Language and literacy learning practices often take on a central role early in the official integration trajectories of adult newcomers. These practices are situated within differently institutionalized spheres of learning, from formal L2 education to less formal 'language practice opportunities' and learning practices embedded in daily activities. While there seems to be consensus among researchers and practitioners in adult basic education about the importance of aligning practices for language and literacy development inside education to those outside of it, not much is known about how adult learners with little experience in formal schooling or literacies navigate different language learning environments and how the relationship between these environments influences their trajectory.
In this paper, we report from the Unlock research project that ethnographically explores the language learning practices of newcomers in Antwerp, Belgium in differently institutionalized environments. The research focusses specifically on those adult learners with little experience in formal education who are moreover considered as 'stagnating' in their educational development, even to the point they are labeled 'no longer progressing' (Dutch: uitgeleerd). The label is being used in formal educational and policy contexts to describe the position of learners who have exhausted all educational avenues offered in the formal L2 program, yet make – according to the prescribed curriculum – no more (or not enough) progress in terms of learning outcomes and are therefore excluded from further formal Dutch-as-L2 education and certification. By making visible which resources for language and literacy development are being deployed, offered and valued in different environments, we provide critical insights into how the differential institutionalization of learning and the use of different resources affect the literacy development of these adult learners and their learning lives. Looking at these issues through the lens of the learners 'no longer progressing' and others involved in their learning trajectory, our research is committed to learn what (untapped) potential different learning environments might contain for un(b)locking trajectories in ways that are empowering and rooted in the strengths and resources of learners, rather than perceived deficits.
In this presentation we will show how ethnographic engagement with adult learners of literacy in an additional language offered insights into the way they came to be considered 'no longer progressing' or stagnating and how both they themselves and others around them experience this trajectory. After two academic years of fieldwork in schools, practice opportunities and daily lives of learners, we discuss how practices and policies in different learning environments perceive, handle and value these learners and how that contributes to the relative flow of their trajectories.
