Beth, Agnes, Vera, Lynda, Charlotte, Ingrid
The 2nd phase of the Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP) Longitudinal Study is now underway with the new team meeting for the first time last week. The 2nd phase will run for 3 years until mid-2014 and builds on the first phase, which ran from 2008-2009.
The study is intended to follow a cohort of new migrants through their early phase of settlement in order to explore the relationship between language training in the AMEP and their settlement experiences. The study is designed as a qualitative study and data include regular interviews, participant observations in classrooms and the community and the collection of naturalistic interactional data.
The key finding of the 1st phase was that, overall, there was a good level of fit between the participants’ needs and the services offered by the AMEP – confirming yet again the high standards of the AMEP as an internationally unique language learning and settlement program. A detailed report of the findings of the 1st phase is available here.
In addition to its research aims, the project also has professional development aims. These include the provision of training workshops as well as materials development. The key professional development outcome of the 1st phase of the project was a pronunciation teaching resource entitled Give it a Go! Teaching Pronunciation to Adults by Lynda Yates and Beth Zielinski. The resource can be downloaded here.
The research team for the 2nd phase consists of Ingrid Piller and Lynda Yates as chief investigators, Agnes Terraschke as project manager, and Beth Zielinski, Charlotte Setijadi-Dunn and Vera W. Tetteh as field researchers. Our first challenge will be to re-establish contact with participants from the 1st phase after a 2-year gap in the project.
This work is licensed under a
Best of luck with the study and thanks for the resource 🙂
Congratulations to all concerned for enabling the Longitudinal Project to continue. It’s been a ‘hold-your-breath and hope’ time – and wonderful to know the foundational work we did can be used to build the superstructure! I’ve just read Kerry Taylor-Leech’s paper on ‘in-betweenness’ that was a highlight of her/our reflections on two of our Participants.
Taylor-Leech, K. 2011. ‘ “Now my hope is clear for building my future”: How two young refugees build social connecttedness’. pp115-135 in ‘Language, Culture and Social Connectedness’ Ann Dashwood and Jeong-Bae Son (Eds.) Newcastle Upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. So encouraging to see the clarity of outcomes that comes from her skilled and empathetic analyis.
So happy for you guys! I’m always here to support, as you know. Looking forward to the results of phase 2.
I’m so delighted to see that the project has been extended. What a wonderful opportunity to explore further the findings and act on the lessons from the first. The very best of luck to the research team.
Good luck everyone! So thrilled that this is being continued. Yay for the awesome work by the AMEP as well as the wonderful, dedicated and passionate researchers who aim to understand the journey to settlement. Cannot wait to read phase 2!!
Good luck, everyone! I’ll be talking about your project in my course this trimester, so please keep us updated here.
Good luck with your new project!
Miss you all! 🙁