Adult ESOL in Multilingual Britain

A Seminar at the School of Education, University of Leeds
Friday 13 July 2012

Linguistic, political and pedagogic contexts of English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) are changing fast.

• Communication in urban Britain is suffused with the multilingualism associated with globalisation and superdiversity.
• Policy responses to superdiversity – including language tests for migrants and cuts to ESOL – are contentious.
• Practitioners have to understand language use in today’s Britain, at the same time as incorporating – or resisting – policy moves.

• Researchers and student researchers working in areas relating to language, citizenship and migration;
• ESOL teachers and managers working in: FE colleges, organisations providing courses under the Work Programme, and voluntary/third sector providers;
• Local government officials responsible for the coordination of ESOL provision.