Abstract:

This work aims at reporting on the work of a collaborative network integrated by a group of researchers from the University of Zaragoza, all of them specialists in foreign language teaching and learning, and a non-for-profit language training center for adult migrants at risk of social exclusion in the same city. The mission of the center is rooted in the now widely acknowledged view that the acquisition of competence in the language of the host country becomes one of the essential pillars in fostering the linguistic integration of migrants. The educators of the center, all of them volunteers, collaborated with the Genres and Languages research group of the University of Zaragoza in the design and implementation of a language program which should cater for the specific needs of the center learners. The design of this program found its theoretical and methodological roots in Second Language Acquisition and English for Specific Purposes studies and, following these tenets, the first step in the program design was therefore to conduct a series of classroom observations which, once analyzed, should help to determine the formative needs of both learners and teachers. The development of the communicative competence of migrants, which should facilitate their social and professional integration in the country, emerged as the most basic need for learners. As for the teachers’ needs, their limited experience in second language course design and the understandable constraints of their voluntary participation in the center training duties were highlighted. In the light of these challenges, the use of the Council of Europe toolkit (https://www.coe.int/en/web/language-support-for-adult-refugees/home), developed to offer support to policy makers and practitioners working to facilitate migrants’ integration into civil society, was deemed as an optimal resource for the design of materials. The toolkit offers information on cultural and language awareness and language learning, guidance on finding out about refugees’ language needs and planning language support and learning activities and a series of scenarios that focus on real-life communication and suggestions for interacting with the local community. To facilitate the practice of volunteers, and to provide access to a resource not available in Spanish, a training program was implemented whose goal was to familiarize volunteers with the toolkit. Training sessions were offered for the center volunteers which focused on the theoretical and methodological underpinning of the toolkit, including instruction in the basic principles of second language acquisition, on the implementation of communicative competence teaching methodologies, on the use of teaching strategies oriented to the development of linguistic skills, on the design of learning activities based on the toolkit. Companion resources such as self-access posters and audioslides were also created for future needs.

Keywords:

Spanish as a second language, languages for social inclusion, adults migrants, training program.