Learning in community: EAL engagement with 'Kiwi' culture

The community is, surprisingly in New Zealand, an underutilised resource for migrant and international students of English as an Additional Language (EAL) as a means to enhance cultural understanding. The achievement of community engagement through immersive experience has featured in studies in language and cultural education (Sercu, 2002; Dlaska, 2001). This paper reports on EAL learner’s reflective experiences of kiwi cultural practices encountered during community placements. It retrospectively traces the varieties of learning that 60 second-year degree-level EAL learners experienced during 10+-hour placements within the volunteer sector. The study views its findings within the social constructionist framework of situated communities of practice where “individuals participate in specific literate communities for gaining group membership” (Cho, 2006). The analysis presented shows that while some (largely international, younger) students develop relatively superficial views into Kiwi culture; others (mostly migrants, older learners) develop multi-literate understandings of the culture, the language of their communities and their own evolving roles within them. The implication of the study is that these new understandings help those successful learners to develop a changing sense of their relation to New Zealand. Moving beyond classification as ‘migrant’, ‘refugee’ or ‘international student’, they describe themselves in their writings as individuals who can better negotiate New Zealand identities with independence