Tuberculosis y VIH

This section discusses research that investigates language learning and language related issues related to refugees and Somalis. To date, much of the research on the refugee experience explores issues dealing with refugees in the American education system. McBrien (2005) provides a comprehensive overview of the research conducted on the refugee schooling experience in the United States. McBrien’s review highlights the themes of the educational struggles of students with interrupted formal education as well as the identity issues that refugee students have adjusting to the American way of life. The findings, which synthesized 25 years of research, showed that teachers’ attitudes, school environments, and limited English proficiency were the greatest

hindrances in refugee students’ success. The literature points to the need for schools, educators, and the like to be more sensitive to refugee needs, concluding that there is insufficient literature that makes a distinction between immigrant needs and refugee needs (McBrien, 2005).

Due & Riggs (2009) investigate refugees in two primary schools in Australia. They utilize teacher questionnaires and observations on the playground to examine the assumption that central to English language learning is ‘integration’ of refugees, that the work of integration but be

undertaken by refugees rather than the broader community rather than migrants, and to explore the dynamics between English language proficiency and interaction between non migrant and native students on the playground. They suggest that schools need to move beyond the idea of English language acquisition as a requirement for ‘fitting in’ and argue for “education that is situated in global contexts of colonization and power relations” (Due & Riggs, 2009, p.55) in which conditions for inclusion are mutually negotiated rather than predetermined.

In addition to the studies mentioned above, there is a thread of research that discusses the experiences of Somali refugees. Fridland and Dalle (2002) describe a participatory program for Somali refugees using a community partnership approach to English language literacy that seeks

students input and empowers them to become involved in their own learning and adapts to the students’ needs. They suggest curricular flexibility that accommodates the everyday needs of students and advocate that educators must start with what the students know and build on the knowledge that they have.

While much of the research on refugees focuses on issues related to schooling, and the English language classroom, another thread of research consists of experimental studies testing Somalis’ ability to acquire print literacy. Research focusing on print literacy includes Tarone, Bigelow, and Hansen’s (2009) investigation into the relationship between low levels of alphabetic print literacy and L2 oral language processing in Somali adolescents. Their research findings suggest that differences persist in the processing of second language input based on their level of print literacy. Alphabetic print literacy affects oral second language processing and use in various ways. Literacy level significantly affects English language learners’ ability to accurately recall corrective feedback are given in oral interaction (Tarone, Bigelow, & Hansen, 2009). The more literate the participants in the study were, the greater ability they had to produce correct or

modified recall of recasts based on their own errors using English questions. Higher literacy levels were also positively related with the ability to recall, in correct or modified form, more complex recasts, those two or more changes from the original trigger question. The accuracy of recall was not significantly related to the length of the recast, particularly in light of the fact that this was a highly significant factor in previous research on more literate L2 learners (Tarone, Bigelow, & Hansen, 2009).

Low levels of print literacy affect the ability to recall oral recasts of grammatical errors and accuracy in decontextualized elicited imitation tasks. Findings suggest that lack of native language literacy impedes second language literacy and may also impede the acquisition of oral skills in a second language. Lack of literacy may make the acquisition of certain grammatical forms of the

second language more difficult perhaps because learners have less exposure to these forms which present in written discourse. Also, alphabetic print literacy improves verbal memory (Tarone, Bigelow, Hansen, 2009).

Their findings suggest an extreme need to teach alphabetic literacy skills to Somalis with low levels of literacy in their first languages. They add that

our study suggests that, because previous SLA research has not systematically studied the impact of the individual variable of literacy on oral SLA processes and outcomes, current conclusions about SLA sequences, processes and outcomes may simply not apply to less literate populations such as those we studied, much less to illiterate populations elsewhere in the world. Future SLA research studies documenting oral L2 learning must focus on non-traditional language learners and social contexts, particularly on low literate and

illiterate learners in social contexts beyond university and school settings (Tarone, Bigelow, Hansen, p.118)

Focusing on non-traditional language learners and social contexts, beyond university and school settings is a necessary factor in understanding the effects first language literacy levels on second language acquisition.

Another area of research that focuses on Somalis investigates identity. For example, Bigelow’s (2010) longitudinal ethnographic study considers the experiences of young Somali high school girls’ identity formation in an American high school. She found that these young girls’ identities were influenced by majority-students’ and teachers’ racialized ideas of them, for example one teacher would tell majority students to watch the Somalis’ behavior while she left the

classroom, creating a chasm of privilege. Despite this finding, Bigelow notes that the adolescent girls “persisted through many demoralizing failures” (p. 90) and were capable of navigating between nationalities, cultures, and languages. She concludes that “the way Somali adolescents

imagine themselves within their local and global worlds influences the meaning they find in

learning English, persisting through school, and envisioning options for themselves beyond school” (p. 4). Oikonomidoy’s (2009) study investigates the multi-layered identities of newcomer Somali high school girls as they navigate a new educational system. Oikonomidoy’s investigation of seven Somali females revealed that despite the experience of racial and religious discrimination in school, the girls were successful and desired to continue their education. They attributed their success to resources in their community, and the network of more advanced Somali speaking peers that were able to help them navigate the language barriers and experiences with discrimination.

Hopkins (2010) explores the transnational identities of Somali women in Toronto. The focus of the study is on highlighting the shifting indicators of belonging through the experiences of these women, and how their local and distant networks of Somali nationals make aspects of Somali language, culture, and dress have both positive and negative realities in their local context. She argues that the Somali women’s adherence to Islam and wearing hijab was an act of agency in identification connecting them to their families and cultures and providing them with a

transnational space. Another investigation into the identity of Somalis is Valentine, Sporton, and Nielson’s (2009) study of Somali refugees and asylum seekers in the United Kingdom and

Denmark. In particular, using the concept of communities of practice, they look at Somali

adolescents’ sense of identity in light of their forced migration and also their sense of belonging in their current contexts based on their religion, Islam. Finally, they look at how and if the Somali youth identify as British, Danish, or Somali in their new place. They find that these adolescents have a lot of tensions and uncertainty pertaining to their identities and sense of ‘Somaliness’, and provide suggestions for integration policies that may affect these youth’s sentiments.

Studies on everyday language and literacy among refugees are uncommon despite research that suggests that language is a primary and complex challenge for refugees in resettlement.

Considering her observations of Somali women, Hopkins (2010) remarks that “language is one of the most important aspects of Somali culture for many Somali women and is important in creating “Somaliness” (p. 529). Given the current research trends that show the complexity of issues that refugees and Somalis face in education, and that language is an integral part of not only

resettlement, but “Somaliness”, there is a need to understand Somali refugee’s women language and literacy practices in context. While the studies have provided insight into the Somali refugee experience by exploring educational aspects of language learning, identity issues among

adolescents and women, and first language influences on acquiring print literacy they have not investigated their everyday language and literacy practices, their perceptions of those practices, and how their life histories and backgrounds play into language socialization in their new communities. Nor have they looked at Somali refugee women’s practices through a funds of knowledge lens.