The Non-Literate ‘Other’: The Gendered Narratives of Indian and Pakistani Female Migrant Spouses with emerging English language and literacy skills

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Bowman, Alicia (2022) The Non-Literate ‘Other’: The Gendered Narratives of Indian and Pakistani Female Migrant Spouses with emerging English language and literacy skills. EdD thesis, University of Nottingham.

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Abstract

Adult migrant women with limited formal schooling or emerging English language and literacy skills (known as LESLLA learners) face formidable challenges not only in their personal lives, but also in their efforts to improve their English language and literacy skills in a hyper-literate society that expects migrants to be proficient in the language to demonstrate their willingness to integrate and belong. The presence of these learners in institutions where practitioners are skilled at teaching students from either literacy-based cultures or those already literate in a language other than English, presents various challenges for Further Education (FE) lecturers. Despite these challenges, LESLLA learners remain an under-researched group of students in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) and English Language Teaching (ELT) studies, in particular with regards to research that focuses on LESLLA women, learners who have been discursively produced within the wider media and policy landscape as passive victims of oppression in need of empowerment; incapable or ignorant learners; and migrants reluctant to learn English.

This cross-linguistic and cross-cultural study was designed to provide a counter-story to this deficit view. It contributes to knowledge by giving visibility to the voices of seven emergent-English speaking and emerging-literate female migrant spouses from India and Pakistan. A theoretical fusion of the Community Cultural Wealth framework (Yosso, 2005) and the Capability Approach (Sen, 1999; Nussbaum, 2000) was used to examine the role education plays in the women’s lives, highlight their knowledge and assets and identify the complex ways in which their lives, educational experiences and aspirations are shaped by broader social, cultural, and institutional contexts.

Item Type: Thesis (University of Nottingham only) (EdD)
Supervisors: McLean, Monica
Jones, Susan
Keywords: LESLLA, English as a second language, second language acquisition, migrant women
Subjects: P Language and literature > P Philology. Linguistics
P Language and literature > PE English
Faculties/Schools: UK Campuses > Faculty of Social Sciences, Law and Education > School of Education
Item ID: 71544
Depositing User: Bowman, Alicia
Date Deposited: 01 Nov 2023 15:27
Last Modified: 01 Nov 2023 15:27
URI: https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/id/eprint/71544

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