Institutionalized Inclusion: A Case Study on Support for Immigrants in English Learning HUAMEI HAN Simon Fraser University Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada Based on a three-year ethnography, this article illuminates how institutions and individuals can support immigrants’ language learning and settlement in today’s globalized, multicultural societies It focuses on how a Mandarin–English bilingual Chinese church’s practices fostered a young couple’s English learning and social economic inclusion into the evangelical Christian Chinese community in Canada Drawing on the conceptualization of learning as legitimate peripheral participation (Lave & Wenger, 1991), concretized by concepts of region and stage (Goffman, 1959) and social capital (Bourdieu, 1977, 1986), I illustrate the multiple effects of this couple’s increased participation in their church community I then analyze how institutionalized, multiple forms of mediation (Vygotsky, 1978) opened up spaces for and assisted their increased participation I argue that allowing ethnolinguistic minority immigrants a legitimate speaking position, at interpersonal, institutional, and ideological levels, facilitates immigrant language learning and integration anada and other industrialized immigrant-receiving countries have long been concerned with immigrants’ so-called language problems (e.g., Bonfiglio, 2002) This concern has grown ever more acute in today’s globalized economy which requires higher levels of communication and literacy skills (Gee, Hull, & Lankshear, 1996) The dominant assumptions underlying Canada’s immigrant language training policies are that immigrants have the responsibility to solve their language problems and language classrooms are the main sites of achieving this goal However, the reality is that for adult immigrants, the majority of their experiences and learning of the dominant language takes place outside of any classroom (Roberts, Davies, & Jupp, 1992) My own ethnographic work explored language learning among skilled immigrants in and outside of classrooms during their first years of settlement in Toronto, Canada My fieldwork over a three-year period C TESOL QUARTERLY Vol 43, No 4, December 2009 Tesol Quarterly tesol205414.3d 31/12/09 16:39:03 The Charlesworth Group, Wakefield +44(0)1924 369598 - Rev 9.0.225/W Unicode (Oct 13 2006) 643 indicated that minority churches1 are important, effective, and yet underresearched sites of not only socialization but also of language learning for immigrants and their children In fact, social science researchers have noted the reemergence or rather continuation of two phenomena: Largely Caucasian, English-speaking evangelical Christians are teaching or preparing to teach English overseas; and minority churches have grown rapidly in the English-speaking world (e.g., Bramdat, 2005; Carnes & Yang, 2004; Ebaugh & Chafetz, 2000; Woods, 2004) TESOL researchers have noticed and debated about the former (e.g., Edge, 2003; Pennycook & Coutans-Marin, 2003; Varghese & Johnson, 2007), but not the latter In this article, I explore the practices and effects of uninstructed English teaching and learning at one church in Toronto that successfully included Chinese immigrants Combining the concepts of legitimate peripheral participation with front/back region and social capital (Bourdieu, 1986; Goffman, 1959; Lave & Wenger, 1991), I try to understand and pinpoint how and why this particular church attracted and integrated immigrants, and specifically, the young Chinese couple I focused on, linguistically and beyond Whereas, as I have argued elsewhere, ideological exclusion is at the heart of the so-called immigrants’ language problem (Han, 2007a), this article focuses on finding possible interventions to address this problem at the interpersonal and institutional levels I so by illustrating the multiple effects of this couple’s increased participation at church, and analyzing how institutionalized structural and individual support facilitated their inclusion LANGUAGE LEARNING AS PARTICIPATION AND IDENTITY BUILDING Legitimate Peripheral Participation, Access, and Identity The theory of communities of practice (CofP) frames learning as involving a dual process of participation and identity construction, in which apprenticeship-like legitimate peripheral participation (LPP) is both the prerequisite and the process of learning (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998) Access to a wide range of information, resources, members, and participation is crucial in this framework Applying the CofP framework to second language learning necessarily entails a shift of focus on linguistic proficiency to issues of access and identity Critical scholars in TESOL, notably Toohey (1998, 2000, 2005), I use minority churches’’ instead of immigrant churches to highlight that these churches are ministered and administrated by and for ethnolinguistic minorities who are largely Canadians or permanent residents 644 TESOL QUARTERLY Tesol Quarterly tesol205414.3d 31/12/09 16:40:02 The Charlesworth Group, Wakefield +44(0)1924 369598 - Rev 9.0.225/W Unicode (Oct 13 2006) Norton (2001; Norton & Toohey, 2001), and Day (2002), have applied the concept of LPP and illustrated that self-ascribed and other-assigned learner identities play a critical role in shaping access to resources and participation in learning English, which subsequently shapes learner identities Indeed, second language learners are often found to live out the self-fulfilling prophecy of becoming the kinds of persons they were said to be, or taking up the identities that were assigned to, or imposed on them (Toohey, 2000, 2005) After all: ‘‘People tell others who they are, but even more important, they tell themselves, and then try to act as though they are who they say they are’’ (Holland, Lachicotte, Skinner, & Cain, 2003/1998, p 3) Whereas CofP conceptualizes learning in general, language-focused disciplines have complemented this framework given the central role of language in social life and in learning Scholars in sociolinguistics and literacy studies have applied, criticized, debated, and developed CofP in their respective fields (e.g., Barton & Tusting, 2005; Holmes, 1999; and the debate between Davies, 2005 and Eckert & Werger, 2005 commented on by Gee, 2005) Similarly, I find several concepts generated in the field of sociology of interaction useful in describing concretely various forms of participation and identity in a nuanced manner Front/Back Region, and Onstage/Offstage The first pair of concepts is ‘‘back region, where the performance of a routine is prepared, and front region, where the performance is presented’’ (Goffman, 1959, p 238, emphasis added) In conceptualizing self-presentation in everyday life, Goffman contends that ‘‘access to these regions is controlled in order to prevent the audience from seeing backstage and to prevent outsiders from coming into a performance that is not addressed to them’’ (p 238) In other words, access to back region is granted to actors, while access to front region is granted to the legitimate audience Goffman sometimes used ‘‘backstage’’ to refer to ‘‘back region’’ as shown in the previous quote In analyzing activities at institutional settings such as a church, it is helpful to maintain the distinction between region and stage and to describe onstage and offstage activities in both the front and back regions Stage is where a prerehearsed performance takes place regardless of whether a literal stage is present or not; one is onstage when performing for an assembled audience and offstage when not performing