EdD 2nd Formative Submission - Updated

Garry Nixon

University of Strathclyde EdD

2nd Formative Submission 

Due: 21st November 2015

Submitted: 1st December 2015

Search Log and Annotated Bibliography

Section 1 Mind Map 

Section 2 Searches

Mostly in Google Scholar. However, where search results turned up a book, I would go to the university’s library site to check its availability, (see Reflections). I used Google for non-academic searches, and the library’s databases for law-based searches. 

Below are 6 searches which yielded initial titles relating to policy.  There were too many results in the earliest searches, and I gradually refined the terms to get 66 results on the 6th attempt. On the earlier searches, with many results, I would skim through the first few pages of results, to get a feel for them. 

1. *"English Language" "Asylum Seekers" Refugees Scotland* [Google Scholar, All, 2,260 results]
2. *ESL "Asylum Seekers" Refugees Scotland*  [Google Scholar, All, 260 results]
3. *ESL ESOL "Asylum Seekers" Refugees Scotland* [Google Scholar, All, 64 results]
4. *ESOL "Asylum Seekers" Refugees Scotland* [Google Scholar, All, 595 results]
5. *ESOL "Asylum Seekers" Refugees Scotland* [Google Scholar, Since 2011, 215 results]
6. *ESOL "Asylum Seekers" Refugees Scotland* [Google Scholar, Since 2014, 66 results]

Bonfiglio (2010) was found in a title’s reference section for my earlier, now abandoned, research. 

Turner (2009) on washback, (a matter I want to research), popped up coincidentally in search B. I appreciate that finding it by accident was not ideal. 

I needed to do a web search in Google as if I were an emergent bilingual myself to find information about immigration rules and assessment. I searched in Google (rather than Google Scholar for *UK Citizenship Test*. This took me (eventually, by a route whose details I’m afraid I didn’t record) to trinitycollege.com, 2015. I then needed to get authoratative information which underpinned the information I’d found in Google, so I searched in the library’s online databases to get to Lexis/Nexis and thence to (Butterworth’s 2015)

Section 3 Bibliography

My research involves an examination of the ESOL assessment of asylum seekers and refugees in Scotland, though I prefer the terms "emergent bilinguals" and "new Scots". 5 titles dealing respectively with background, law & policy, theory (x2), and practice.  

1 trinitycollege.com, 2015 lists catergories of visas with the CEFR level and appropriate SELT. For example, a sportsperson is required to have A1 capabilities in the Speaking and Listening domains, whereas a Minister of Religion is required to have B2 in all 4 domains, see (gov.uk 2015) for advice to those seeking the Minister of Religion visa. Legal research skills will be useful here: what is the statutory basis for these categories? What was said in Parliament and in the media when they were being enacted?  

2 Butterworths Immigration Law Service 2015 gives the background to the law behind the non-EEA economic migration system which gives us the Visa Categories. A points based system, (PBS) was introduced by legislation in 2008 and “has undergone significant evolution” since then, (Butterworths Immigration Law Service 2015 [1]). [NB I’m primarily concerned with non-economic migration, but this is useful scaffolding]. “The Government's fundamental objectives rooted in the PBS are to balance the need to tighten immigration controls and limit abuse of the rules whilst maintaining economic competitiveness in the global playing field.” Further, the PBS are designed to make the process transparent and objective.(Butterworths Immigration Law Service 2015 [4]).

Those earning more than £153,500 are exempt from language requirements. No language requirements for Tier 1 (Investors). What were the political thought processes and what lobbying was involved in these provisions? No doubt many investors and multinational executives could pass B2 assessments, but they appear to have been spared the inconvenience. Why?

3 Bonfiglio (2010) is important in informing my thinking about the situation of emergent bilinguals (see Garcia 2009) in Scotland, and the danger of their being "othered" by "native speakers". He looks at concepts of "mother" tongue, "native speaker" and arboreal models of language origins, and concludes that they have no validity when we put them against the reality of horizontal language acquisition, for example in creolisation. This echoes what Mulvey says about a two-way process and accords with my own experience of the reality of language learning and teaching; perhaps "two-way process" oversimplifies it - better to say that language acquisition is a complex but largely horizontal process. To summarise where Bonfiglio has taken me, I'm critical of the discourse whereby a new Scot could be regarded as an "other", a problem to be solved by the "natives". 

4 Garcia (2009) discusses the concept of emergent bilinguals as a more appropriate term for those residents of a country who are learning a language, (although she refers specifically to children, and the focus of my study is adults, there is nothing in her thesis which precludes adults being included in the concept). The use of the term rather than English Language Learner (ELL) argues for a change in perspective (not unlike that being urged by Bonfiglio) whereby we consider what the student brings to language learning, rather than seeing them as an object of instruction. It acknowledges that teaching and learning will continue in their L1, as well as informal classroom synthesis of both L1 and L2, and perhaps a third language. It also empowers learners as people who are becoming bilingual. This is relevant to my research as it addresses one of its themes, the power relationship between those who assess language, and those whose language is assessed. [NB, a search of "emergent bilingual" on Google Scholar conducted on 20/11/15 yielded 1080 results.]

