Migration

The Migration Group of the RéAL2 thematic network brings together researchers interested in the different profiles of migrant learners, understood as people learning an additional language from the country to which they have moved and in which they reside.

The work of the Migrations group is aimed at further contextualizing language acquisition research to reflect the diversity of learning profiles and factors influencing their acquisitional pathways. For example, the departure conditions of the native country separate two learner profiles, those who chose migration and those who suffered it. Furthermore, the length of time spent in the host country (short, or long, limited or unlimited) would have an impact on the language learning experience (For example, Grieve, 2015). Indeed, students in international mobility (Study abroad, (Isabelli-Garcia & Isabelli, 2020)) make the step to prepare and succeed their departure to experience immersion in the context of the language (Coleman, 2013, 2015). Other learners are obliged to learn a new language in order to relocate to the new country following a forced departure from their home country (Adami & André, 2014; Alsadhan, 2022). Migrants forced to leave their countries may not have prior knowledge of the new language, and some are in a dismal situation when they travel. Often, they go through several migration stages (Stewart et al., 2019). Moreover, their departure is undeniably a source of trauma (Alsadhan, 2022; Mann & Fazil, 2006) and the arrival in a new country puts them in a number of difficulties, often through language proficiency, such as finding accommodation and employment (cf. Adami & André, 2014; Adami & Leclercq, 2012) and other issues that are key to achieving stability and resettlement.

While studies on students in international mobility (language stay/study abroad) have increased in recent decades, much less attention has been paid to work on long-term migrant learners or those from forced migration (cf. Isabelli-Garcia & Isabelli, 2020; Young-Scholten, 2013).

We are interested in different profiles of migrants: international mobility students, adult learners, adolescents or children in exile and resettlement in a new country, second and third generation migrants (also known as heritage speakers)... who learn the new language in a guided, unguided or mixed environment (Tyne 2012). The group's work aims to broaden the research on second language acquisition to cover these different profiles of migrant learners, thus allowing for the study of phenomena that have not yet received much attention (Young-Scholten, 2013).

The aim of the Migrations Group is to carry out a census of the current projects, to create a joint bibliography and to start collaborations allowing, among other things:

• to compare the acquisitional routes of different profiles of migrant learners , in different learning/acquisition contexts;
• to observe the influence of the language biography on the appropriation of the language of the country of residence, and the pedagogical consequences of taking into account this linguistic biography;
• to consider integrative methodologies (incorporating cognitive and sociocultural aspects of learning) for the study of these learner profiles.

Migration meetings are regular (at least once a quarter) and are organised around a presentation of the work of a guest member of the group followed by a discussion and discussion time.

Meeting Program

• Véronique Miguel Addisu (University of Rouen Normandie / INSPE, DYLIS lab): Actors of the diversity of languages and cultures at the nursery school in REP+: what we learn from the collaborative research LirMondes, 2 February 2024
• Delphine Guedat-Bittighoffer (University of Angers): Experimenting and evaluating a method for learning the second language/language of schooling among allophone students in school context, 13 November 2023
• Isabel Repiso (University of Salzburg): Spanish language of heritage: origins of the discipline, disputed ideas, evolution and prospects, 13 October 2023

Anticipated events

• Study days around the CLASS project (I. Saddour in collaboration with the Migrations group). Early 2025.

Dissemination of works

• Publication of a collective work and/or thematic issue of a review on the horizon 2026 in open science.

To join this group, know the list of members, explore the list of past activities, read about upcoming activities, you must subscribe to the mailing list:  https://groups.renater.fr/sympa/subscribe/real.migration