The distinctions are fluid, in that being in the front or back region and on- or off-stage change momentarily depending on the focus of the analysis INSTITUTIONALIZED INCLUSION 645 Tesol Quarterly tesol205414.3d 31/12/09 16:40:03 The Charlesworth Group, Wakefield +44(0)1924 369598 - Rev 9.0.225/W Unicode (Oct 13 2006) In institutional settings, performing onstage in the front region of an institution is an important form of full participation that often grants and consolidates the performer’s full membership; consequently, access to full participation is tightly controlled Furthermore, the smooth onstage performance in the front region largely depends on observations offstage in the front region and preparation in the back region, offand onstage Full participation matters because of the full membership or social recognition it can yield for participating individuals within specific communities Recognizing different forms of capital is key to understanding how identity and access are critical issues in immigrant learners’ linguistic, social, and economic well-being Identity as Social Capital Pierre Bourdieu uses the concept of capital to refer to the result of ‘‘accumulated labour’’ which ‘‘takes time to accumulate’’ and has ‘‘the potential to produce profits and to reproduce itself in identical or expanded form’’ (1986, p 241) While material capital often presents itself in the form of economic capital and can be easily converted into money, Bourdieu recognizes symbolic capital which often seems economically ‘‘disinterested’’, or seems to be ‘‘in opposition to strictly economic interest’’ (Bourdieu, 1997/1977, p 177) As an important form of symbolic capital, social capital, made up of social obligations or connections and ‘‘in the form of the prestige and renown attached to a family and a name,’’ can be institutionalized in ranks and titles, and ‘‘is readily convertible back into economic capital’’ (Bourdieu, 1997/1977, p 179) Other-assigned and self-ascribed identities are an important form of symbolic capital, in that they have their origins in individuals’ material and symbolic inheritances, are accumulated over time, and can open up or shut down individuals’ or groups’ access to resources and participation in various activities Their access subsequently enables or prevents the accumulation of, and conversion between, different forms of capital THE SOCIOHISTORICAL CONTEXT IN CANADA English Training for Immigrants and Skilled Immigrants From Mainland China Canada began offering English training to adult immigrants in 1947, which mainly focused on those in the labour force In 1991, aiming to reach as many new immigrants and refugees as soon as possible on arrival, the Canadian federal government initiated the Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) program (Citizenship 646 TESOL QUARTERLY Tesol Quarterly tesol205414.3d 31/12/09 16:40:03 The Charlesworth Group, Wakefield +44(0)1924 369598 - Rev 9.0.225/W Unicode (Oct 13 2006) and Immigration Canada [CIC], 2003a), and allocated 80% of the total federal settlement funding to it (Sadiq, 2004) LINC aims to ‘‘[provide] basic language instruction to adult newcomers’’ (CIC, 2003b, emphasis added) Since its initiation, community advocates and ESL professionals have criticized it for being too basic to move immigrants beyond manual jobs (for more detail, see Cleghorn, 2000) In the mid-1990s Canada increased the quota of economic immigrants to compete for skilled immigrants of primary working age with necessary education, skills, training and proficiency in its official languages to fill the gaps in its economy It may well be even more challenging for LINC to meet this group’s needs Skilled immigrants from mainland China compose a particularly interesting case because they started arriving in the mid-1990s and have ranked as the largest group to Canada since 1998 (Li, 2005); more importantly they have a reputation for lacking English proficiency as a group They had few personal or institutional ties in Canada upon arrival, and their backgrounds and immigration trajectories differ significantly from members of the established Chinese communities here Being selected as skilled immigrants, they often are university graduates and generally aimed at skilled jobs; therefore they were directly affected by systemic barriers to entering the skilled sector in the Canadian labour market, which include non-recognition and devaluation of educational credentials and work experience obtained in foreign countries, and the demand for good English (Goldberg, 2005; Policy Roundtable Mobilizing Professions and Trades, 2004) In addition, as a racialized ethnolinguistic minority group, people of Chinese heritage are often stereotyped as socially inept and lacking communication skills, including those who were born and raised in North America (e.g., Louie, 2004) Skilled Chinese immigrants encountered many difficulties in settlement, and their lack of proficiency in English was believed to be their biggest barrier to employment and social integration in Canada (George, Tsang, Man, & Da, 2000) Having studied English in classrooms in China, skilled Chinese immigrants have often found themselves needing to improve their English, but have felt ambivalent toward basic LINC classes They also faced the urgent need to build social networks and find immediate employment Minority churches have actively recruited them and offered them an attractive alternative to government-funded programs Evangelical Christian Chinese Communities in Canada Churches have a long tradition of offering free English classes to attract immigrants, in fact, before 1947, it was largely church-based INSTITUTIONALIZED INCLUSION 647 Tesol Quarterly tesol205414.3d 31/12/09 16:40:03 The Charlesworth Group, Wakefield +44(0)1924 369598 - Rev 9.0.225/W Unicode (Oct 13 2006) philanthropic organizations who provided English training to immigrants in Canada (CIC, 2003a) Protestant and Catholic churches started offering free English classes to Chinese workers in the mid-1880s, but Chinese workers largely adopted a pragmatic attitude to English classes and resisted evangelization (Wang, 2001).2 After Canada abandoned its implicitly all-White immigration policies in 1967, ethnic Chinese from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Southeast Asian regions started to immigrate to Canada Because of the intensive western missionary work in these regions until the 1960s, indigenous churches sent native missionaries to North America to minister immigrants (Yang, 1999), and Chinese churches grew rapidly in Canada after the 1970s.3 Contemporary evangelical Christian Chinese churches have gained many followers in Canada among skilled immigrants from Mainland China Three factors may have contributed to the popularity of evangelical Christianity among this group: (a) being socialized to be atheists in socialist China by and large, they comprised a major target for evangelization; (b) as mentioned earlier, this group had great difficulties settling in Canada, which made them search for alternative frames to understand their initial decision to immigrate and subsequent choices (or lack thereof) for staying in or leaving Canada; and (c) the evangelical Christian Chinese communities have made evangelical Christianity a powerful and satisfactory frame for Chinese immigrants to understand their everyday lives, and have mobilized institutional structures and interpersonal supports to integrate them (for more detail, see Han, 2007a, 2009b) METHODOLOGY AND SUBJECTIVITY Data collection for the larger ethnography spanned from 2002 to 2006 and involved