“I Learn More at School”: A Critical Perspective on Workplace‐Related Second Language Learning In and Out of School

Abstract

This article presents a case study of a student involved in language learning at a work placement, as part of the basic Swedish language programme for adult immigrants, Svenska för invandrare (Sfi), in Gothenburg, Sweden. In accordance with the predominant economic agenda, this system is assumed to accelerate labour market entrance as well as language acquisition for the newcomer. The article describes some macrolevel aspects important for the outcome of the work placement and discusses some tensions in the system, before exploring an ecological framework and the concept of affordances as a tool for analysing the agents' situated interactions at the work placement. The analysis shows that affordances offered by the environment at the work placement were explored as meaning‐making material and as action potentials but not as learning opportunities, because the student's activities were limited to tasks and she had insufficient support for evaluating her work placement interactions. The article suggests some basic ecological principles for the reframing of the Sfi programme, built on affordance‐focusing tasks that enable students to learn from discourse practices that they come across at workplaces and other out‐of‐classroom contexts.

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