La personación en los recursos de inconstitucionalidad y las alegaciones de las partes en el

As was mentioned in the previous section, when a family moves country to undertake English language learning they must contend with many challenges.

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Another dimension of the move that requires attention is the role of English within the family and it is apparent from the data that this requires negotiation at each stage of the family experience and renegotiation when contexts change. The issues faced are different at each stage of the families‟ journey with the WCHO, but also have a

temporal ordering that reflects not only the level of proficiency in English that parent and children have achieved, but also the roles they are fulfilling with the WCHO and the context in which they are living.

During the period when the family is training in another county, there is an

expectation that the children will also develop EL skills while their parents study and this is regarded as a priority for the family. Overall, the experience of living in another country to learn English was considered by respondents as a positive

experience for families as they concluded that their children adapted well. Although there were initially challenges adjusting as described above, when interviewed after nine months in the country, these had mostly been resolved. They had found that living in an inner circle country, it was easier for them as a family to speak English and a number observed that their children were now more fluent in English than they themselves were:“I think my children had a very good experience here. They didn't know English at all, but, now they can speak English better than us... They like to speak English” (I 7). Parents noted feelings of pride at their children‟s English language development and their confidence using the language, mentioning

particularly that their children‟s pronunciation was good, as the respondent remarks

in the following extract:

He is already greeting people first and approaching them saying, "Look at my car!” I'm proud of my son because he just very young but his

pronunciation is quite good. He makes sentences very well. I think it‟s a

good time to learn English. (I 9)

For those recently arrived in their COS, the role of English requires renegotiating in the new context. Of foremost concern to parents at this stage is that children will lose their mother tongue, most being surrounded by English in their COS. Parents were anxious to maintain their children‟s L1 and to do so chose to use their mother tongue in the home rather than English. In their COS, their children have many opportunities to speak English, attending international schools and having

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involvement in WCHO team activities on a regular basis, all of which are in English. These parents noted the importance of preserving their mother tongue as their

family‟s first language; the overall concern was to ensure the smoothest possible integration of their children into their home culture in the future, once the family returned from working overseas.

For those who had been in their COS for a longer period of time and were well settled, English had become part of their life together as a family, so much so that it was difficult to determine the affects of English upon the family, as PW 15 explains, “English is not just impacts on our life. It has become a part of our life. So it‟s hard to answer specifically”(PW 15). English, rather than being regarded as a separate element, had become integral to their lives. For families where both English and at least one other language are spoken, utilising English is a natural, routine and fundamental part of their lives. Working as they do in a context that has

international influences, English has also become “required and not an option” (PW 11) for not just the parents working with the WCHO, but for the family. Families integrate English into their way of life, to be utilised as necessary along with other languages, while maintaining their L1: “We can communicate in English within our family, if we want... However, because we wanted to make sure our children could speak their first language well for their re-integration into our culture, we always spoke our language and still do” (PW 3).

From the data, there appear to be three distinct phases of English use within the families of the participants. During the period they can be considered as involved in the Training discourse, families sought to learn as much English as possible. The priority that for all family members would develop their proficiency and to facilitate this they moved to an inner circle country. Parents were pleased with the progress that their children had made having faced the many challenges involved. The second phase reflects the period covered by the Transition discourse, where parents have fulfilled the English language requirements of the WCHO having achieved English language proficiency as indicated by satisfactory test results, had completed any other training required by the WCHO and had moved with their families to their COS. From the data it appears that the families of the participants in this discourse have many opportunities to develop their English language skills while in their COS

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and that the main concern for parents during this phase is the retention of the mother tongue as the family‟s first language to ensure the children reintegrate into their home culture on return. The third and final phase that was observed in the data relates to the Moving on discourse where families are settled in their COS having lived there for some time. In this phase English has become integrated into the everyday routine of the family; functioning well in the COS requires proficiency in English but having achieved it, English has a stable and an established place in the daily life of the family and can be used when necessary.

7.2.5 Relating to others utilising English generates contrasting emotions