five key participants and 22 secondary participants In this article, I choose to focus on one Chinese church because it stood out as one of the most inclusive institutions Data for this article are drawn from one couple’s activities at and related to this particular church between March 2004 and December 2005, with occasional follow-ups until December 2006 In addition to regular tape-recorded Wang (2001) contends that the hostility and systemic racial discrimination in the larger society made it impossible for earlier Chinese workers to believe in the sincerity of the White preachers and their Christian teaching of love and equality; in the meantime, the few Chinese who showed interest in or converted to Christianity were pressured and harassed by other Chinese because they needed to remain as an intact group for socioeconomic survival As well, some community elites had a stake in keeping the Chinese workers segregated to protect their own economic interests and elite status Larger Chinese churches often develop services and other programs in English, mainly to cater to youths and children, and sometimes also offer English classes to adults (see Han, 2007a, for more detail) 648 TESOL QUARTERLY Tesol Quarterly tesol205414.3d 31/12/09 16:40:03 The Charlesworth Group, Wakefield +44(0)1924 369598 - Rev 9.0.225/W Unicode (Oct 13 2006) interviews with the couple, I observed them interacting with others at home, work, and various church and community activities, and had informal and formal interviews with people who were influential in their life I used Mandarin, English, or a mixture of both for observations and interviews, depending on the linguistic resources and preferences of the involved individuals I also collected relevant texts produced by the church and related institutions, as well as mainstream and minority media, in paper and electronic forms In data analysis, I sketched the couple’s settlement trajectories in stories, tables, and graphs, and combed through my fieldnotes and the interview transcripts for emerging themes I then selected transcripts and texts around significant themes, in this case, their increased participation at the church, and conducted interactional sociolinguistic analysis (Gumperz, 1999) and critical discourse analysis (Cameron, 2001) While neither this couple nor this church was necessarily representative of skilled immigrants or Chinese churches, an intensive and extensive ethnography like this has the potential for theoretical generalization or inferences (Hammersley, 1998, p 11; Mason, 1996, p 153) Indeed, it may shed light on the complex interplay between immigrant settlement and language learning, and the kinds of support that may make a difference As an ethnographer, I see myself as a major research instrument, and believe it is essential to be as transparent as possible in my positions and approaches so that readers can make their own interpretations I was born, raised, and educated in China, and worked as a faculty member until my immigration to Canada in 1999 As a fellow immigrant, a Chinese person, a woman, an atheist, and a doctoral student at the time of this study, I was able to easily recruit and establish rapport with my key participants and gain access to most aspects of their lives For four years, I witnessed and supported my key participants in their many difficulties and fair shares of despair, and they did the same for me However, throughout the study, I had to challenge my own assumptions about and prejudices toward my participants which were rooted in my privilege of having worked in academia in China and being admitted to a doctoral program relatively quickly in Canada and thus suffering comparatively little physical and emotional torment of being unemployed Being educated and socialized to be an atheist, I at first did not understand or believe that other Chinese could genuinely convert to Christianity Although I remain an atheist today, my prolonged engagement with my key participants, familiarity with immigrant lives, and my own difficulties in settlement, eventually helped me to empathize with their conversion and to understand the significance of Christianity in their daily lives INSTITUTIONALIZED INCLUSION 649 Tesol Quarterly tesol205414.3d 31/12/09 16:40:03 The Charlesworth Group, Wakefield +44(0)1924 369598 - Rev 9.0.225/W Unicode (Oct 13 2006) THE COUPLE AND THE CHURCH Grace and Timothy4 immigrated to Canada in 2001 They were university graduates in their mid- and late 20s, newly wed, and worked in accounting and computers in China, respectively They first attended LINC classes5 for two months, but felt that these classes repeated the instruction they received in China They later joined a free English conversation group organized by retirees who were Christians, to practice speaking, through which they were recruited to a small English-speaking evangelical Christian church led by young ChineseCanadians They explicitly told the church leaders that they intended to practice English and were not interested in conversion, but when they subsequently experienced many physical and psychological torments during settlement, they found that this church was the only institution that provided linguistic, social, cultural and spiritual support for them They were baptized in 2002, a year after their arrival in Canada They had come to believe that their immigration and subsequent difficulties were part of God’s plan to lead them back to God Amidst the many struggles in settlement, they found peace of mind by believing that God had plans for them (for more detail, see Han, 2007a, 2007b) As I have documented and argued elsewhere (Han, 2007a), being perceived as needing improvement in English and in their newfound Christian faith, Grace and Timothy were content with the genuine interpersonal relationships even though they had limited opportunities and potential to become full members in the English-speaking church However, their close friends gradually left this church because of disagreements with the senior pastor over theology6 and management styles, and persuaded them to leave as well In March 2004, Grace and Timothy switched to the Mandarin Chinese Church (MCC) They settled in quickly, attending its English congregation regularly and joining some Mandarin programs occasionally They have remained content there until now in 2008 MCC is situated in a suburb of the greater Toronto area that has developed a concentration of immigrants from East, Southeast, and South Asia Starting as a small Mandarin monolingual church in 1996, in 2004 MCC offered one Mandarin and one English Sunday Worship Service to about 300 and 70 attendees, respectively, and added one more Mandarin service in 2005 Whereas most of the past and present pastors Pseudonyms are used for participating individuals and institutions throughout the article ‘‘Grace’’ and ‘‘Timothy’’ resembled the English names given to them by their pastor’s mother at the English-speaking church where they received baptism Grace started at Level and Timothy at Level 4, and the highest level class available then was Level Though the church was nondenominational, the senior pastor had a background in Pentecostal churches 650 TESOL QUARTERLY Tesol Quarterly tesol205414.3d 31/12/09 16:40:03 The Charlesworth Group, Wakefield +44(0)1924 369598 - Rev 9.0.225/W Unicode (Oct 13 2006) and lay leaders were earlier immigrants from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia and received postsecondary education in North America, MCC served mainly immigrants from Mainland China, most of whom were skilled immigrants who had arrived since the