Language Lessons on Immigrant Identity, Food Culture, and the Search for Home

Abstract

The concept of transnationalism in many disciplines has deepened appreciation for stories of immigrant adaptation in today's globalizing world-stories that reveal shifting conceptualizations of ''home,'' the everyday practices (e.g., cooking) that help families establish meaningful connections to home, as well as the struggles to maintain those connections. Adult English as a second language (ESL) learners' story, however, has been overlooked in transnational research, despite the great potential that the ESL classroom holds for documenting the relationship between identity, changing traditions, and learners' perceptions about home. This article highlights an interdisciplinary partnership between adult ESL and public health that explored the power of learners' stories of home and the implications for ESL teaching and improved immigrant health. Using a classroom-based ethnographic approach, we found that learners' interpretations of health-related texts can promote language learning and critical engagement around texts. Moreover, the learners' talk about stories of home provides evidence that ESL classrooms are valuable sites for the expression of transnational identity and critical dialogue on the challenges of staying healthy in the United States.

ESL Participation as a Mechanism for Advancing Health Literacy in Immigrant Communities

“…Pedagogical practices that involve the engagement and support of others (peer-to-peer, more advanced with less advanced) seem to be commonly used in adult ESL classroom, which, from a social practices view, reinforces the need for social interaction in the learning of new skills. In fact, the ESL classroom may represent the most accessible and significant social context for immigrant adults to strengthen their interactional competence and build self-confidence about speaking in English about their health promoting experiences in the U.S. (Santos, McClelland, & Handley, 2011). …”

“…The teachers possessed graduate degrees in ESL education, with an average of 20.5 years of experience, ranging from 7 to 35. The content of the teacher’s ESL lesson plans was informed by the needs analysis, pedagogical principles which emphasized giving learners opportunities to critically evaluate preventive health messages reported on previously (Santos, McClelland, & Handley, 2011; Handley et al, 2009), a review of the Diabetes Prevention Program curriculum of the CDC (Diabetes Prevention Research Group, 2002), and the teacher’s evaluation of their particular learners’ needs. The ESL curriculum work leading to the pilot involved discussions of health literacy as skill and social practice among the ESL Task Force members.…”

International Handbook of Health Literacy

“…Some studies focus on integrating a broad range of navigation and communication skills (for example, talking to healthcare providers, reading health labels) into the ABE curriculum (Soto Mas et al, 2013). Health literacy skills have also been addressed in the context of specific healthcare topics, including lead poisoning prevention (Handley et al, 2009), healthy eating (Santos et al, 2011;Duncan et al, 2012), type 2 diabetes , hepatitis B (Coronado et al, 2008;Taylor et al, 2008), and breast and cervical cancer (Kurtz-Ross et al, 2006). This list reflects the wide range of health content that ABE educators value as curricular themes.…”

The Health Literacy of U.S. Immigrant Adolescents: A Neglected Research Priority in a Changing World

“…Second, the health literacy field’s adherence to conceptualizations of health literacy as an individual’s ability to read and write in English likely perpetuates deficit perspectives on immigrant adolescents who are still learning English. The bias towards health literacy as a competence linked to one’s proficiency in English discounts the possibility that health literacy competence for immigrant adolescents may involve moving across languages and cultures—a translingual, transcultural capacity, which is regarded as a normative aspect of the migration and adaptation process [ 18 , 19 ]. We are not aware of any health literacy framework that fully accounts for this sociolinguistic reality in immigrant communities.…”