Language education
Unlocking learning: The use of education technology to support disadvantaged children’s language learning and social inclusion in Italy
In Italy, more than 700,000 asylum seekers and migrants arrived in the country between 2014-2020. Newly arrived children including refugees and migrants need to quickly acquire Italian skills to succeed in school and society. To help address this urgent need, the Akelius digital learning application was introduced in Bologna and Rome for Italian and English language learning in the 2021/22…
2023
Unlocking learning: The use of digital learning to support the education and inclusion of refugees and migrant children in Bosnia and Herzegovina
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the number of refugees and migrants arriving in the country has increased from just a few dozen arrivals annually prior to 2017 to 95,000 between 2018 and 2022. This increase has put incredible strain on the country's education systems. This research presents critical findings on the implementation and effectiveness of the Akelius digital learning application in…
2023
Assessing the criteria for equality of the right: Refugees’ higher education from the perspective of human rights [Hak Eşitliğine İlişkin Kriterlerin Değerlendirilmesi: İnsan Hakları Perspektifinden Mültecilerin Yükseköğrenimi]
With the Syrian refugee crisis, the subject of refugees’ access to HE, which was only partially funded owing to donor reluctance, was prominently covered in the news, with concepts such as preventing the lost generation, resilience, reconstructing countries, and education as a human right. With the Ukraine crisis, the issue of supporting the higher education of refugees came to the…
2023
Inclusion of migrant and refugee children in the education system: Exploring and overcoming language and social boundaries in the Una-Sana Canton, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) has become strongly affected by migrants from the Global South who aim to migrate into the EU. However, due to the strengthening of the external EU border, migrants increasingly remain in B&H for a longer period making it a receiving country for migrants, 20% of whom are estimated to be children. Since education is a fundamental…
2023
Language learning and forced migration: An ethnographic approach [Språklæring og tvungen migrasjon: en etnografisk tilnærming]
Most of those who learn Norwegian in the Introduction Programme for recent arrivals are forced migrants. These are people who have fled their homes due to war, persecution or other factors that make escape seem the only means of survival. Through ethnographic research among 14 resettlement refugees from The Democratic Republic of the Congo in Norway, we have become aware…
2023
Welcoming refugee children with a moral, rather than merely legal, right to education: Ideas for a cosmopolitan design of education
In this paper, we argue for the moral and not merely the legal right to education for refugee children. National education in many countries is challenged by refugee flows and influx of displaced people. However, there is a tendency to think of refugee flows as isolated events rather than parts of the dynamics of a world society that national education…
2023
The migratory experience: Challenging inclusionary measures
This chapter explores how refugees wishing to attend tertiary education experience a language learning initiative in Norway. It shows how this ostensibly inclusionary measure, instead of supporting the refugees' ambitions, hampers their efforts and works to exclude. Through a collaboration involving five prior participants enrolled in language learning, all with refugee status, and three researchers positioned differently towards the topic,…
2023
Prevalences of mental distress and its associated factors in unaccompanied refugee minors in Germany
Prevalences for mental disorders within minor refugees are comparatively high and heterogeneous. To reduce heterogeneity and identify high-risk subgroups, we compared unaccompanied refugee minors (URM) to accompanied refugee minors (ARM) regarding depressive symptoms and mental distress. Furthermore, we examined associative factors of mental distress in URM on a broad scale. We conducted a survey with a cross-sectional design in four…
2023
Detention & deportation
Language education
Germany
Surveys & questionnaire
Cross-sectional study
Regression analysis
Vocational & technical education
Integration & assimilation
Adult education & training
Caregivers
Gender
English
Resilience & adaptation
Unaccompanied & separated children
Mental health & psychosocial well-being
Formal education
Tertiary education
With a little help from my friends? Acculturation and mental health in Arabic-speaking refugee youth living with their families
Introduction: Refugee youth are often faced with the compounding challenges of heightened exposure to traumatic events and acculturating to a new country during a developmental period when their sense of self is still forming. This study investigated whether refugee youth's acculturation orientation (separation, integration, marginalization, and assimilation) is associated with depressive and posttraumatic stress symptoms and aimed to identify additional…
2023
Combining Language Training and Work Experience for Refugees with Low-Literacy Levels: a Mixed-Methods Case Study
Learning the host society's language and finding a job are important steps for the societal integration of refugees. Especially language proficiency is a key barrier for the integration of low literates. Often language training and gaining work skills are separated during the integration procedure. We investigated a 1-year pilot program for refugees with low-literacy levels in the Netherlands, which combined…
2023
Language ideologies and stancetaking in refugee identity negotiations: exploring multilingual refugees’ narratives of language use in Turkey