mid-1990s MCC was affiliated with the Chinese Evangelical Missions Association (CEMA), which was part of a large, active, transnational evangelical Christian Chinese community Although an evangelical pragmatism, including valuing and using multilingual resources for evangelism (Han, 2007a, 2009a), underpins the inclusive practices at MCC, as mentioned earlier, it is the institutional and interpersonal practices that this article is focusing on INCREASED PARTICIPATION AND ITS MULTIPLE EFFECTS Activities at MCC: Front and Back Region Within MCC, I will refer to the sanctuary or meeting hall as the front region of the church, and the rest of spaces as the back region, which included rooms of various sizes, the kitchen, a gym, the parking lot, and sometimes extends to members’ homes MCC members must be bornagain Christians and attend MCC services regularly; though all activities at both the front and back regions were open to all members and visitors, only those visitors who intended to seek MCC memberships would go to the back region regularly In the front region, the symbolically most significant events ran regularly and smoothly with rehearsed programs, including Mandarin and English Sunday worship services (herafter, Services), and MCC-, CEMA-, and community-wide events Access to performing onstage, or at and around the pulpit, in the front region was limited to the pastors, the invited guest speakers, and the members of the Worship Team and the choir A variety of religious and social activities took place at the back region of the church MCC offered multiple levels of Sunday school classes, in both English and Mandarin, to teach adults and children the Bible systemically Many Cell Groups, consisting of one to two dozen people each, met weekly at church or individual members’ homes to study the Bible together Fellowships, each consisting of several Cell Groups, gathered biweekly or monthly to worship with rehearsed programs, pray, and socialize together during weekday evenings in the large meeting rooms at church Any member could gain access to perform onstage, or speak or perform to a group, at the back region INSTITUTIONALIZED INCLUSION 651 Tesol Quarterly tesol205414.3d 31/12/09 16:40:03 The Charlesworth Group, Wakefield +44(0)1924 369598 - Rev 9.0.225/W Unicode (Oct 13 2006) Like many other minority religious institutions, MCC functioned as an urban settlement service hub (Ley, 2008) In the back region, MCC ran free ESL classes for adults and children, a childcare center, a gym, a youth art performance team, many short-term camps for children and youth, and seasonal social programs such as skiing and strawberry picking trips, each inculcating Christian values and lessons in various forms LPP and Grace and Timothy’s Speedy Integration Grace and Timothy first visited English Sunday services offstage in the front region, and were led to English Sunday classes for adults and Mandarin Cell Groups as well as recreational activities in the back region They quickly moved from LPP to fuller participation in various activities at MCC, indicated by moving from offstage to onstage performances at the front and back region In the front region of MCC, Grace and Timothy progressed quickly and steadily within the English congregation and at joint services First, within months of attending English services at MCC, they were invited to act as ushers, a role that is not on the literal stage but much more visible and thus has higher status than being an ordinary member Within months, Timothy was invited to read the scriptures, an onstage role, and later to sing hymns with the English Worship Team Within months, Grace was also invited to take an onstage role singing with the English Worship Team, something she had never done before, even in Chinese In fact, both Grace, and Timothy told me that Grace ‘‘couldn’t sing’’ and never had the opportunity to speak on stage in China They both performed all these onstage duties regularly after their first trials Within 15 months, they sang with their English Worship Team at the MCC-wide Summer Gospel Concert in front of several hundred people, and Timothy also sang a solo Similarly, they progressed rapidly from LPP to full participation in the back region For example, Grace was invited to lead a Bible Study segment, an onstage role, after attending a weekly Mandarin Cell Group three times When the regular chair of the English Adult Fellowship went out of town, Timothy was invited to chair a program, another onstage role, even though he and Grace had attended this monthly fellowship offstage for only six times Their increased participation seemed to bring about multiple effects Identity Effects as the Main Effect Moving from LPP to fuller participation seemed to have had a profound influence on their sense of self in relation to others at MCC, or 652 TESOL QUARTERLY Tesol Quarterly tesol205414.3d 31/12/09 16:40:03 The Charlesworth Group, Wakefield +44(0)1924 369598 - Rev 9.0.225/W Unicode (Oct 13 2006) that they had appropriated, or self-ascribed to, their other-assigned good Christian identity Toward the end of the same interview, it became even clearer that Grace and Timothy had actively taken on their new identity They told me that they met an older couple who had their employees run their 12 chain optical stores while they were volunteering full-time at MCC Inspired, Grace and Timothy found a new goal in life and made a new plan: Timothy would focus on his door-to-door sales job selling Internet services, in English, until he had saved enough money to start his own business, and he would develop it to a size that he could hire others to run it Timothy articulated their new goal as follows: T: 我的目的是这样/ 我不用为钱发愁/ 我可以整天在教会里做服侍/ 我不 用愁我的 living 了/ 也不需要靠教众的捐献/ my goal is this/ I not have to worry about money/ and I can serve at church full-time/ without worrying about my living/ or having to rely on church members’ donations/ (Transcripts, 2004-06-26) This new goal indicates that they had grown into their other-assigned good Christian identity I argue that it does not matter when or even if they eventually realize the goal of serving God full-time as volunteers What matters was that they told themselves, their church members, and me their aspirations and plans, which meant that they were actively appropriating the discourse of becoming and being good Christians, and trying to act as though they were who they said they were (Holland et al., 2003/1998) Grace and Timothy’s increased participation at MCC opened up their access to both newcomers and old-timers, and placed them on a smoother path to further build their reputation as good Christians This had significant impact on their socioeconomic life Side Effects: Social and Economic Social and economic effects seemed to be a natural side-product of Grace and Timothy’s increased participation in various church activities Their visible participation at MCC implicitly presented them as good Christians and thus trustworthy This helped them in different ways First, it helped Timothy as a direct salesperson: G: 我们来这个 church 才两个月/ 他们有些都是老去的/ 都去了一两年的/ 现 在 我们去英文堂他们都认识我们/ 去中文堂嘛 也认识很多人/ 而且现在就是 说 Timothy 做生意嘛/ 他也要选人嘛/ 他招人也不是谁做都要嘛/ 他也要选 人/ 在教堂里选的人个保个的做得/ 654 TESOL QUARTERLY Tesol Quarterly tesol205414.3d 31/12/09 16:40:03 The Charlesworth Group, Wakefield +44(0)1924 369598 - Rev 9.0.225/W Unicode (Oct 13 2006) We have attended this church for only two months/ many people have been going there for a year or two/ now they all know us when we go to the English Congregation/ we also know a lot of people when we go to the Chinese Congregation/ plus, now that Timothy is doing