An Empowerment Tool for Teaching English Effectively to Refugees: A Case Study of Syrian Adult Refugees in the UK

Abstract

There is a growing demand today to fill the gap in the literature with studies that focus on teaching English to adult refugees who are illiterate or have had interrupted education and no English proficiency. This group has been ignored because ESOL courses are not designed to serve their needs, namely, to be self-reliant and socially integrated. This paper shares my personal experience with six Syrian adult refugees, 2 females and 4 males ranging in age from 26 to 52, with either interrupted elementary education or illiteracy. They had no English language proficiency and could neither speak nor understand English at all. Their first language was Arabic. The rote learning approach was used as an empowerment tool to teach self-reliance in speaking and listening when dealing with these participants’ priority themes. The approach is based on memorization using both repetition and recall. Their remarks of progress towards self-reliance varied due to age and motivational factors. Four participants moved from A0 level to A1+, while the other two reached A2 level. Gaining self-reliance helped them to socially integrate, find a job, and gain greater self-confidence. Results of the study might be useful to teachers who are involved in teaching English to refugees as volunteers and to refugees’ organizations to shift from relying totally on interpretation to rote learning when specifically dealing with this group of refugees.