English Language Learning Essay example -- Education, Gujarati Familie

The overall aim of this research is to explore historical and contemporary discourses of social policies of identity, assimilation, multiculturalism and sense of belonging in relationship to the ‘practices of the everyday’ (Lewis 2004) and to explore how the individuals make sense of their world through and by their experiences and practices of it. I will particularly focus on the area of language learning as a part of identity formation to find out how participants are involved in the act of making their language learning possible in spite of all the challenges. By this I mean not to reveal what 'really' happens, but rather to analyse participant's accounts in relation to the political discourses surrounding language, assimilation and community cohesion. Duke (2002: 42) argues taking a qualitative route in relation to researching social policy is essential when trying to 'delve into parts of the policy process which quantitative methods cannot reach. They have the pot ential to explore innovation, originality, complexity, interactions, conflicts and contradictions'. This research is, therefore, an attempt to find answers to the problems and predicaments related to English language learning under different political agenda and to demonstrate how these varying determinants had an effect on the process of language learning and identity formation of Gujarati women in the diaspora. THE CONTEXT OF RESEARCH: It is important to contextualise the process of identity formation of Gujarati women with what was happening in Britain in regard to race relation at both the time of their arrival and the various stages of settlement since. The 1970s was a period when many Gujarati families arrived in the UK as refugees or economic migrants... ...r levels of ability In English for refugees and other migrants to the U. K. by linking language ability with employment potential (DFES Publications,2010). Thus on one hand, the government is stressing the importance of English language learning, on the other hand, the funding for the programmes that provide language training is being cut. There is no doubt that how the migrant women learnt/learn English is shaped by these policies which had/have direct impact on their learning. This research aims to highlight the discrepancies in the policy doctrines and their implementation by comparing the impact of the policies on the process of English language learning of Gujarati women under different political regimes. It focuses on how identities are shaped as an outcome of the political agenda by the qualitative study of the learning journeys of Gujarati women in London.