5 Turner (2009) examines the relationship between ESOL provincial high school (high stakes) and classroom assessment practices as a study of the effect of washback. This is relevant to my research because having examined policy and law (trinitycollege.com and Butterworths Immigration Law Service) and theory (Bonfiglio, and Garcia) I want to pin it down to real classroom practice: how does the form that assessment takes impinge upon what is taught and learned? Are teachers simply "teaching to the test"? And this will be tied up with the theory to examine suggestions for improvement of the relationship between ESOL and new Scots. This may be the arena where I collect the qualitative data for my own research, though it will be in Scottish Further Education rather than “provincial hight school classroom practice in relation to the emergent bilinguals’ high stakes testing. 

Section 4 Reflection

I appreciate I’ve not been very good at keeping a track of my searches. I have referenced below the five titles used in Section 3, above, but also those other titles which informed my thinking as I got to grips with this area, most of which I need to return to for closer reading.  

Another issue is that my reading is still at a fairly early stage, as I’ve recently made a complete change in my research area. Perhaps because of this, or problems with  being methodical in noting search terms, but I do tend to get sidetracked. For example in researching the language assessment position of asylum seekers, I got interested in questions about language assessment and work visas - whereby a “Minister of Religion” is required to have B2 CEFR level as assessed, but someone working for a multinational company on a high income has no language assessment requirements to undergo. 

Both of these areas (Asylum Seekers on the one hand, Imams v. Corporation Executives on the other) throw up interesting questions about international migration and language assessment policy. I’m not ready yet to choose between them. This is why I wrote this submission for 21st November, but had to go back to it. 

Finally, the research seems to be crossing several disciplines, (Education, Applied Linguistics, Language Assessment, Law, and Migration Politics) all of which I’m interested in and have the ability to work with, but the overall exercise perhaps involves a lot of spinning plates. 

Bibliography & REFERENCES

Bonfiglio, T. (2010). Mother tongues and nations. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.

Butterworths Immigration Law Service > Division III Employment, Business, Investment-Related Immigration Categories and the Points-Based System > Introduction > Business immigration case law developments, (2015) Retrieved 26 November 2015 from http://www.lexisnexis.com/uk/legal/results/enhdisplayunit.do?level=2&linkValue=0&docViewState=defaulte

Clayton, P. (2005). Blank slates or hidden treasure? Assessing and building on the experiential learning of migrant and refugee women in European countries. International Journal Of Lifelong Education, 24(3), 227-242. 

Doyle, L., & O’Toole, G. (2013). Refugee Council. A lot to learn: refugees, asylum seekers and post-16 learning. Refugee Council, (January).

Garcia, O. (2009). Emergent Bilinguals and TESOL: What's in a Name?. Tesol Quarterly, 43(2), 322-326.

Gateley, D. (2013). A policy of vulnerability or agency? Refugee young people’s opportunities in accessing further and higher education in the UK. Compare: A Journal Of Comparative And International Education, 45(1), 26-46. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2013.841030

Gov.uk,. (2015)a. Tier 2 (Minister of Religion) visa - GOV.UK. Retrieved 26 November 2015, from https://www.gov.uk/tier-2-minister-of-religion-visa

Gov.uk,. (2015)b. Immigration Rules - Guidance - GOV.UK. Retrieved 26 November 2015, from https://www.gov.uk/guidance/immigration-rules

Hynes, P. (2011). The dispersal and social exclusion of asylum seekers: Between liminality and belonging. Policy Press.

Khan, A. W. (2014). Asylum-seeking migration, identity-building and social cohesion: policy-making vs. social action for cultural recognition. Contemporary Social Science, 9(3), 285-297.

Mulvey, G., & Council, S. R. (2013). In search of normality: Refugee integration in Scotland. Structure, 5, 6.

Mulvey, G. (2015). Refugee Integration Policy: The Effects of UK Policy-Making on Refugees in Scotland. Journal of Social Policy, 44(02), 357-375.

Oca.org,. (2015). Ordination of Women - Questions & Answers. Retrieved 1 December 2015, from http://oca.org/questions/priesthoodmonasticism/ordination-of-women

Piętka-Nykaza, E. (2015). ‘I Want to Do Anything which Is Decent and Relates to My Profession’: Refugee Doctors’ and Teachers’ Strategies of Re-Entering Their Professions in the UK. Journal of Refugee Studies, fev008.

Refugeecouncil.org.uk,. (2015). Terms and Definitions - Refugees and Asylum - Refugee Council. Retrieved 20 November 2015, from http://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/glossary

Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) (2015). ESOL and Citizenship in Scotland. http://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/15463.html?style=white [Accessed on 19/11/2015]

Smyth, G. (2015). What languages do you speak? A reflexive account of research with multilingual pupils and teachers. Language and Education, 1-15.

Strang, A., & Quinn, N. (2014). Integration or isolation?: Mapping social connections and well-being amongst refugees in Glasgow.

Strang, A., Baillot, H., & Mignard, E. (2015). Insights into integration pathways: new Scots and the Holisitic Integration Service.

Trinitycollege.com,. (2015). Trinity College London - Secure English Language Tests for UK visas. Retrieved 26 November 2015, from http://www.trinitycollege.com/site/?id=3218&utm_source=jump&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=selt

Turner, C. E. (2009). Examining washback in second language education contexts: A high stakes provincial exam and the teacher factor in classroom practice in Quebec secondary schools. International Journal of Pedagogies and Learning, 5(1), 103-123.