business he also/ also needs to select people/ he doesn’t just hire whoever wants to it/ he selects people/ the people he selected from church/ each every one of them did [very well]/ T: 对/ 个保个的/ Yes/ every one of them [did very well]/ (Transcripts, 2004-06-26) Timothy’s reputation as well as the harsh realities many Chinese immigrants faced helped him to recruit direct-sales partners As challenging as it is, a direct-sales job offered immediate earning potential and thus was attractive to skilled Chinese immigrants who were unemployed or stuck in dead-end manual jobs Timothy’s reputation as a salesman grew when he brought church members to sales and increased the orders they signed as a team as well as his own record, which helped him to evangelize other sales team members His reputation grew as that of a good Christian who helped others as well as actively evangelized when he brought church members to sales and sales team members to church Later, seven of Timothy’s sales team members and their families showed up at the Thanksgiving English Fellowship at MCC that Timothy was chairing; Timothy bragged to me that all his team members, except one, had ‘‘accepted God.’’ Grace and Timothy’s growing reputation and increased participation at church helped them to establish close relations with other church members, which brought about other economic effects For instance, their church members advised and helped them in finding a realtor and buying a house When Grace had conflicts with her employer in her first full-time accounting clerk job, she consulted senior church members before quitting They subsequently supported her to become a directsales representative and helped her to reach the monthly sales target for promotion Having a good reputation within a social network can lead to direct economic gains As Bourdieu (1986) explains, the value of social connections and reputations lies in their origin in and convertibility into economic capital Social capital accumulated in church communities is found to play an important role in economic success, particularly for minority immigrants (Gonzalez III & Maison, 2004; Smidt, 2003) Another Side Effect: Linguistic Effects In addition to the socioeconomic benefits, Grace and Timothy’s increased participation at church brought about linguistic effects even INSTITUTIONALIZED INCLUSION 655 Tesol Quarterly tesol205414.3d 31/12/09 16:40:03 The Charlesworth Group, Wakefield +44(0)1924 369598 - Rev 9.0.225/W Unicode (Oct 13 2006) though they stopped mentioning their desire and determination for improving their English after moving to MCC Performing various roles onstage and offstage meant that they spent more time interacting with others, practicing at home and rehearsing with others at church, which necessarily entailed the process of using and learning English When Timothy was asked to chair the English Adult Fellowship Thanksgiving Program, I went to their apartment to meet them to go to MCC together When Grace and I chatted at one corner of their bachelor apartment, Timothy sat at another corner flipping several pages of multicoloured notes with some sessions crossed out and some added in smaller fonts On our way to the church, Timothy murmured to himself while driving: He was rehearsing his lines Below is an excerpt from my fieldnotes where I recorded some conversations happening in the kitchen after Timothy successfully completed his chairing duty that night: Afterwards during dessert time in the kitchen, several women praised Timothy as talented, relaxed, and even humorous Grace laughed: ‘‘He didn’t sound good at all at home!’’ Later that night when Timothy and Grace drove me to the subway, Grace confessed: ‘‘We argued today because he sounded so terrible when he practiced at home I asked him to say this and that but he wouldn’t He said things in such a way that I couldn’t understand him Then I said to him: ‘Hurry Timothy, let’s pray right now.’ Then we prayed and prayed I’m glad he did well.’’ (Fieldnotes, 2004-10-09 In Mandarin originally; author’s translation) Undoubtedly, taking on the chairing duty onstage significantly increased Timothy’s engagement with the task, evidenced by his multicoloured notes and endless practice and rehearsal by himself It is more interesting that, as the spouse, Grace not only listened to Timothy when he rehearsed at home, but also actively engaged in the task by providing critical feedback and suggesting exact wordings They actually discussed to the point that they ‘‘argued.’’ Therefore, the opportunity for Timothy to speak legitimately onstage in front of an assembled audience meant engagement with the task for hours behind the scene for both Timothy and Grace I argue that the more difficult and risky the task, the more commitment it requires of the individuals and their support networks I suggest that Grace and Timothy ceased talking about English learning at MCC probably because what mattered most to them was to practice and rehearse so that they could perform well onstage In this sense, their attention to the tasks intensified their engagement with not only the task at hand, but also the psychological tool that was mediating the tasks (Lantolf, 2000; Vygotsky, 1978), namely the English language, as 656 TESOL QUARTERLY Tesol Quarterly tesol205414.3d 31/12/09 16:40:03 The Charlesworth Group, Wakefield +44(0)1924 369598 - Rev 9.0.225/W Unicode (Oct 13 2006) evidenced in Timothy’s multicoloured notes and their argument over what to say and how to say it as a chairperson I argue that it is in the form of time commitment and engagement with the task and the mediational tools that full participation in highly symbolic activities, such as performing onstage in the back and front region, is particularly conducive to learning Although Grace and Timothy always seemed to desire and take action to forge relationships whenever they entered a new institution or community, it was at MCC that they became integrated So what might have made a difference for them? INSTITUTIONALIZING INCLUSION AT MCC Further examination of the interactions at MCC suggests that MCC intentionally institutionalized a series of practices to mediate its members’ participation, which also facilitated Grace and Timothy’s speedy integration Mediation, particularly in the form of interpersonal interaction, features centrally in sociocultural theory for its role in assisting learners to move beyond their current levels of performance to reach potential levels of development (Aljaafreh & Lantolf, 1994; Lantolf, 2000; Vygotsky, 1978): For Vygotsky, the source of mediation was either a material tool (for example, tying a string around one’s finger or using a computer); a system of symbols, notably language; or the behavior of another human being in social interaction Mediators, in the form of objects, symbols, and persons, transform natural, spontaneous impulses into higher mental processes, including strategic orientations to problem solving (Donato & McCormick, 1994, p 456) Multiple Forms of Material and Interpersonal Mediations MCC institutionalized multiple forms of material and interpersonal mediations in both the front and back regions For instance, in the front region, before each Service, the weekly News Bulletin in hard copy was distributed to everyone entering the church The bulletin shows each segment of the service in sequence with the titles of the hymns and the scripture of the day The Chinese News Bulletin further indicated whether the audience was expected to sit or stand during each segment During the service, overhead transparencies or PowerPoint slides were projected during Songs