Abstract
Based on a three-year ethnography, this article illuminates how institutions and individuals can support immigrants' language learning and settlement in today's globalized, multicultural societies. It focuses on how a Mandarin-English bilingual Chinese church's practices fostered a young couple's English learning and social economic inclusion into the evangelical Christian Chinese community in Canada. Drawing on the conceptualization of learning as legitimate peripheral participation (Lave & Wenger, 1991), concretized by concepts of region and stage (Goffman, 1959) and social capital (Bourdieu, 1977, 1986), I illustrate the multiple effects of this couple's increased participation in their church community. I then analyze how institutionalized, multiple forms of mediation (Vygotsky, 1978) opened up spaces for and assisted their increased participation. I argue that allowing ethnolinguistic minority immigrants a legitimate speaking position, at interpersonal, institutional, and ideological levels, facilitates immigrant language learning and integration.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 643-668 |
| Number of pages | 26 |
| Journal | TESOL Quarterly |
| Volume | 43 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| Publication status | Published - Dec 2009 |
| Externally published | Yes |