Where are the materials for refugee and migrant English language learners?

Given the large numbers of refugees and migrants studying English globally, there is a remarkable lack of materials designed specifically for ERM learners, as we call them. Yet the market is huge – in the UK alone, over 1 million people reported they could not speak English well or at all in the 2021 UK census, for example.

When I taught English to migrant communities in Leicester in the 1990s, there were no coursebooks. I relied on banks of photocopied materials assembled by teachers over the years and stored in ring binders, combined with whatever I could cobble together from the world around me – forms, leaflets, newspaper cuttings, plus bits from EFL resource books on functional English, games and discussions.

While the internet age and the advent of AI have transformed teachers’ ability to find and adapt materials, little seems to have changed on the coursebook front. High production coursebook series at multiple levels with all kinds of add-ons are promoted fiercely to EFL schools but the same global publishers have nothing for ERM providers. I wonder why?

These books are full of aspirational themes and stories of travel, careers, romance, happy families, blogging and social media, environmental concerns and rare animal species in far off places. Good for ERM learners? Perhaps in parts with some adapting, but in many cases inappropriate, irrelevant and potentially triggering.

Things are changing at the margins as self-publishing and online materials development have become easier and cheaper. Dave Butler’s ESOL Books is an excellent example of a dedicated teacher who created banks of resources and then turned them into books he sells on his website www.esolbooks.com. There are now website sharing resources made by teachers for teachers including Skills Workshop and Bridges to ESOL. However, nothing from the big publishers to support the many thousands of ERM teachers worldwide.

In our Teaching English to Refugees and Migrants course, we look at adapting and creating materials and what to do when you have access to little or no materials at all. These are essential skills for any ERM teacher to have, and will remain so until something significant shifts in the publishing sector.

The course starts on September 15th.

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