This study investigates the identity negotiations and language ideologies among/around Syrian refugees residing in Turkey by concentrating on the case of two multilingual, Syrian graduate students who have been forcedly displaced from Syria and resettled in Turkey. The study particularly explores participants' metalinguistic narratives of their language choices, multilingual repertoires and identity positionings. We argue that everyday talk about migration…
2023
The value of Catholic early childhood education – the role of parents and kindergarten as perceived by Ukrainian women
The article addresses the role of Catholic early childhood education, the parents and the kindergarten in setting the developmental background for the child's future life perspectives and personal development. This research subject is analysed in the context of the situation in Ukraine, and the article focuses on how the respondents - Ukrainian female refugees - perceive the value of the…
2023
Where do Critical Pedagogy and Language Needs Analysis meet? English as an Additional Language for Adult Refugees and Migrants in Greece: A Case Study
Background. Language classes organized for adult refugees and migrants are heterogeneous. Students in these educational settings differ across a number of various aspects, including language competences, educational background and levels of literacy. Seen through the Critical Pedagogy lens language is considered not simply as a means to express or communicate, but as a product constructed by the ways language learners…
2023
Vocabulary Teaching in Refugee Children within the Context of the Greek Formal Education
The aim of the present study is to investigate vocabulary teaching in children with refugee backgrounds. The effectiveness of three vocabulary interventions-flashcards, pantomime, and use of contextual cues-is examined within the context of formal primary education in Greece. The improvement of the children's vocabulary is also assessed in association with factors related to the students' background as well as factors…
2023
Child friendship patterns at a refugee center in Greece
Since 2015, Greece has seen a large influx of refugees, resulting in increased needs for accommodation and education provision. As most newcomers come in family units, innovative educational measures were established to assist schooling and inclusion for refugee children. Schools provide opportunities to young refugee communities for initiating connections and maintaining friendships with local native peers. However, segregated accommodation structures,…
2023
Models for Organising the Education of Ukrainian Children Who Have Fled the War in Lithuanian Municipalities: Psychological, Material, and Linguistic Support
This article presents the situation of the education of Ukrainian refugee children in Lithuania. It analyses the political and practical actions taken by the Lithuanian state when, after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, schools unexpectedly received a large number of children from Ukraine who had not come of their own free will, having fled the war. This article…
2023
Implementation and quality of an early childhood education program for newly arrived refugee children in Germany: an observational study
Early childhood education [ECE] can foster the social-emotional adjustment and development of young refugee children. Still, the large numbers of newly arriving refugee families challenge the ECE capacities of host countries. In Germany, state authorities have subsidized flexible ECE programs for refugee children in response to this situation. The goal of this study was to examine the implementation and quality…
2023
Development and Implementation of a Nutritional Education Program Aimed at Improving the Integration Process of Young Orphan Refugees Newly Arrived in Portugal
(1) Background: Refugees are a population group at imminent risk of death, being forced to migrate to countries with different cultures. Many of the refugees are at great risk of malnutrition, especially adolescent orphans. The aim of the study was to establish a nutritional and food education program to improve the integration process of young orphan refugees newly arrived in…
2023
Social inclusion of refugees and asylum seekers: The role of public libraries in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area
Social inclusion of refugees and asylum seekers includes addressing their information needs. This research seeks to examine the role of public libraries in this process through the analysis of public librarians' perceptions. Based on the constructivist paradigm, the case study method, and the semi-directive interview survey technique, 16 public municipal libraries in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area (Portugal) are studied. The…
2023
Exploring the place of adult learning for refugees and asylum seekers in migration policy for integration in England and Scotland
Learning, particularly learning English is presented as a key part of integration for adult migrants in the UK. England and Scotland differ in how their policy approaches to integration include adult learning. This article aims to explore and uncover the ways in which adult education, particularly for refugees and asylum seekers is embedded and included in policy for integration of…
2023
Educational integration of forcibly displaced persons in the EU countries [Integración educativa de personas desplazadas forzadamente en los países de la UE]
The aim of this work was to study the policy of the EU member states on the educational integration of forcibly displaced persons from Ukraine and to identify its consequences. Interviews were conducted with forcibly displaced persons from Ukraine to six EU countries. The School Motivation Questionnaire, by Luskanova, and the Phillips' School Anxiety Scale were used. The hosting countries…
