Keynote at the 1st mInclusion conference, with a focus on the use of innovative applications and personal mobile technologies to support language learning and inclusion among migrants and host societies.

1. Personal challenges in social
integration and inclusion
Agnes Kukulska-Hulme
Institute of Educational Technology
Keynote at the 1st mInclusion project
conference, Göteborg, 12 June 2017

2. “I arrived at Heathrow airport unable to speak more
than 100 words of English and promptly became lost
on the London Underground for six hours.
Then, taking the coach up to Glasgow, I
misunderstood the meaning of a ‘rest stop’ and
mistakenly disembarked in Birmingham. Four days it
took me to journey to Scotland…”
Bashir Makhoul, vice-chancellor of the University of the
Creative Arts, recounting his personal experiences as a young
man arriving in the UK, Times Higher Education, 18/05/17
A starting point is knowing the language…
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Understanding learners’ self-initiated
or self-directed practices

4. Next generation designs for informal mobile-
supported language learning (2012)
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Conceptual framework for next generation designs (Kukulska-Hulme, 2012, p. 9)

5. EU FP7 project 2012-15
Mobile devices can help recent immigrants
with social inclusion, employability and
language learning
Language learning in daily
life for social inclusion

6. Main tools and services developed for the
MASELTOV prototype app
Navigation
guides
Game
Language learning
Information
resources
Finding
local help
Social
network
Translation

7. Mobile Situated Language Learning
A set of mobile lessons produced for the project by Pearson Publishing
Situationally-useful language, based on active
learning
6 structured modules
Delivered in 3 languages
Spanish  English
Arabic  English
Turkish  German

8. Weekly survey:
“Write 3 words or phrases to describe your experience”
A thread in the Social Forum:
I am pregnant and you can imagine already :)
(using the app) has been funny but productive,
and I can't wait for my husband to come with
me, so I am writing questions before I go and I
will ask (the doctor) to speak slowly. Ha ha ha I
will bring my mobile on the day of the birth!

9. SALSA: Sensors and apps
for language in smart areas
SALSA app triggered dialogue-based scenarios around 27 locations in Milton
Keynes, UK
Learners could:
• Listen to a dialogue, read the transcript
• Learn some vocabulary and grammar
• Get language tips (e.g. idioms and phrases)
• Get recommendations for further activities/practice
Used by English language learners from the local Adult Continuing Education Centre

10. • Participants were given a map of the town and asked to
annotate locations where they encountered language
challenges
• Participants wanted to learn ‘what a local would say in this
situation’
• Tutors suggested sites related to citizenship test
knowledge
These ideas were used to draw up a list of sites for triggering
learning activities.
Fitting in versus Learning – a field study
with SALSA app users
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Reference:
Gaved, M and Peasgood, A 2017 Fitting in Versus Learning: A Challenge for
Migrants Learning Languages Using Smartphones. Journal of Interactive Media in
Education, 2017(1): 1, pp. 1–13
Social and cultural influences affected actual use:
• constraints in where beacons could be placed around town
• conspicuous use of smartphones as learning aids can make learners stand
out as “outsiders”

11. What might be missing from current apps or
resources for migrants - from language perspective
• Information for migrants about diverse communities and
languages used locally
• Opportunities to practise the target language with locals
• Opportunity to listen to different local accents
• Up to date public notices and announcements
• Understanding racial insults
• How to respond to emergencies or unusual occurrences in
public places
• Being a help or a resource for others in need
• Acting as a group, talking about collective experiences or
collective needs
realenglishspeaker.com

12. Refugee Journeys:
Smartphones and Social Media
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- As Horn (2015) suggests, it is difficult for an app…to
keep up to date with problems such as “closed
borders in Hungary, arson at Swedish refugee centres,
or widespread isolationism among the French in the
face of humanitarian crises”…
- Horn sees apps as powerless in the face of intractable
political issues.
+ Good practices:
Crisis Info Hub Google app - provides help and useful
information to people in need and in danger
Infomobile Welcome 2 Europe - networks of activists
and tech resources; information to avoid danger
The Village of All-together - non-digital network of local
people and self-organised reception camp
Reference:
Gillespie, M. et al. (2016) Mapping Refugee Media Journeys. Research
report. The Open University/France Médias Monde

