On November 13, 2023, Professor John Ippolito spoke about an international comparative research project examining the (in)formal language learning and social integration experiences of adult migrants
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John Ippolito is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at York University. His research in teacher education centers on public schools and their communities, focusing on education in contexts of linguistic and cultural hyperdiversity. His applied work involves adult education as outreach to caregivers and educators and is increasingly focused on migrants and refugees. He is accredited as a Teacher of English as a Second Language, having taught in settlement programs for newcomers to Canada. He now teaches in the Bachelor of Education and Graduate Program in Education at York University where he supervises Masters and Doctoral students. |
John Ippolito’s scholarly interests are centred on minority populations in hyperdiverse societies. Focusing on teacher education, his work spans a broad range of language-related issues including Language Acquisition; Multilingualism; Adult Literacy; Discourse and Ethics. His ongoing interventionist research targets barriers between minority communities and schools with a view to broadened relationships among stakeholders in public education.
Adult Migrant Experiences of Language Learning and Language Use in Host Societies: Insights from an International Comparative Research Project
This presentation reports on an international comparative research project examining the (in)formal language learning and social integration experiences of adult migrants. It is set within a contemporary global migration context where language barriers can prevent full participation in host societies (Burns & Roberts, 2010). Conceptually, the project links transnationalism (Glick Schiller, Basch, & Szanton Blanc, 1995) to translanguaging (Lewis et al., 2012a, 2012b), thereby linking movement across migratory spaces to movement across communicative resources. Methodologically, the project draws on surveys of adult language learners (n=76); follow-up interviews with six migrants in each of three research sites (n=18); and surveys with adult education providers (n=11). The data were collected in 2021 from three transit or destination settings for newcomers: the Greater Toronto Area in Ontario, Canada; Erie County in Pennsylvania in the United States; and the province of Agrigento in Sicily, Italy. In taking a “migrant-centric” (McAuliffe, Kitimbo, Goossens, & Ullah, 2017, p. 175) perspective, this presentation explores three core findings: firstly, the vast majority of migrants report acting agentively in their language choices for reasons including social integration; secondly, migrants prioritize speaking and listening skills in formal and informal learning contexts; thirdly, translanguaging among participants is not a uniform tendency.
UofT graduate students and faculty attended the hybrid event. The discussion of the ideas and findings of this project stimulated many comments and much discussion that could have continued on long after our time was over. Thank you very much to the speaker and the attendees!
