Language and the economy: Challenges and opportunities for complementary schools

1
Language and the economy Challenges and
opportunities for complementary schools

• Vally Lytra
• Kings College London
• vally.lytra_at_pobox.com

2
Antecedents

• The predominance of English and its importance
  for both our nation and as an international
  lingua franca are not in doubt. But alongside
  English other languages are becoming increasingly
  important to the UK as globalisation,
  international communications and labour force
  mobility transform economic and cultural life.
  Building on existing language skills and
  expertise is of direct benefit to individuals,
  fosters greater social cohesion, improves skills
  available to employers, contributes to our
  national prosperity and makes us better prepared
  to contribute positively on the global stage. As
  a nation seeking to play a key role in global
  trade and diplomacy we need to be able to draw on
  a diverse range of languages to further our
  strategic and economic aims and these are
  already represented among the languages spoken by
  our schoolchildren.
• Positively Plurilingual. The contribution of
  community languages to UK education and society,
  20061

3
Aims of presentation

• Drawing on interviews, field notes and
  documentary data, the aims are
• To explore key aspects of the emergent
  institutional discourse around heritage language
  learning as instrumentally beneficial articulated
  by key actors (school administrators, parents,
  children) in two London Turkish complementary
  schools
• To inquire to what extent this emergent
  institutional discourse regarding the
  instrumental value of Turkish linked to academic
  success in the mainstream, the attainment of
  educational qualifications and access to HE and
  the professions is being mobilised by key actors
  of the Turkish-speaking communities to address
  widespread perceptions of academic failure in a
  significant segment of Turkish-speaking youth.
• To discuss some of the challenges and
  opportunities this emergent institutional
  discourse raises for complementary schooling in
  general and Turkish schools in particular.

4
(1) Linking childrens language learning with
the instrumental value of Turkish

• Vally How important is it that children learn
  Turkish?
• Esref Bey ltgt London is quite a cosmopolitan
  city and I believe if they learn Turkish they
  get their certificates, A level or GCSE or
  whatever that is, they can theyve got the chance
  to get a job easily
• Vally Mmm
• Esref Bey in some way because there is quite a
  big Turkish speaking community in London.
  When they apply for any job it helps them to
  speak a second language.
• interview with education coordinator and former
  teacher of
• East London Turkish school

5
(2) Linking childrens language learning with HE
and professional achievement

• Vally What do you think is your biggest reward
  as youve been involved with this school for
  some years now?
• Asim Bey I believe our school succeeded its
  target, its aims because we have lots of
  students in University and some who have
  graduated already and who like my daughter were
  in our school. They were here from the first
  level up to A levels and the main aim I believe
  as Turkish schools was to help these students
  get through to University level.
• interview with Asim Bey, head of East London
  Turkish schools managing committee,
• parent and current teacher at the school,
  teaching a GSCE level class

6
(3) Linking childrens language learning across
educational contexts

• Vally What would you say are the aims of the
  school?
• Ahmet Bey The aims of the school is
  supplementary education. Ensuring that the
  children learn their mother tongue, Turkish
  language and culture. As you know most of our
  students in West London Turkish school come
  from mixed marriages. At home, most of them are
  exposed to English, at home and at school, at
  mainstream school. So we provide a service
  really, education for them to learn. Even if
  they already speak Turkish, they improve it. It
  attending Turkish classes actually prepares
  them for later education, you know to get their
  GCSE and A levels. It helps them in their
  mainstream education to go to University.
• Vally So you feel that the school has a broader
  mission not exclusively related to learning
  Turkish language and culture but a broader
  educational mission?
• Ahmet Bey Oh definitely, I think our broader
  educational mission is to help them with their
  mainstream education. Like this year, we havent
  started yet but from September onwards if you
  do come well have a number of things in place.
  Well start a homework club well help them you
  know in Maths, science and English for the
  mainstream school. Well do some sports
  activities and were going to start some drama
  and music lessons.
• interview with Ahmet Bey, head of West London
  Turkish schools managing committee,
• parent and Turkish language teacher

7
The childrens voices

• Dilek Why are you learning Turkish?
• Baran coz my mum and dad are Turkish and maybe
  in the future in my life itll be good to have
  Turkish for a job.
• Dilek Oh I see, what kind of job do you think
  you might do?
• Baran I wanna be a pilot
• Dilek pilot, ok, a Turkish pilot for Turkish
  Airlines?
• Baran yeah
• Dilek I see
• Baran thats why I need Turkish
• interview with Baran, 10, East London Turkish
  school