and Praises and Response [Hymns], as well as some sermons During one of my visits, a guest speaker even provided a handout with cloze exercises that summarized his sermon and scheduled INSTITUTIONALIZED INCLUSION 657 Tesol Quarterly tesol205414.3d 31/12/09 16:40:04 The Charlesworth Group, Wakefield +44(0)1924 369598 - Rev 9.0.225/W Unicode (Oct 13 2006) time for the congregation to fill out the blanks after he finished each subsection Aside from these material tools, interpersonal support was offered to newcomers, and the Welcome routine was an excellent example Before and during each service, two people in charge of Caring duty would identify the first-time visitors when they were entering the meeting hall, greet them, record their contact information, make name tags, and walk them to the wooden pews and sit them down beside old-timers, who would provide further assistance when needed, such as helping the newcomers to flip the Bible and hymn book to the right pages More important, the Caring people would send the visitors’ names to the chairperson Toward the end of the Service, a Welcome & Announcement segment was scheduled during which the chairperson would announce the visitors’ names and ask them to briefly introduce themselves to the congregation through a microphone After the service, some members would voluntarily come to take the visitors to a backroom in the church for Snack & Juice Fellowship, keep them accompanied, and introduce them to other members Grace and Timothy received this welcome when they first visited the English congregation and found it helpful in making them feel welcomed and connecting them with other members The multiple forms of material and interpersonal support effectively mediated attendees’ comprehension of and engagement with the content of the services, and thus facilitated attendees’ access to information Although helpful to all, these institutionalized routines and practices before, during, and after the services might be particularly helpful for visitors and newcomers who were unfamiliar with Christian practices or MCC routines, as well as for those who were developing their language or literacy skills The interpersonal supports also facilitated networking between newcomers and church members In the back region of the church, the structured and consistent interpersonal mediation involved some unique characteristics Interpersonal Mediations: Graduated and Contingent Assistance At MCC, old-timers seemed to be experienced in offering interpersonal assistance unobtrusively to newcomers in small groups For instance, in one of my interviews with Grace and Timothy, Grace described the equal and relaxed atmosphere in her Mandarin Cell Group and her impression of the old-timers there: G: 大家都一样, 但是越早信的越 humble/ 坐在那儿一声不吭/ 或者是说话 很 谦卑/ ‘‘啊, 这个东西 ha, 我个人认为ha’’/ 坐我右边那人是个香港人/ 他普 658 TESOL QUARTERLY Tesol Quarterly tesol205414.3d 31/12/09 16:40:04 The Charlesworth Group, Wakefield +44(0)1924 369598 - Rev 9.0.225/W Unicode (Oct 13 2006) 通话说得不好/ 刚开始可 humble 了/ 但是后来他有时候补充嘛/ 我一听, ‘‘哇, 这讲得也太好了!’’ Everybody is the same, but the longer they’ve believed in God/ the more humble they are/ sitting there without saying a word/ and if they speak, they sound really humble/ ‘‘Ah- in terms of this matter ha, I personally think ha…’’/ the person sitting to my right was from Hong Kong/ he can’t speak Mandarin very well and he was very humble at the beginning/ but later when he added something/ I thought, ‘‘Wow, how brilliant!’’ Hm: 哈! Ha! G: 反倒是新去的呢/ In contrast, the newcomers/ Hm: 特别爱说/ like talking/ G: 总觉得自己 Always feel like T: 5[laughingly and loudly] 就象我这种! 就象我这种!5 [laughingly and loudly] Just like me! Just like me!5 G: 5好象肚子里有点儿什么东西似的 5挺好笑的/ 象我这种也是/ 越老越 humble/ 挺好玩的\ 5as if ‘‘I really know something’’ 5it’s really funny/ I’m like that too/ the longer [they’ve believed in God], the more humble they are/ really interesting \ (Transcripts, 2006-06-26) Grace thus observed that the old-timers spoke little and sounded very humble (Turn and Turn 2), and both she and Timothy admitted that they as newcomers spoke up more and were eager to show off (Turns 3– 7) Grace explained this difference in terms of the equality between oldtimers and newcomers (Turn 1), and the working of Christianity on individual demeanor over long periods of time (Turn and Turn 7) Although I agree with Grace, I further interpret the old-timers’ behaviours as offering graduated assistance, which started from the most implicit form of modeling, that is, being humble by sitting quietly in the corner; and moved to a more explicit form by offering specific feedback in a friendly and humble way, that is, humbly expressed in the linguistic form of ‘‘Ah-,’’ ‘‘in terms of this matter ha,’’ ‘‘I personally think ha.’’ Aljaafreh and Lantolf (1994) characterized this mechanism of offering graduated assistance as involving the expert intentionally and gradually increasing the levels of explicitness and concreteness of the feedback according to the learners’ awareness of the problem and readiness to notice and appropriate the assistance Grace’s imitation of the oldtimer’s utterances in Turn 1, and Grace and Timothy’s light-hearted selfmocking in Turns 5–7, indicated the positive result of this graduated assistance: They had noticed an important form of mature Christian practice and were beginning to appropriate it INSTITUTIONALIZED INCLUSION 659 Tesol Quarterly tesol205414.3d 31/12/09 16:40:04 The Charlesworth Group, Wakefield +44(0)1924 369598 - Rev 9.0.225/W Unicode (Oct 13 2006) Another mechanism of offering effective interpersonal support is being ‘‘contingent, meaning that it should be offered only when it is needed, and withdrawn as soon as the novice shows signs of self-control and ability to function independently’’ (Aljaafreh & Lantolf, 1994, p 468) Several old-timers clearly indicated their mastery of this mechanism in the way they assisted newcomers at the Thanksgiving Adult English Fellowship mentioned earlier At the beginning of the Fellowship, it was apparent that Timothy was not experienced in chairing a program in English and lining up 70–80 people for a potluck supper He started off by announcing through the microphone: ‘‘You must be hungry now—let’s go to take food!’’ Some people started moving Pastor Kwan, the then English pastor, stood up and whispered to Timothy, and Timothy spoke into the microphone again: ‘‘Ah, please sit down first so we can count how many people we have today and how many tables to add.’’ After people settled down and tables were added, Pastor Kwan announced through the microphone that women and children could line up for food first, and asked the crowd to stay for the special Thanksgiving Program afterwards For the rest of the three hours, Pastor Kwan whispered to Timothy once more when Timothy was finishing the program 30 minutes ahead of schedule but did not speak one more word through microphone Similarly, when a young woman in charge of the transparencies had difficulties moving to the right verses, a lady volunteering in the kitchen walked up to the front of the room, sat down beside her and moved the transparency up and down while singing When the next song started, she gestured to the young woman to continue, and she herself walked back to the kitchen The young woman finished the rest of her transparency duty without any problem In these instances, the two mentors assisted only when it was needed, and withdrew their assistance to allow the newcomers to complete their respective tasks independently This graduated and contingent assistance supported newcomers so that they could engage in tasks that were initially beyond