13. Case study on everyday literary practices at home
• Individual, home and community literacy competencies are often overlooked
in adult literacy education
• Dynamic home environment: online game playing, translation, social media
• Avoidance of Syrian news group on Facegroup; reluctance to share political
views among Syrian community in NZ
• Classroom provokes anxiety; humiliation of not being able to speak and
understand, a mother’s inability to help her children
• Individual circumstances matter – son profoundly deaf
• Families may have vast resources, e.g. passion for learning, multilingual
practices, children helping adults
• Changing literacy practices brings much stress; need a “pedagogy of well-
being” (inspired by Maori culture)
Experiences of a former Syrian refugee in New
Zealand
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Reference:
Kaur, T. (2016). Everyday literary practices of a former Syrian refugee:
strengths and struggles. Waikato Journal of Education, 21(1).
Photo UK DFID

14. Interview-based study on the relationship and network practices of lower-
skilled Poles in Southampton the UK
• Post-accession Poles: not a cohesive group, not a diaspora or community
• Lack of ‘integration’ with established Polish churches and social clubs in the UK
• Instrumental engagement in Polish shops and amenities
• Competition for jobs; suspicion of other Poles; reverse cultural alienation
• Technology: Polish TV plays a big role
• English language: e.g., feelings of humiliation when mispronouncing in English;
inability to communicate beyond superficial greetings and predictable interactions
• Context matters – local environmental and social conditions and perceived
constraints
Experiences of ‘post-accession’ Poles in the UK
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Reference:
McGhee, D, Travena, P & Heath, S. (2015). Social
Relationships and Relationships in Context: Post-
Accession Poles in Southampton. Population, Space and
Place.

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Immigrant experiences - real stories

16. ‘Competence in plurality’
Migrants may:
• decide not to learn the main language of the host society systematically
• wish to change their linguistic repertoire, but be unable to do so
• aim to functionally rearrange their repertoire, as part of a single-identity
language strategy marked by their language of origin
• aim to rearrange their repertoire, involving a gradual dropping of the
language of origin
• aim to rearrange their repertoire but with two joint languages of identity
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Reference:
Wodak, R. (2017) Integration and Culture: From ‘Communicative
Competence’ to ‘Competence In Plurality’. In: Bauböck, R. and
Tripkovic, M. (eds.) The Integration of Migrants and Refugees, An
EUI forum on Migration, Citizenship and Demography.
Cultural integration - migrant choices?

17. Resources for language education
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18. Coming soon…
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The website will be launched in autumn 2017

19. Mobile Pedagogy for English
Language Teaching
• Learning beyond the
classroom
• Inspired by learners’ own
practices
• Guide for teachers: app
selection and mobile activity
design
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21. Language to anticipate, withstand, recover from effects
of conflict and displacement
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Reference:
Capstick, T. & Delaney, M. (2016) Language for Resilience: The role of language in enhancing the
resilience of Syrian refugees and host communities. British Council.
The report considers the voices of:
• Children and young people
• Parents
• Syrian teachers and volunteers
• Host community teachers and
workers
• NGO and INGO workers
• Those with disabilities
Themes include: support for home language learning, bringing refugees and
host communities together, supportive psycho-social interventions…

22. Teaching approach:
Taking account of learner
differences and
preferences
… while enabling
individuals or groups
to reach pre-determined or
negotiated goals

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• Start with learners’ experiences and understand their prior
learning practice
• Consider how to support individual needs that perhaps the
learner does not wish to reveal
• Develop resources collaboratively with teachers,
volunteers and others in supporting the learners
• Consider ways to trigger and sustain learning in harmony
with daily life and existing language practices
• Provide help with situationally useful language, but also
dealing with the unexpected and the unpredictable
• Develop learners’ capacity to define their own learning
goals and to engage with group goals and collaborative
learning
Conclusions/ recommendations

24. Agnes Kukulska-Hulme
Institute of Educational Technology
The Open University, UK
Twitter: agneskh
Publications: http://oro.open.ac.uk/view/person/ak35.html
Thank you
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