Language Learning and Forced Migration: (156 Second Language Acquisition)

This pioneering piece of research on the situated study of language issues in the context of forced migration provides interdisciplinary insights into language as learned, used and lived by 12 Congolese refugees in Norway. It offers an innovative contribution to the field of SLA by bringing together structural, cognitive, social and critical approaches to data collected among the same individuals, these individuals being underrepresented within the field of SLA research as both refugees and learners whose experiences with language stem from the Global South. Their histories of mobility and their learning contexts are rarely reflected in theories and concepts from the Global North and this book thus makes a much-needed contribution to the field.

Table of Contents:
Contributors Acknowledgements Foreword Chapter 1. Guri Bordal Steien and Marte Monsen: Introduction: Language Learning and Forced Migration Part 1: Emic Perspectives and Learning Contexts Chapter 2. Marte Monsen and Guri Bordal Steien: Women, Children, Dogs, Flowers and Men: Constructions of Norway and Investment in Norwegian Language Learning Chapter 3: Guri Bordal Steien: 'In Uganda, We Collected Them in the Streets': On (the Absence of) the Street as a Language Learning Space Chapter 4. Verónica Pájaro: Scripts and Texts as Technologies of Refugee Governmentality in the Norwegian Introduction Programme Chapter 5. Marte Monsen and Marianne Eek: 'Because I Was the Only One Who Dared': Approaches to Multilingual Repertoires in Adult Language Training Chapter 6. Marte Monsen: Resettling Literacies: The Case of Sarah and Simon Part 2: Language Practices, Knowledge and Learning Chapter 7. Ida Syvertsen: Syllable Structures in English Speech Produced by Multilingual Speakers with Histories of Mobility Chapter 8. Sylvi Rørvik: Word Order in Additional Language English Spoken by Multilinguals Chapter 9. Gunhild Tveit Randen: 'The Sound of Asking a Question': Metalanguage and Crosslinguistic Awareness in Adults Learning Norwegian as an Additional Language Chapter 10. Bård Uri Jensen: Syntactic Complexity in Early Adult Additional Language Norwegian Chapter 11. Marte Nordanger: A Year Goes By: A Longitudinal Study of Verb–Locative Constructions in Additional Language Norwegian Chapter 12. Paulina Horbowicz: Pragmatic Development in Four Congolese Refugees’ Norwegian: Response to Topic Initial Elicitors and Topic Proffers Chapter 13. Guri Bordal Steien and Marte Monsen: Conclusion: Towards a Research Agenda on Language Learning and Forced Migration Index

About the Author :
Marte Monsen is Professor of Nordic Linguistics at Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences, Norway. Her research interests include multilingualism, SLA, literacy, language testing, academic writing and ethnography. Guri Bordal Steien is Professor of Linguistics at Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences, Norway. Her research interests include multilingualism, SLA, prosody and ethnography.

Review :
This book is a fascinating linguistic, pragmatic, and ethnographic exploration of multilingualism and additional language (AL) learning among refugees relocated to Norway. Particularly compelling are its insights into why AL learning can be difficult for multilinguals living in the AL environment and receiving regular language instruction, even when the AL is similar to languages they already know. This book presents a fascinating and multi-perspectival take on language learning triggered by forced migration, surely one of the most pressing and under-addressed issues in language education at the present time. Its focus on how this plays out for multilingual learners and its location in a Nordic country adds to its distinctiveness. With this important volume Steien and Monsen initiate a welcome reflection on the specific language learning needs of forced migrants. Contributors throw light on a variety of themes: from the different learning contexts of migrants to the effects of official policies, from emic perspectives on learning to language awareness. These much-needed reflections provide a significant addition to the literature on language, education and migration.