2023
Vocabulary recommendation approach for forced migrants using informal language learning tools
Learning a new language is a major challenge faced by many forced migrants. Current vocabulary learning curricula are not adapted to the migrants’ needs, which makes the learning process even more challenging. Today, the widespread use of smartphones among forced migrants provides us with new opportunities to collect and recommend the vocabulary they need. In this work, we propose a…
2022
Teachers’ ideological dilemmas: lessons learned from a Language Introduction Program in Sweden
In this qualitative study, we draw on theory and practice in relation to the concepts of fixity and fluidity in language education (i.e. the simultaneity of bounded, named languages; and the need to transcend language boundaries). We use data from focus group interviews to investigate the entangled ideological dilemmas facing four teachers in a Language Introduction Programme in an upper…
2022
Refugee-background students negotiating academic literacy practices in L2: a dialogical and nexus analytical approach
This study explored the academic literacies of multilingual refugee-background students who had completed some higher education studies before migrating to Finland. Previous studies have paid little attention to students like them. The research context is a pilot training programme integrating language and content studies. Applying dialogical and nexus analytical perspectives, the study investigated the sense-making processes of two key participants…
2023
Language learning for refugee women in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic: Restorative pedagogies for integrating to place—Perspectives from Scotland
As we reflect and learn from the lessons lived during the COVID-19 pandemic that severely disrupted our ways of being in the world, in this article we call for restorative pedagogies which can reconnect us to each other and to the places we live in. We present the language learning needs and experiences of four newly arrived refugee women in…
2022
Language learning and forced migration
This study of language issues in the context of migration provides interdisciplinary insights into language as learned, used and lived by refugees in Norway. It offers an innovative contribution to the field of SLA by bringing together structural, cognitive, social and critical approaches to data collected among the same individuals.
2022
Is the public library included? An analysis of local government documentation on the integration of forced migrants in Scotland
Introduction. Library and information science researchers identify public library roles in the integration of forced migrants into local communities. Here an analysis of formal documentation issued by local authorities allowed for an exploration of public libraries as services to aid the integration of forced migrants in Scotland. Method. In 2021, 23 Scottish local authorities responded to Freedom of Information requests…
2022
How liminality enhances conviviality through multilingual co-creations: Young refugees in the Netherlands
This article explores the multilingual creativity of young refugees in the Netherlands and the social contexts and situations in which it develops. Because these young refugees form an under-researched group, the authors build on different discipline-based studies on (young migrants’) multilingualism, super-diversity, conviviality, liminality and networks. The authors start with the collection of personal network data including languages used with…
2022
Conceptual metaphors, plurilingualism and second language acquisition: a refugee education case study
The purpose of this study is to explore the use of equivalent conceptual metaphors and the correspondent linguistic expressions in refugee students’ L1s and L2s and examine the possible positive effects conceptual metaphors can induce for vocabulary learning and retention in second language learning. Moreover, another aim of the research is to investigate the use of conceptual metaphors as a…
2022
Teacher’s beliefs and flexible language strategies in a monolingual preschool classroom
This study aims to examine teacher’s beliefs about Syrian children’s Turkish language learning and teacher’s language strategies in a monolingual preschool classroom located in a multilingual city, Siirt Turkey. This ethnographic study was conducted between October 2019 and January 2020 in a multilingual city. The data included fieldnotes kept during participant observations of children’s interactions and interviews with the teacher.…
2022
Thrown in at the deep end? Perceptions of burdens, gains, and contributions to the integration of refugee students among teachers with(out) target group-specific professional knowledge
In Germany, young migrants and refugees whose German language skills are not sufficient for attending regular classes at school are assigned to so-called “preparation classes”. As the name implies, the main objective of these classes is to teach German language skills and thereby prepare students for regular classes or vocational education and training. Teachers in these classes face special challenges:…
2022
Summer Preschools for Syrian Refugee and Host Community Children in Turkey: A Model of Contextually Sensitive Early Intervention
Research Findings: This study evaluated the impacts of the Summer Preschools Program on 5-to-6-year-old Syrian refugee and local children from vulnerable communities of Turkey. Developed as a community-based contextually sensitive early intervention model, the program aimed to promote developmental well-being and school readiness of children from forced displacement and abject poverty backgrounds by supporting cognitive, language, and socioemotional development prior…
2022
The dynamics of recent refugees’ language acquisition: how do their pathways compare to those of other new immigrants?
