EL MOTÍN DE ARANJUEZ Y LA CAÍDA DEL MINISTRO GODOY

The active involvement of family members (e.g. parents or siblings) can play an important role in the transmission of cultural capital to the students. The transmission of such capital is based on two presumptions: the first is that the family actually possesses cultural capital, and the second is that they actively or passively engage in the development of their children’s cultural capital (Alhawsawi, BCDJ). The level of education among family members can be an indicator of the possession and/or dispossession of cultural capital in a family (Sullivan, BCCI). Family members who have obtained higher education qualifications are often seen to influence the nature of activities to which their families and children are exposed. Thus, family members with a higher education qualification (i.e. university degree) can influence the student’s learning experiences by transmitting such capital to the student (Lee and Bowen, BCCE). Having educated family members indicates the existence of an institutionalised form of cultural capital within a household, and that family members with a higher education background can transmit this form of cultural capital to the student. The existence of such capital indicates the amount of knowledge and experience among family members who have experienced higher

education, which can be actively or passively passed down to other members of the family.

In the context of the current study, the students who were exposed to an institutionalised form of cultural capital belonged to families with higher education experiences. This means that these students were privileged by being exposed to family members who had experienced higher education and who understood the demands of pursuing a university degree. These experiences were transmitted to the students. Data gathered from student and lecturer interviewees indicates that family members with higher education credentials (such as Bachelor’s or Master’s degree) positively influence the students’ learning experiences in the EFL programme. This is done through the transmission of knowledge and learning skills to the students, which are rewarded in the academic setting of the EFL programme, thus enabling students to succeed at the university level (Andersen and Hansen, BCDD). This positive influence is explained by the following quote from LB:

Students that come from upper middle class families, I mean, their English is much better than the other students. Why? Because those students have been exposed to the language, either because their parents were educated or studied abroad and they’ve been accompanied by them so they studied English, … so those students, of course, I mean, speak much better, far better than the other students, and lecturers can acknowledge it immediately from the first meeting.

NNES Lecturer B, Interview, Sunday D]th October BCDH

This quote illustrates the positive influence that families’ educational backgrounds have on the students in the EFL programme. According to LB, students who belong to educated families are seen to be upper middle class students. The data shows that these students come from families where at least one parent has experienced higher education (see Table B in section H.E). Interestingly, LB recognises the value of having educated family members and describes its effects on the students’ learning experience in the EFL programme, with regard to their English language competence. Here, he explains how educated parents influence their children, and states that these students were more likely to be “exposed” to the language, therefore, “their English is much better than [that of] other students”. He further

explains how lecturers, due to the students’ language proficiency, immediately identify such students. This indicates that the knowledge, skills and attitudes (i.e., forms of cultural capital) that students acquire from their families are rewarded in the academic setting of the EFL programme, which positions these students in an advantageous position to succeed from the start. LD illustrates this point in the following quote:

I think there are some students in the [English] department that do recognise the importance of hard work. I think they are most greatly influenced to think this way from their parents. Perhaps their parents are educated or might have lived abroad. Maybe that child has been exposed to different cultures. He understands and appreciates that hard work; most of the time, equals success… and that hard work does pay off eventually.

NES Lecturer D, Interview, Tuesday DHth October BCDH

In this quote LD also describes the impact of educated parents on the students’ learning experiences in the programme. LD states that students belonging to educated families “recognise the importance of hard work”. Here, LD attributes the students’ appreciation of “hard work” to their parents’ educational backgrounds and embodied values. Values such as “hard work… equals success” are forms of embodied capital acquired by educated family members from their previous learning experiences. Family support and encouragement have a significant impact on the students’ learning. S` explains such an influence below:

Both my parents are teachers. My father is an English language teacher and my mother is a Science teacher and they encouraged me to join the English department and told me that learning English will enable me to learn anything and communicate with different people around the globe…my father helps with some of my course assignments, especially the linguistic courses.

Student `, Interview, Wednesday DPth October BCDH (Jrd year)

Educated parents also influence students’ choice about what degree to pursue (Alhawsawi, BCDJ; Thomas and Quinn, BCCI). This is exemplified in the above quote. Both parents of S` are university graduates who have obtained Bachelor’s degrees in English and Science. This indicates the presence of an institutionalised form of cultural capital that reflects the parents’ embodied knowledge and experiences of learning in higher education. S` describes how his parents

encouraged him to pursue a degree in English and how they described the value of such a degree. This suggests that the parents understood the importance of obtaining a university degree (i.e., a form of capital) and actively encouraged their son to acquire such capital. This demonstrates the active transmission of cultural capital from one family member to the other. For students to fully benefit from such capital, educated family members must actively transmit this institutionalised form of capital to the students.

Additionally, the father is an English language teacher, which means that he has experienced higher education as an EFL student. Here, cultural capital includes the “first-hand” knowledge that parents have of being university students, particularly knowledge that they do not obtain from schools (e.g. university admission process, job market requirements) (McDonough, D]]I). Hence, having family members that have gone through similar experiences can positively influence students’ learning experience. S` describes how his father helps him with his linguistic course assignments. This active passing of knowledge and learning experiences from father to son can boost the student’s confidence and ensure his success in the EFL programme.

