Reflecting on the English as Additional Language (EAL) Learning Process of Two Refugee Pupils in the Context of the UK and Turkey: Teachers’ Perspectives
{"title":"Reflecting on the English as Additional Language (EAL) Learning Process of Two Refugee Pupils in the Context of the UK and Turkey: Teachers’ Perspectives","authors":"Shamsudin Abikar, M. Mirioğlu","doi":"10.33094/6.2017.2019.31.1.7","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Competence in English language literacy can be assumed to be an essential factor for the competitive market in the context of the 21st Century globalization. However, in some cases, pupils learning English as an additional language in same classroom are not homogenous due to their diverse background experiences (Conteh, 2015). For instance, in the UK, there are over 1.5 million EAL learners (The Bell Foundation, 2018); whereas, Cinkara (2017) in Turkey’s context, Turkey welcomed around 2.523.554 Syrian refugees. This study reports the processes of reading English by two Arabic native speaker pupils. Salah (pseudonym) 9-year-old, without prior formal and informal education who was admitted to Year 4 in West of England primary school, UK. Ahmed (pseudonym), 8 years old in Year 3 in a South Turkey school learning English as a subject, possible as his third language, in addition to Arabic and Turkish. The study aims to understand the ways to improve these pupils’ English language reading skills. Action research and structured interviews were used to collect the participants’ data. Thematic analysis was used to identify the themes of the structured interview. It was found that the whole-word approach when reading a word, is the preference for both participants rather than the phonic approach. Further research with larger sample and encouragement of cross-border professional co-operation to improve refugees’ Basic English reading skills is recommended.","PeriodicalId":244806,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Education, Training and Learning","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2019-10-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"International Journal of Education, Training and Learning","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.33094/6.2017.2019.31.1.7","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 1
Abstract
Competence in English language literacy can be assumed to be an essential factor for the competitive market in the context of the 21st Century globalization. However, in some cases, pupils learning English as an additional language in same classroom are not homogenous due to their diverse background experiences (Conteh, 2015). For instance, in the UK, there are over 1.5 million EAL learners (The Bell Foundation, 2018); whereas, Cinkara (2017) in Turkey’s context, Turkey welcomed around 2.523.554 Syrian refugees. This study reports the processes of reading English by two Arabic native speaker pupils. Salah (pseudonym) 9-year-old, without prior formal and informal education who was admitted to Year 4 in West of England primary school, UK. Ahmed (pseudonym), 8 years old in Year 3 in a South Turkey school learning English as a subject, possible as his third language, in addition to Arabic and Turkish. The study aims to understand the ways to improve these pupils’ English language reading skills. Action research and structured interviews were used to collect the participants’ data. Thematic analysis was used to identify the themes of the structured interview. It was found that the whole-word approach when reading a word, is the preference for both participants rather than the phonic approach. Further research with larger sample and encouragement of cross-border professional co-operation to improve refugees’ Basic English reading skills is recommended.
在21世纪全球化的背景下,英语语言能力是竞争市场的重要因素。然而,在某些情况下,由于学生的背景经历不同,在同一教室学习英语作为额外语言的学生并不同质(Conteh, 2015)。例如,在英国,有超过150万的EAL学习者(the Bell Foundation, 2018);而Cinkara(2017)在土耳其的背景下,土耳其接纳了大约2523.554名叙利亚难民。本研究报告了两个以阿拉伯语为母语的学生阅读英语的过程。萨拉赫(化名)9岁,没有接受过正式和非正式的教育,在英国西英格兰小学读四年级。艾哈迈德(化名),8岁,在南土耳其的一所学校读三年级,除了阿拉伯语和土耳其语,英语可能是他的第三语言。这项研究旨在了解如何提高这些学生的英语阅读能力。采用行动研究法和结构化访谈法收集参与者的数据。主题分析用于确定结构化访谈的主题。研究发现,在阅读单词时,两个参与者都更倾向于使用全词法,而不是语音法。建议进行更大样本的进一步研究,并鼓励跨境专业合作,以提高难民的基本英语阅读技能。