their current levels of mastery and reach their potential levels of development This is evidenced by Timothy’s and the young woman’s successful completion of their respective tasks Mediation Through Institutional Structure: Setting up Stages for Newcomers My further analysis suggests that what underpinned the multiple forms of material and interpersonal mediation and the mechanisms of 660 TESOL QUARTERLY Tesol Quarterly tesol205414.3d 31/12/09 16:40:04 The Charlesworth Group, Wakefield +44(0)1924 369598 - Rev 9.0.225/W Unicode (Oct 13 2006) effective interpersonal support at MCC was a deliberately designed institutional structure that opened up spaces and set up stages for newcomers I consider this institutional structure as a psychological tool that mediated the inclusion of newcomers At MCC, Cell Groups and Fellowships are the most important infrastructure that supported newcomers As the base groups of church organization, Cell Groups had the most open or power-sharing structure: group members took turns leading the Bible Study segment, followed by a Member Sharing segment that was open to all Mature onstage practices in Cell Groups led to invitations to perform onstage at the next level, Fellowships, which were larger and more ceremonial with rehearsed programs, but which included designated sessions for regular members According to the MCC English Web site, the 2005 calendar of the English Adult Fellowship indicated that two thirds of its sessions had invited or designated speakers, and one third were reserved as Member Sharing sessions, during which Fellowship members organized and performed their own programs onstage The preparations and performances in Cell Groups and Fellowships could finally lead to the onstage roles in the sanctuary during congregation-, church- and communitywide services This progression from Cell Groups to Fellowships and eventually to services indicates that MCC intentionally institutionalized a set of well thought-out programs and practices to open up spaces and set up stages for newcomers so that they could gradually take on more responsibilities and participate more fully in important community practices Indeed, in the New Year’s sermon titled ‘‘Our Church Theme for 2003,’’ accessed from the MCC English Web site, the then-senior pastor of MCC articulated the strategy of conducting surveys to ‘‘discover spiritual gifts’’ among members, ‘‘encourag[ing] and mobiliz[ing] believers to participate in ministries by starting to serve in Cell Groups and Fellowships’’ and using ‘‘training classes to help believers to serve more effectively’’ With the institutional structure set up to build new leaders and the skilled involvement of old-timers who mentored newcomers with graduated and contingent assistance, backstage group activities in effect became crucial for building newcomers’ capacities as new leaders Through these forms of LPP, newcomers could gradually appropriate mature practices, such as when to speak up and when to remain quiet, and how to speak humbly, and discourses, such as the discourse of being good Christians, including aspiring to serve God full-time as volunteers The processes of LPP enabled the newcomers, including Grace and Timothy, to become and to be recognized as competent members in important community practices INSTITUTIONALIZED INCLUSION 661 Tesol Quarterly tesol205414.3d 31/12/09 16:40:04 The Charlesworth Group, Wakefield +44(0)1924 369598 - Rev 9.0.225/W Unicode (Oct 13 2006) WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM MCC? Immigrants’ Language Problems: Who Else Needs to Take Responsibility? This ethnography offers us some insights into how to support immigrant settlement, including language learning Specifically, MCC provided opportunities for newcomers like Timothy and Grace to participate as speaking subjects offstage in the back region, where oldtimers mentored newcomers and invited promising ones to move to onstage performance in the back and front region This institutional structure started Grace and Timothy on a smooth and speedy path of participation, which provided them with important social recognition and, in turn, brought about economic and linguistic advancement In other words, Grace and Timothy’s case indicates that social inclusion, in the form of allowing newcomers a legitimate speaking position in activities meaningful to them, has the power of constructing a positive identity that can bring about social, economic, and linguistic effects Practices at MCC thus suggest that any institution can and should take on not only directly educational responsibilities which are instrumental in facilitating and expediting newcomers’ settlement and integration, but should also address their social and emotional needs for potentially full participation and membership In this sense, MCC’s inclusive practices substantiate Burnaby’s (1992) argument that immigrant language learning and settlement are collective causes that require the commitment of all levels of institutions as well as individuals, and that interpersonal interaction figures centrally in both processes If we were serious about integrating immigrants and their children, an ideological shift must happen to renegotiate and redistribute responsibilities with regard to immigrants’ language learning and settlement The dominant assumption in immigrant settlement policies in Canada is that linguistic competence would automatically lead to economic and sociopolitical integration and immigrants should and could solve their language problem in the classroom I argue that this seemingly linguistic and thus neutral and economically disinterested stance itself is profoundly ideological because it denies the multitude of symbolic and material investments and consequences involved in granting or denying individuals and groups the right to speak legitimately Assuming that immigrants have a language problem when they speak differently from monolingual English speakers, and that they are the sole party who has the problem and thus has the responsibility to solve their problem in classrooms, necessarily denies immigrants’ legitimacy as multilingual speakers and as worthy participants in socioeconomic activities that are crucial to their settlement and 662 TESOL QUARTERLY Tesol Quarterly tesol205414.3d 31/12/09 16:40:04 The Charlesworth Group, Wakefield +44(0)1924 369598 - Rev 9.0.225/W Unicode (Oct 13 2006) language learning The commonsense assumption that language learning is not intrinsically connected to economic and political issues but rather should be examined and addressed as a purely linguistic matter, has dominated the field of applied linguistics and informed public discourses and policies This assumption in and of itself is an ideological position It is a consequential choice for the field of applied linguistics, and individual researchers and practitioners in TESOL, to problematize and challenge this assumption This set of issues calls for further exploration There have been some developments in supporting skilled immigrants in their settlement in the past few years Notably the Enhanced Language Training (ELT) program was launched in Toronto to provide English classes beyond basic LINC levels, and several mentoring and bridging programs have emerged which connect immigrants with oldtimers in their professions to provide them with opportunities to gain Canadian experience as interns On the one hand, these promising initiatives need to be expanded to serve larger numbers of immigrants; on the other hand, we need to examine how these programs are facilitating newcomers’ fuller participation or not in