Do the processes underlying destination-language acquisition differ between recently arrived refugees and other new immigrants? Based on a well-established model of language learning according to which language fluency is a function of efficiency, incentives, and exposure, this study addresses general processes of language learning as well as conditions specific to refugees. Longitudinal data on refugees (IAB-BAMF-SOEP Sample of Refugees in…
2022
Protocol: Feasibility study and pilot randomised trial of a multilingual support intervention to improve Norwegian language skills for adult refugees
This protocol is for a feasibility study and pilot trial of a multilingual support intervention. The intervention's aim is to improve language training for refugees in Norway by introducing multilingual support assistants using the refugees’ primary languages. The research question for this pilot study is whether a full-scale randomised controlled trial of Multilingual Support is feasible, and if so, in…
2022
Challenges of migrant students in Turkish higher education
Migrant students, including refugees and international students who begin or continue their education in Turkey, encounter several challenges. This study aimed to identify the challenges that migrant students face in the Turkish higher education system. The sample of the study consisted of 75 migrant students from six universities in Turkey in the 2019–2020 academic year. Demographic information of the students…
2023
A Corpus-Based Comparison of Inclusiveness in L2 Reading Materials for Refugee Children
Despite increased emphasis on the role of inclusive practices and materials in post-COVID-19 classrooms and warnings about implicit biases against disadvantaged groups, the textbook problem has rarely been approached with equity measures in mind. This multimethod study aimed to investigate to what extent L2 reading materials, locally produced and used for refugee education in Turkey and New Zealand, include all…
2022
What works to facilitate displaced and refugee-background students’ access and participation in European higher education: results from a multilingual systematic review
This article reports the results of a systematic review on displaced and refugee-background students’ transitioning and (re-)integration into European higher education (HE). A total of 7082 studies have been assessed for eligibility in six languages. Forty-four empirical studies conducted in 14 countries of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) between 2014 and 2021 met the inclusion criteria. Evidence from these…
2022
An ecological, multilingual approach to language learning with newly reunited refugee families in Scotland
Although academic literature and Scotland's refugee integration strategy recommend multilingual, decolonising approaches, language classes for refugees in Scotland usually focus only on the target language (English) and are predominantly teacher-led. This paper argues that newly reunited refugee families can be better supported through an ecological, multilingual approach by presenting empirical data from a five-month teaching study using qualitative methods (semi-structured…
2022
Accommodation, empowerment and disinvestment—Typical second-language learning trajectories of Syrian refugees in Germany
This paper asks how refugees' second-language learning processes are embedded in their lives in host countries. To address this question, the paper proposes the concept of second-language learning trajectories. These trajectories explain refugees' second-language learning as closely intertwined with learners' self-understanding, experiences and positioning in host countries. Using longitudinal narrative interview data from Syrian refugees in Germany, the paper identifies…
2023
The VIDAS Data Set: A Spoken Corpus of Migrant and Refugee Spanish Learners
The VIDAS data set (Verbal Interaction Dataset of Acquired Spanish) presents data from 200 participants from different countries and language backgrounds (50 Philippines with L1 Tagalog; 50 Ukrainians with L1 Ukrainian; 50 Moroccans with L1Arabic; 50 Romanians with L1 Romanian). They completed an oral expression and interaction test in the context of a Spanish certification exam for adult migrants. The…
2022
Refugee Reception Re-examined: a Quantitative Study on the Impact of the Reception Period for Mental Health and Host Country Language Proficiency Among Syrian Refugees in the Netherlands
In many European countries, refugees spend their first period after arrival in the receiving country in reception centers. Though this reception period has been heavily criticized, especially in relation to mental health, few scholars examined its impact on refugee integration. Since host country language learning is the main focus for most recent arrivals, this study re-examines the impact of the…
