Foreword
[chapter]
Ana Deumert
2022
Language Learning and Forced Migration
In second language acquisition studies there has been a tradition of focusing on classroom-based acquisition. In the context of migration, these classrooms were for a long time of a particular kind: classes were off ered (frequently by non-governmental organisations), but attendance was not compulsory. The edited volume Language Learning and Forced Migration looks at classrooms of a diff erent kind: these are classrooms where attendance is compulsory for adult migrants; they are classrooms that
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... are embedded in neoliberal forms of governmentality. To me, there are interesting parallels between the project presented here, and the project Second Language Acquisition by Adult Immigrants which was coordinated at the Max-Plank Institute in Nijmegen in the 1980s (see Klein & Perdue, 1997) . Both are longitudinal in orientation, and both analyse the data collected from diff erent perspectives, involving a diverse range of actors and scholars. However, there are also important diff erences: the Max-Plank project did not focus on forced migration and did not foreground sociolinguistic perspectives. It remained located within cognitive-structural linguistics and did not show the multidisciplinarity that informs this volume. At the same time, the two projects speak to each other in interesting ways: they allow us to historicise the longstanding binary between tutored and untutored acquisition in the context of changing European migration policies (and research). The 1980s were a diff erent time: while entry to Europe was highly regulated, once someone arrived in Europe, there were no mandatory 'introduction classes' to attend, and as a result 'untutored second language acquisition' was common practice (what the current volume refers to as the space of 'the street'). The situation is fundamentally diff erent in 21st-century Norway (and much of Europe): the forced migrants whose lived experiences and language learning form the basis of the discussion in this volume, acquired -and continue to acquire -additional languages in Norway within a system of oppressive neoliberal governmentality. This system requires migrants to attend classes and to engage in various forms of tutored -and thus teacher/expert-driven -language acquisition. When reading through the chapters in this volume, I read them not so much as studies about language acquisition, but primarily as studies about 21st-century migration policies, and the impact of such policies on the
doi:10.21832/9781800412262-003
fatcat:flnbyglr6fdg3e2h4ioengopri