everyday practices I would argue that the ultimate challenge for LINC, ELT, bridging, and other training programs, lies in finding ways to facilitate immigrants interactions within, but more important, outside the programs for real life purposes, and to systematically support their social, economic, and civic participation in the larger society What can we to make this happen, if it can happen at all? Institutionalizing Structured Mediation and Its Pedagogical Implications The multiple forms of mediations that MCC institutionalized suggest that any old-timer and institution has the potential to actively and effectively induct and mentor newcomers Institutions can open up spaces and set up stages for newcomers structurally in both the back and front regions, but particularly in the front region, to allow immigrants a legitimate voice At the same time, it is important to structure regular, multiformed support in both the front and back region, and design and develop low-stakes, interactive activities in the back region Skilled and sensitive mentors will play a key role in modeling and supporting mature practices in these activities My analysis shows that even though MCC is not primarily a languageteaching institution, its everyday practices strike a chord with the kind of best practices that second language educators have been promoting and advocating but which are not yet widely realized in both language and INSTITUTIONALIZED INCLUSION 663 Tesol Quarterly tesol205414.3d 31/12/09 16:40:04 The Charlesworth Group, Wakefield +44(0)1924 369598 - Rev 9.0.225/W Unicode (Oct 13 2006) content classrooms (e.g., Chow & Cummins, 2003; Coelho, 2004; Dagenais, Day, & Toohey, 2006; Gibbons, 2002; Toohey, 2000) These include valuing the multilingual and multicultural resources immigrants and ethnolinguistic minority students bring to the classroom, and establishing multiple forms of visual and interpersonal support to model and foster mature practices and discourses More important, I recommend that teachers design and support meaningful activities with the aim of enabling every learner to perform successfully onstage in the front region In the school context, this means allowing learners access to speaking roles in their class and school, which hold symbolic values for them to be recognized and accepted as competent members of their communities Unfortunately, the reality is that minority learners, such as the multilingual child documented in Dagenais et al (2006), often find that some of their teachers and peers literally forgot them in public-speaking activities for unspecified and unexplained reasons Allowing minority learners a speaking role must be accompanied by structured support in the front and back region, or at and beyond school I see classrooms and schools as the front region for school performances, and home and community function as the back region where we prepare children for school activities To prepare minority learners for onstage performances in school, curricular and extracurricular activities in friendly group settings must happen regularly at school, home, and community Both adults and children can learn to support minority children by recognizing and sharing each other’s expertise without denying anyone as potential full members CONCLUSION: BUILDING ALTERNATIVE SPACES The issue of supporting minority learners in and beyond classrooms leads us right back to the issue that mainstream institutions must systematically recognize, value, and incorporate the multilingual and multicultural realities minority immigrants and their children live on daily basis Monolingual bias toward minority groups in the form of devaluing their multilingual resources permeates public policies and everyday practices in the domain of immigration, settlement, education, and employment Each and every individual and institution has the responsibility and capacity to induct newcomers into their host society; denying such responsibility and capacity is at the root of immigrants’ language problem At the same time, minority groups cannot and not wait passively for the host society to open up its structures Out of necessity and instinct, minority groups have always searched for and constructed alternative 664 TESOL QUARTERLY Tesol Quarterly tesol205414.3d 31/12/09 16:40:04 The Charlesworth Group, Wakefield +44(0)1924 369598 - Rev 9.0.225/W Unicode (Oct 13 2006) spaces where they could claim their legitimacy Minority evangelical Christian communities seem to serve as such spaces While endorsing socially conservative values and taking it as their duty to evangelize others, evangelical Chinese Christians in Toronto make creative use of some of the tools Western missionaries taught them to support the marginalized They have been developing an alternative space where Chinese immigrants and their children can support each other and assert their legitimacy as being simultaneously Chinese, Christian, and Canadian As researchers and practitioners in applied linguistics, we have a lot to learn from these alternative spaces ACKNOWLEDGMENTS An earlier version of this article was presented at the Oxford Ethnography Conference, Oxford, England, September 10–11, 2007 Drs Kelleen Toohey, Roumiana Ilieva, Lynette Harper, and Cecile B Vigouroux provided invaluable critiques on different versions of this article, and Carole Bracco helped to improve readability and clarity I also thank the anonymous reviewers and the editor Dr Suresh Canagarajah for critical and constructive feedback, which made the main argument stronger I am deeply grateful to them all, whereas any remaining errors and omissions are mine THE AUTHOR Huamei Han is Assistant Professor in EAL(ESL/EFL) Education at Faculty of Education, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada She is interested in language practices and identity construction among ethnolinguistic minorities in multilingual settings Her recent work has explored the intersection between language, religion, ethnicity, gender, and class in the globalized political economy REFERENCES Aljaafreh, A., & Lantolf, J P (1994) Negative feedback as regulation and second language learning in the Zone of Proximal Development The Modern Language Journal, 78, 465–483 Barton, D., & Tusting, X (Eds) (2005) Beyond communities of practice: Language, power, and social context Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Bonfiglio, T P (2002) Race and the rise of standard American Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter Bourdieu, P (1986) The forms of capital (R Nice, Trans.) 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Language and faith in ethnic churches Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters Yang, F (1999) Chinese Christians in America: Conversion, assimilation, and adhesive identities University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press 668 TESOL QUARTERLY Tesol Quarterly tesol205414.3d 31/12/09 16:40:05 The Charlesworth Group, Wakefield +44(0)1924 369598 - Rev 9.0.225/W Unicode (Oct 13 2006) ... participation at church, and analyzing how institutionalized structural and individual support facilitated their inclusion LANGUAGE LEARNING AS PARTICIPATION AND IDENTITY BUILDING Legitimate Peripheral... the accumulation of, and conversion between, different forms of capital THE SOCIOHISTORICAL CONTEXT IN CANADA English Training for Immigrants and Skilled Immigrants From Mainland China Canada began... situated in a suburb of the greater Toronto area that has developed a concentration of immigrants from East, Southeast, and South Asia Starting as a small Mandarin monolingual church in 1996, in