Likewise, SBC (see quote below) describes how his father had an important influence on his choice of degree. His father is an engineer who graduated from KAUST and works for Saudi ARAMCO (Saudi Arabian Oil Company). He speaks English fluently, which indicates the existence of an institutionalised form of cultural capital that demonstrates the father’s knowledge and skills that he obtained from his university education. SBC talks about how his father tried to persuade him to become an engineer. However, SBC did not want to do this. His father then advised him to join the English Language department at CU, and explained to his son the value of such a degree. Such guidance from educated family members can have an important impact on students’ future academic choices, in relation to the field of study they choose at the university level. In the case of SBC, his father was able to persuade his son to join the EFL programme at CU.

SBC further describes how his father actively supports his language learning, particularly his speaking/listening skills. By encouraging his son to practise the language, SBC’s father was able to provide his son with a valuable opportunity to use the language outside the classroom environment, at a time when many students at the EFL programme complain about the lack of opportunities they have to use the language in real life situations.

My dad had a huge influence on my choice of degree. He works for ARAMCO [the Saudi oil company] and he wanted me to become an engineer just like him, but I always hated maths in high school so he suggested that I join the English Language department and said that it was required in our society… he always encouraged me to practise my speaking skills with him and I hope that I can be as fluent as he is. Student BC, Interview, Wednesday DBth November BCDH (Hth year)

Furthermore, the students belonging to families with educational backgrounds possessed high economic capital. With one or both parents working in full-time jobs (e.g. as a teacher or engineer), these families are able to afford different educational resources to support their children’s learning. This means that upper middle class parents with stable incomes can support their children’s education by mobilising different educational resources to their advantage. These resources are considered to be an objectified form of cultural capital that can be used to improve the students’ learning experiences, which often results in the children’s educational and occupational success (Devine, BCDE, Lee and Bowen, BCCE; Sullivan, BCCD). Therefore, to ensure that their children succeed, parents use various resources, such as books, dictionaries, computers, games and different media programmes to support the students’ learning process. Such support is explained in the following quote:

When in high school my dad told me about the BBC Learning English website and said it was one of the techniques he used for learning English in college… now I listen to the broadcast, especially while I am driving.

Student BC, Interview, Wednesday DBth November BCDH (Hth year)

The above quote demonstrates how parents mobilise different resources to the advantage of their children. Here, SBC’s father suggests to his son a specific learning

technique that he had used in college to support his English language learning. By encouraging his son to visit the BBC website (i.e. an objectified capital) and make use of its wide range of materials and listen to its English language broadcast, the parent was able to mobilise such a resource to the advantage of his son. This active support from the parent also demonstrates how different forms of cultural capital (embodied, institutionalized and objectified) are transmitted to the student. As mentioned before, the father is a university graduate, which indicates the existence of an institutionalised form of cultural capital. Furthermore, because of his previous learning experiences, the parent was able to understand the value of such a resource (an embodied capital) and use it to his son’s advantage. Therefore, families’ awareness of such resources is key in supporting the students’ learning experiences. This example supports Bourdieu’s (D]`E) argument that cultural capital in its objectified state is only explained by its relationship with cultural capital in its embodied form.

In a similar example, SD (see below) is a second year student in the EFL programme and when interviewed he showed a high level of English language competency. With a native-like American accent, SD reflected on how he acquired the language. He describes how he started learning the language during his early high school years. Despite how he “hated” the language before, SD explains how he became interested in learning English because of his father’s reading habits. Through his father’s encouragement and investment of time and effort, SDD started to read these books and learning English became interesting to him. This supports Sullivan (BCCD) suggestion that reading is significant for students’ educational attainment, and that its effect is due to the provision of intellectual resources that help students learning. This also supports the argument that in order for students to best benefit from cultural capital, family members must invest time and effort to support their children.

Most of it [English] was self-taught…but nobody was born a genius or a scientist. I remember that I hated it so much. But then, I think it was in the beginning of high school that I took interest in it. Mainly because of my father’s comic books that we sometimes read together.

Unlike many Saudi students who often struggle to acquire their English listening/speaking skills (Assulaimani, BCDH; Alhawsawi, BCDJ; Al-Roomy, BCDJ), SD possessed the strong communicative skills that are essential for an EFL student. Having never travelled abroad, SD explains (see quote below) how he refined his listening/speaking skills by using video games as a learning tool. Here, video games are seen as an objectified form of cultural capital, and in the case of SD they were used as a learning tool. SD reflects on how his interest in video games fuelled his motivation to learn the language and describes how gaming gave him the opportunity to challenge himself and introduced him to many of his English- speaking friends, which offered a valuable opportunity to practise and improve his English language skills.

I am also fond of video games and I used to be so frustrated at a video game when I couldn’t get past a certain level, because the objectives aren’t clear to me. Or I don’t know it at all, maybe a puzzle…I also made friends with many native speakers during playing online and that’s how I got to learn, step by step.

Student D, Interview, Wednesday DIth September BCDH (Bnd year)

6.2. The influence of the family’s passive transmission of cultural capital on students’