Edited by David Mallows

This new book from ESOL Nexus is about the role of language in the integration of migrants. The writers of the chapters are all engaged in the education of migrants as teachers, researchers or policymakers in a wide variety of contexts and they provide us with a rich and thought-provoking array of perspectives from teachers and learners on language issues in migration and integration.

Through them we hear directly from learners, migrants who have arrived in a new country and are now striving to master the host language. We learn much from them about the place of language and language learning in their new lives.

This volume brings together a series of chapters that cast new light on this assumption, bringing to bear the perspectives of both learners and teachers. Several of the chapters are based on research projects funded between 2011 and 2014 under the auspices of the ESOL Nexus project.

In many of the chapters the approach is practical; highlighting ways that teachers can engage more successfully with their learners, fostering a sense of integration within the classroom itself. Other chapters provide a perspective on approaches to language and integration in countries where the national language is not English or where English is only one of the main languages spoken.