‘Laugh your way to confident English’: A volunteer-­‐led approach to meeng the needs of migrants


Anne Smith Anne Smith is a teacher, applied theatre praconer and researcher. She developed the Creave English programme in partnership with learners, as part of her PhD at Queen Mary University of London. She can be contacted at annesmith75@hotmail.co.uk


The context


At a me when £45 million has been removed from the UK’s English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) budget, refugees and migrants face significant challenges in integrang into society. As a teacher in the field, it’s hard not to feel concerned about the negave impact on learners. As Paget and Stevenson (2014) idenfy, migrants have complex needs and benefit from an approach that is holisc. All teachers know they do far more than teach the formal curriculum – helping learners read leers from landlords and hospitals, translang sentences learners wish to communicate to their child’s teacher or job centre advisor and referring the most vulnerable at mes of crisis to other sources of professional help. Poorer mental health outcomes amongst BME communies, especially refugees, are well documented (Tidyman, Gale and Seymour, 2004). Eaves (2015) highlights the challenges facing those on spousal visas, despite high levels of educaon and skill from their country of origin and a Brish partner.


In 2005, before the cuts began, I was acng as a supply teacher, covering ESOL classes across three London boroughs. What intrigued me was how frequently learners were uncomfortable and unwilling to speak to classmates, even though they were meeng together four mes a week in the classes. Learner anxiety is well documented to disrupt the process of language acquision (Krashen 1981). I have a background in secondary school Drama and English teaching and knew how posively drama impacted young people in terms of their confidence, language development and relaonships with others. I was interested to see if it would have the same effect on adults. A colleague encouraged me to try.


From those early experiments grew a Masters dissertaon and eventually a PhD. My PhD focused on the facilitaon of belonging. Feelings of shame prevent a sense of belonging (Brown 2011). Shame is oen provoked by limited language skills and a lack of familiarity with cultural pracces. An intervenon provoking joy and laughter can be a powerful act of resistance at a me of difficulty (Thompson 2009) and can have a posive impact on well-­‐being (Brown 2009). I was interested in exploring a more holisc approach, which addressed language, cultural pracces, confidence and well-­‐being, increasing the capacity of the class to support one another. During this period, I was constantly told there was no money or interest in what I was doing. I kept on going.


At the same me, I was volunteering with The Open Doors Project, a charity which befriends and runs acvies for isolated individuals, oen with ESOL needs. In this role, I was meeng lots of amazing, passionate people, who were willing to give up their me to help people learn English, but oen without the skills to do it effecvely or the me to do any preparaon beyond a few minutes before the class started. As a result, it was a less rewarding experience for learners and volunteers. A combinaon of these experiences birthed what has become the Creave English programme.


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