2022
New migrants, new challenges?-Activating multilingual resources for understanding mathematics: Institutional and interactional factors
New adolescent migrants from Arabic-speaking countries face complex challenges when participating in regular mathematics classes in Germany: They have been educated in their family language(s) and are obliged to adapt to a new (second or target) language and to different styles of teaching. In contrast, 3rd generation multilingual students, who usually are schooled in German only, have rarely ever used…
2022
The Civic Engagement and Social Integration of Refugees in Germany
Civil society has played an important role in meeting the challenges of refugee migration in recent years. This commentary documents the importance of civic engagement for the integration of refugees by linking individual survey data on refugees to a regional measure of civic engagement in Germany. Using the density of newly established civic associations at the county level as a…
2022
German Language Acquisition of Refugee Children—The Role of Preschools and Language Instruction
Mastering the language of the destination country is key to immigrant and refugee children's educational success. Refugee children typically face the challenge of starting or continuing their educational carrier in a completely new context and in a completely new language. In this study, we examine the role of preschool attendance and formal language instruction in supporting young refugee children to…
2022
L2 French learning by Eritrean refugee speakers of Tigrinya
This study reports data on 47 Tigrinya speaking Eritrean refugees learning French. L2 French proficiency is assessed through the placement test Ev@lang, a standardized grammar test, and fine corpus analyses. Analysis of individual factors shows that, whereas school education, number of years in Switzerland, and French classes attended play no role in proficiency, age penalizes learning and, critically, multilingualism facilitates…
2022
Understanding the learning experiences of highly educated refugees from Iraq and Syria en route to economic integration in Luxembourg
This qualitative exploratory study sought to understand highly educated Iraqi and Syrian refugees’ perceptions of their learning experiences during economic integration in Luxembourg. This research sought to elucidate how these new migrants learned to integrate in a country with a long tradition of migration but little exposure to Arabic-speaking groups. Further, it sought to explore participants’ experiences of what knowledge,…
2022
Educators’ positive practices with refugee pupils at two schools in England
Extensive evidence indicates that education is an integral part of the settling in process for refugee and asylum-seeking children. Furthermore, it has been suggested that positive teaching practice with refugee pupils should be asset-based and holistic in nature. The present study examines educators' positive practices with refugee pupils and explores factors that shape these practices. Data were collected through participant…
2022
Towards more multilingual practices in the mathematics assessment of young refugee students: effects of testing language and validity of parental assessment
The study focuses on the assessment of young refugee students, and the role of language and parents therein. Low achievement at tests can stem from lack of knowledge of the content being tested. However, it can also be due to low proficiency in the language of testing. Additionally, poor communication between refugee parents and schools caused by language or cultural…
2022
Grappling with the transformative potential of translanguaging pedagogy in an elementary school with Syrian refugees in post-coup Turkey
Translanguaging pedagogies have been documented to support language minoritized students in various ways, such as supporting their academic learning, affirming their bi-/multilingual and cultural identities, and disrupting the colonial and monolingual ideologies dominating school curricula. Yet, very few scholars have pointed to the existing barriers in schools and societies hindering educators from fully achieving the transformative potential of translanguaging pedagogy.…
2022
Educators’ perspectives on translanguaging schoolscape and language education for refugee students in Greek educational settings
The past and current situation in Greece regarding the refugee crisis has created educators’ need to apply new educational strategies to address refugee students, such as the use of translanguaging, linguistic landscape and schoolscape as pedagogical tools. That is why the present study attempts to reveal the degree of educators’ employment of practices such as translanguaging and inclusion of students’…
2022