Learning English - The personal journey of seven Australian immigrants: The influence of social identity and investment

Abstract

The settlement and productivity of Australian immigrants are issues of vital concern. This book describes how social identity and investment influence second language (L2) learning for a group of seven adult immigrants who were studying English at a pre-employment education centre. This longitudinal study found that L2 learning is important for strengthening the identity transformation of adult immigrants across time. There were four main findings - that adult migrants have divergent and complex lived-experiences; that identity and investment differ among participants, depending on their particular path and the personal meaningfulness of their L2 learning; that adult migrants had limited access to the English speaking community; and that gaining reasonable English proficiency provided a means of achieving material and symbolic resources. The important implications of this study are that teachers need to assist L2 learners to improve their oral English, and also assist them to improve their L2 learning outside the classroom. Teachers also need to consider the lived-experiences and social identities of their NESB students when considering the content of an L2 curriculum.