8

• Dilek Would you like to carry out your studies
  in Turkish?
• Ayten I dont mind coz no çünkü Ingiltere de
  yasarim. Daha çok Ingilizce böyle bilirim ve
  böyle ama isterim GCSE ve A level yapayim
  ltBecause I live in England, Im better at
  English but I would like to do GCSE and A
  levelgt.
• Ayten, 10,East London Turkish school

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Mobilizing the emergent institutional discourse
regarding the instrumental value of Turkish to
address academic failure among Turkish-speaking
youth

• a) tallies for a minimum of 5 GCSE passes at
  Grades A-C
• b) numbers in full-time education beyond 16
• c) entry rates to Higher Education and the
  professions
• Turkish Cypriot Children in London Schools,
  1999 47

10

• Esref Bey, the educational coordinator,
  emphasizes the need for the children to know what
  he calls their mother tongue referring to
  Turkish. He points at us the researchers sitting
  in the audience and references our work when he
  tells the audience that bilingual children can be
  more successful in their studies than
  monolingual children provided they are equally
  proficient in both languages. He then recounts
  his experience as a mainstream school teacher
  where he observed that almost no Turkish children
  took part in extracurricular activities organised
  by the school. He tells his audience that he
  investigated the reason behind this and found
  that either the children could not cope with the
  level of English required or their parents did
  not encourage them to take part. One mother takes
  the floor agreeing with Esref Bey and adding that
  Turkish parents only care about earning money and
  do not care about their children. She further
  elaborates saying that when a child asks his mum
  to take him to extracurricular activities his mum
  usually declines saying I am working. I cant
  take you. Esref Bey expresses his disappointment
  and says There are about 30,000 Turkish
  children in mainstream school. Why dont we care
  about them? Why cant we produce artists,
  musicians, swimmers and sportsmen? Are we all
  going to be make and sell kebabs? Dont get me
  wrong Im not putting down this profession but we
  need to encourage our children to take part in
  sports, music and art activities. Ertanç Bey, a
  member of the schools managing committee and the
  Turkish Language, Culture and Education
  Consortium takes the floor and says There are
  very successful Turkish and Turkish-Cypriot men
  and women in the UK but sadly they are not in
  touch with their community. We, as the Turkish
  Language, Culture and Education Consortium will
  bring them here to this school and introduce them
  to you.
• field notes 27/05/06, East London Turkish
  School

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Challenges and opportunities for complementary
schools

• Limited resources
• On-going training of teachers
• Designing the necessary curriculum and teaching
  materials
• For Turkish complementary schools in particular,
  managing linguistic and cultural diversity and
  combating discourses of semilingualism
  associated with childrens use of regional and
  diasporic varieties of Turkish.
• Establishing closer links and partnerships with
  mainstream schools on an equal footing
• Disseminating some of the good learning and
  teaching classroom practices and the valorisation
  of the childrens full linguistic and cultural
  repertoires.

12
Selected references

• Creese, A., Baraç, T., Bhatt, A., Blackledge,.
  A., Hamid, S., Lytra, V., Martin, P., Li Wei, Wu,
  C.-J. and D. Yagcioglu-Ali. Investigating
  Multilingualism in Complementary schools in Four
  Communities. University of Birmingham, 2008.
• Conteh, J., Martin, P. L. Halvaara Robertson
  (eds.) Multilingual Learning Stories from Schools
  and Communities in Britain. Stoke-on-Trent
  Trentham, 2007.
• Francis, B., Archer, L. A. Mau. Chinese
  complementary school pupils social and
  educational subjectivities. In Lytra, V. P.
  Martin (eds), Sites of Multilingualism.
  Complementary Schools in Britain Today.
  Stoke-on-Trent Trentham, forthcoming 2010.
• Lytra, V. T. Baraç with Creese, A., Bhatt, A.,
  Blackledge,. A., Hamid, S., Martin, P., Li Wei,
  Wu, C.-J. and D. Yagcioglu-Ali. Language
  practices, language ideologies and identity
  construction in London Turkish Complementary
  schools. In Multilingualism and Identities
  across Contexts Cross-disciplinary Perspectives
  on Turkish speaking Youth in Europe. In Lytra,
  V. J.N. JØrgensen. Copenhagen Studies in
  Bilingualism, University of Copenhagen. Vol 45,
  2008 15-43.
• Positively Plurilingual. The contribution of
  Community Languages to UK education and society.
  CILT, 2006.
• Turkish Cypriot Children in London Schools. A
  report for the Turkish Cypriot Forum by the
  International Centre for Intercultural Studies
  and the Culture, Communication and Societies
  Group, Institute of Education, University of
  London, 1999.