Repatriated and Immigrant Students From the United States: The Preparation of EFL Teachers in Mexico

• In Event: 65.024 - Breaking the Silence: Unprecedented Deportations and Undocumented Status Across Contexts of Teaching and Learning

Abstract

As deportations from the U.S. to Mexico continue under the Obama administration (Pew Research Center, 2013), many students are repatriating or immigrating as US citizens with a parent to Mexico. These children and youth have little to no familiarity with their (family’s) country of origin, may not speak Spanish or have only basic proficiency, and identify more as American than Mexican or Mexican-American. But most have a solid foundation in English and are positioned to use it as a resource in their new context. The guiding research question is: How are EFL teachers prepared to work with repatriated and immigrant students from a pedagogical and psychosocial perspective?

Language education programs are often approached in the assumption that language is either intrinsic or external to an individual (García, 2009; Hornberger, 2007). Terms such as “native” and “foreign” imply ownership or outsider status of a given language. These labels are usually grounded in one’s country of origin, ethnicity, and race, or assumptions about these areas. However, within a transnational and globalizing world, languages are practiced and performed by people across borders and regardless of nationalities or externally imposed labels (Pennycook, 2004). The inclusion of repatriated and immigrant students in EFL programs complicate this simplistic approach to language learning.

The data from the study stems from qualitative approaches (Merriam, 2009). Interviews and focus groups were used with a variety of stakeholders. University program directors were interviewed about how they develop programs and courses that prepare EFL teachers to work with repatriated and immigrant students. Semi-formal interviews were held with EFL teacher candidates to inquire into the courses at their respective universities that addressed pedagogical and psychosocial approaches to teaching repatriated and immigrant students. Practicing EFL teachers were also interviewed regarding their teacher education programs, as well as what they wish had been included based on their current teaching experiences. Finally, a focus group with repatriated and immigrant students was held to learn about how they have been supported by teachers and what else they feel needs to be in place to meet their unique needs.

The data comes from the perspectives of two EFL program directors, 10 pre-service teacher candidates from two universities – one public and one private, – practicing EFL teachers (5) and secondary students (5) who are repatriated or immigrants from the U.S.

Initial analysis of the data reveals that little to no attention is paid to repatriated or immigrant students in EFL teacher education programs. The crux of the focus is on Spanish speakers learning English as a new language, with some attention to speakers of indigenous languages who are not speakers of Spanish or English. EFL teachers are left to their own devices when encountering these students. Their responses range from including them as “teaching assistants” to having them sit out of the class.

This study seeks to add to and complicate the literature around the linguistic education of multi-directional and transnational students.

Author

• Tatyana Kleyn, City College of New York - CUNY