued professional development. EU-Speak 2 2014-2015 Surveys conducted on what practitioners need and value and access to specialist T & CPD; curriculum designed with six online modules; module piloted for feasibility of online international T & CPD. EU-Speak 3 2015-2018 Nearly 1,000 teachers and tutors on six continents registered for the free online modules in English, Finnish, German, Spanish and Turkish www.eu-speak.com • EU-Speak 3 2015-2018 Nearly 1,000 teachers and tutors on six continents registered for the free online modules in English, Finnish, German, Spanish and Turkish www.eu-speak.com

10. EU-SPEAK-3 focuses on the knowledge and skills of teachers who work with beginning leveladult immigrants who have no education or limited literacy skills. Module 2: Bilingualism and Multilingualism in the LESLLA Classroom

11. EU-Speak 3 (2015-1-UK01-KA204-013485 KA2) ended 31/8/2018; this presentation has benefitted from support by Erasmus+ and contents are the sole responsibility of EU-Speak 3 and can not be taken to reflect the NA’s or Commission’s views. EU-SPEAK-3 7 Universities 5 Countries 5 Languages

12. 2012-2018 EU-Speak Project, led by Newcastle University, UK Teaching Adult Immigrants and Training their Teachers ‘EU-Speak: Teaching adult immigrants and training their teachers’ and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the NA and the Commission. Project ref: 2015-1-UK01-KA204-013485 KA2

13. EU-Speak Online Modules Working With LESLLA Learners Virginia Commonwealth University, February 2016/April 26, 2017 Language and Literacy in their Social Contexts University of Jyväskylä, October 2016/May 2017 Bilingualism and Multilingualism Boğaziçi University, May 2016/October 2017 Reading Development from a Psycholinguistic Perspective University of Granada, February 2017/November 2017 Vocabulary Acquisition University of Cologne, May 2017/February 2018 Acquisition and Assessment of Morphosyntax Newcastle & Northumbria Universities, October 2017/April 2018 Project report submitted on October, 30th, 2018, accepted on February, 2019

14. Aims and objectives of the Bilingualism/Multilingualism module: • - be aware of the bilingualism of their ownlearners; • - cometo know about the complex linguistic environmentof bilingualindividuals; • - be aware of the linguisticandcognitiveaspects of bilingualism; • - create a classroom where the languages spoken by learners arevalued; • - choose lesson plans, materials, and instruction that exploit bi/multilingualism

15. Bilingualism/MultilingualismModule: • contributes to the professional developmentof LESLLA teachers in identifying potential problem areas faced by adult immigrantsand their bilingual/multilingualchildren. • Bilingualism: • a widespread worldwide phenomenonwhich applies to the majority of LESLLA learners, particularly those from certain parts of the Middle East and Africa.

16. Teachers • value the bilingual/multilingual backgrounds of theirlearners, • convey to learners theirexpectations based on the linguistic experience they bring to the classroom.

17. Theoretical and practical issues Content of the module Week 1: Types of bilingualism Week 2: Bilinguallanguage use: code switching;translanguaging Week 3: Linguistic and cognitive aspectsof bilingualism Week 4: Students as parents: their children’s bilingualism Week 5: Supporting the home language in the community Week 6: Biliteracy

18. Bilingualism and Multilingualism Bilingualism and multilingualism of learners • simultaneous bilingualism • successive/sequential bilingualism • receptive/productive bilingualism • societal/family bilingualism • heritage bilingualism • subtractive vs. additive bilingualism • balanced bilingualism • mythsaboutbilingualism

19. Bilingualism and Multilingualism Linguistic perspectives on bilingualism • Language development and linguistic milestones of monolingual and bilingual children, • What is acquiredearly, what is acquiredlater • Patterns of code-mixing and code-switching • Cross-linguistic influences and language transfer in bilinguals/multilinguals

20. Bilingualism and Multilingualism Bilingualism and cognitive development • Do bilinguals have cognitive limitations? • Does bilingualism have an impact on cognitive development? • Is bilingualismburdensomeforchildren? • Does the child’smentalspacegetlimited with the addition of anotherlanguage?

21. Bilingualism and executive functioning • Children gradually master the ability to • control attention, • inhibit distraction, • monitor sets of stimuli, • expand working memory, and • shift between tasks. Are the adults in your classes able to do these things?

22. Bilingualism and Multilingualism Neurolinguisticperspectives on bilingualism: Brain-language relationships • What parts of the brain operate during language use and processing? • Are similar or different parts of the brain activated during phonological, syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic processing of one language? of more than one language?

23. Bilingualism and Multilingualism Bi-multiliteracy • The role of writing systems and orthography in early literacy development • Cross-linguistic transfer in early literacy development

24. Bilingualism and Multilingualism Learners as parents of bilingual children Promoting bilingualism/multilingualism through heritage language maintenance

25. Bilingualism and MultilingualismActivities to raise teachers’ awareness • What languages do your students speak? What languages are spoken in the countries from which they come, and what status do these languages have? Consult http://wals.info/to find out more.  • Find out about the writing systems used in the languages that your LESLLA students speak. Get samples of these and add them to your map. • Ask yourstudents help you make a list of the languages they speak themselves and that they hear in their household and immediate community.

26. Countries of Module Participants

27. How many teachers participated from where?Over 25 different countries

28. Languages spoken by students in the teachers LESLLA classes (alpha and beta data declared on application form)

29. Bilingualism and Multilingualism: Activities to promote learners’ languages of origin How does the wider community support your students’ home languages? Try to find out from your students how proficient their children are in their parents’ (your students’) language of origin.

30. Bilingualism and MultilingualismResponse to Activities • Languages used in the household and the community • Teachers employed various methods to implement, including classroom questionnaires and interviews.

31. Analysis of activities in the module • Which module activities teachers take up and like/find useful? • 59% of the teachers have completed the activity called ‘Languages in the household and community’. Teachers commented that this activity fostered interaction between teachers and students in the classroom. • Teachers employed various methods e.g. classroom questionnaires and interviews to implement theactivities.

32. Which module activities teachers take up and like/ find useful? • ‘World map of languages’ activity • was foundto be useful to generate meaningful conversation with students. Not the majority of the teachers but somestated that this activity helped them to get to know more about the linguistic features of their students' native languages.

33. Which module activities teachers take up and like/find useful? • 53% of the teachers completed most of the discussion forum questions. Teachers commented that these discussion forums allowed them to gain new knowledge from their fellow participants • Many participants were new to online delivery but the reports were favourable.

34. Main reasonsfor participating in the module (alpha and beta data from application forms) • To learn more about literacy learners.To learn more about teaching literacy learners.To connect with other professionals. • My main reason is to learn other skills and techniques in tutoring ESL adult students. • I have completed the first module and I would like to continue. Anything that can help me to teach English more effectively is a great thing. • I am interested in learning new and update material concerning teaching English as a Second Language learners. In addition, the topics presented in the overview seem intriguing.

35. I would like to be able to help our learners help and understand their children. • I want to be more informed about how to serve these students better. Also, I will never stop being a student in my life, and I want to keep learningformyprofessional life. • I would like to learn about bilingualism and multilingualism as related to LESLLA learners. • I would like to keep up to date with teaching methodologies and strategies. • I have over ten years of experience helping low literacy adults who were Canadian born but very little experience with individuals from other countries. I hoping I can get a better understanding of these individuals and their needs. I want to do what is best for my students.

36. I think it will help me update my knowledge and learn new terminology in a range of concepts from emerging research relevant to bi-/multilingualism. • Ireally need to have a further educationin bilingualism/ multilingualism, to find more teaching practices and approaches focused on the needs of this public, to exchange knowledge with others teachers and specialists, to get more skills in order to help my students. • I am very interested in continuing my professional development in the area of ESL-Literacy to enhance my teaching.

37. Three majorreasons: • Supportingtheir LESLLA learnersbetter, • Professional development, • Connecting with otherteachers in otherparts of the world.

38. How will participating in this module change your LESLLA teaching practice? Wereceivedboththeoreticalandpracticalresponses: • Encourage LESLLA learners to teach their children their heritage language, • I can tell my LESSLA learners that their children benefit from bilingualism, • Greater value of heritage languages and bilingualism, • The module has given me new terms to describe language development as well as awareness of issues that may be normal or abnormal language development. • Share what I have learned with others,

39. How will participating in this module change your LESLLA teaching practice? • Greater awareness of language 'classification' when assessing skills of my students • Take culture into consideration, • I had fallen into working at different levels in the class but now see that others are doing the same more strategically. • I will be using some of the websites/ideas • Introducemore scaffolding of activities • I willmake sure that I integrate both bottom-up and top-down activities in my lesson planning • Moreplanning • Greater use of needs analysisShort course based around project work

40. What participants intend to do to cascade their learning • I will share some of the contentwith my manager possibly at a team meeting • Maybe give a presentation at one of the training sessions for the teachers at my school. • always willing to share class plans and ideas with colleagues. • I will be attending local conferences and sharing my knowledge with colleagues. • I am moving to a new centre & at this stage I will be the only tutor. In the future if the course expands and another tutor is employed, I will definitely share all of what I have learnt as a package.

41. Participantfeedback

44. Teachers were asked to list changes they have made/expectto make in their work with LESLLA learners as a result of participating in the module • Promotingbilingualism • Encouragingliteracyin a heritagelanguage

47. Participants were asked to tell us about anything else we should consider for future modules that would have helped

48. Everyone has a role toplay in improvingeducationfor LESSLA learners EU-SPEAK-3: a great step hopefullysupportedbycivilsocietyandorganizations Researchinstitutions, governments Toensureinclusive, equitableandgoodqualityeducationfor LESSLA learnersworldwide, which is often a collectiveenterprise.

49. Further Steps 1) Publications 2) Presentations 3) A Repository of Heritage Language Resources

50. Teaching Refugee and Immigrant Adults:A Focus on the Languages They Speak • Martha Young-Scholten • Newcastle University, UK • BelmaHaznedar • Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey • Joy Kreeft Peyton • Center for Applied Linguistics, Washington, DC • Symposium on Language, the Sustainable Development Goals, and Vulnerable Populations • New York City, May 11-12, 2017