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Can ICT Reduce Social Exclusion? The Case of an Adults' English Language Learning
Programme
Author(s): Sue Webb
Source: British Educational Research Journal, Vol. 32, No. 3 (Jun., 2006), pp. 481-507
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of BERA
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British Educational Research Journal
Vol. 32, No. 3, June 2006, pp. 481-507 T ay ior & Feancis Group
Routledg e
Can ICT reduce social exclusion? T he
case of an adults' Eng lish lang uag e
learning prog ramme
Sue Webb*
University of Sheffield, UK
(Submitted 30 July 2004; conditionally accepted 3 February 2005; accepted 17 January
2006)
Strong claims are made for ICT -based lifelong learning as an effective way of reducing the
exclusion of various g roups in society , y et, there is very little research to support these claims.
Empirical research is needed, including qualitative studies of the experiences of socially excluded
learners using ICT . T his article reports the finding s of such a study in relation to learners from one
socially excluded g roup, adults from ethnic minority backg rounds, who are disproportionately
deprived and often excluded by lang uag e. T he article discusses the study of the experiences and
perceptions of adults learning Eng lish for speakers of other lang uag es (ESOL) throug h ICT in
seven different learning centres in Eng land. T he finding s show that technolog y is insufficient to
overcome existing inequalities in access to learning , and to eng ag e learners who would not
otherwise undertake formal learning , but ICT -based learning can reduce some aspects of social
exclusion in terms of encourag ing minority ethnic g roup learners to speak more within the host
community . ICT -based learning offers a space for lang uag e learning and practice, which is often
absent in traditional ESOL classrooms and in the every day lives of these excluded g roups.
Learning is a social practice in which the level of commitment of tutors to encourag ing the use of
these media and creating a safe and private space for learning affects the rang e of learning activities
with which learners eng ag e and the impact of these on their every day use of Eng lish.
Introduction
Increasing access to communications technolog y is central to educational policy and
social inclusion debates worldwide. T his is because many g overnments are
concerned that there is a social price to pay for the benefits of g lobalisation and
the g rowth of knowledg e-based societies; the price being increased inequalities
between individuals and between societies, between the information rich and the
*T he Institute for Lifelong Learning , School of Education, University of Sheffield, 196/198 West
Street, Sheffield S1 4ET , UK. Email: s.webb@sheffield.ac.uk
ISSN 0141-1926 (print)/ISSN 1469-3518 (online)/06/030481-27
c 2006 British Educational Research Association
DOI: 10.2307/30000009
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482 S. Webb
information poor (Kenway , 2001). T here is concern that 'T he rise of information-
alism at the turn of the millennium is intertwined with rising inequality and social
exclusion throug hout the world' Castells (2000, p. 68).
Reducing inequalities and ensuring people's inclusion in the social, economic and
political life of their communities and societies, so that they have influence over their
own life chances, have become key g oals of educational policy . One means to achieve
these g oals has been to increase information communications technolog y (ICT )
usag e. For example, within Europe, the Lisbon Declaration has identified ICT as a
major strateg y in developing knowledg e-based economies (Commission for the
European Communities [CEC], 1997). Conjoining of educational policies for
lifelong learning , ICT and social inclusion occurs in a wide rang e of countries from
Australia's A Fair Chance for All (Department of Employ ment, Education and
T raining [DEET ], 1990), to South Korea's Edutopia (Jung , 2000) and Finland's
Joy of Learning (Ministry of Education, 1997). In the USA, the focus is shifting
away from reducing the dig ital divide by simply increasing the 'provision of
equipment, to one that focuses on social development issues' (Warschauer, 2004,
p. 9), such as how the equipment is being used and by whom, as the predominantly
European discourse of social inclusion and exclusion g ains sway (Littlewood et al.,
1999). Similarly , in Australia, research has shown that policy initiatives such as
Virtual Communities aimed at providing equal access to home computers and the
Internet will not redress the inequality of 'who g ets the benefits associated with such
resources' (Ang us et al., 2004, p. 16).
In the UK since 1997, the Government, under New Labour, has introduced a
considerable number of initiatives promoting the integ ration of ICT -based learning
in initial schooling and in post-compulsory and hig her education. For example, the
National Grid for Learning aimed at schools and the University for Industry (Ufi)/
learndirect and UK Online centres aimed at the post-compulsory sector are desig ned
to provide publicly accessible Internet facilities for all (Selwy n et al., 2001). T he
Government has also set national targ ets for learning and widening access that
include recommendations for the use of ICT and flexible learning in further and
hig her education (Osborne, 2003). T he Internet and access to ICT have become
both a targ et for measuring the level of inclusivity of the knowledg e society and one
of the strateg ies for achieving wider access and social inclusion to the educational
provision at all levels of the sy stem, from initial schooling to post compulsory and
hig her education (Department for Education and Employ ment [DfEE], 1997, 1998,
2000; Department of T rade and Industry [DT I], 1998; Department for Education
and Skills [DfES], 2003).
T he research g ap
What evidence are these policies and practices based on? Gorard et al. (2003) arg ue
that in spite of the series of multimillion pound g overnment initiatives to provide
publicly accessible community -based ICT opportunities to ensure that by 2005 'all
those who want it will have the opportunity to access the internet' (Social Exclusion
Unit [SEU], 2001, p. 1), there has been little empirical analy sis of how ICT is
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Can ICT reduce social exclusion? 483
impacting on patterns of lifelong learning . Much of the literature on ICT -based
learning concerns the educational experiences of the well-qualified eng ag ing in
continuing professional development or first deg ree learning in hig her education
(Webb, 2001). ICT in this context has often been a means to ensure that the learners
who are already qualified to participate are not disadvantag ed by g eog raphic distance
or time constraints. T here are few empirical studies of ICT -based learning with
previously excluded g roups in the UK. Selwy n et al.'s (2002, p. 23) work in Wales
sug g ests that the participation of diseng ag ed adult learners tends to be 'over-
discussed and underesearched'. T heir study of 36 adult learners found that the
majority of ICT -based learners were already on lifelong learning trajectories, much
more so than would be found in the g eneral population. T hey found no clear
evidence that ICT was sig nificantly overcoming the barriers to participation.
Quantitative analy sis of a larg e UK cohort has shown that 'the technolog y route to
post-compulsory education appears to be recruiting larg ely the "usual suspects"'
(Gorard et al., 2003, p. 289). T hese are people who are y oung er, employ ed,
professional, male, qualified, and already learners. T echnolog y alone seems unlikely
to widen participation. However, althoug h Gorard et al. (2003) do not find evidence
that the increased availability of technolog y altered patterns of participation, they did
find that participants in publicly accessible community -based ICT centres were
more likely to be female, less qualified, and from lower socio-economic g roups.
In contrast, Smith and Cook's (2003) approach to the question, 'does it work', is
to arg ue that simple measures of 'prog ression' used by the DfES, such as
participation on a course or in employ ment, neg lect the role that UK Online
centres play in raising the confidence of people from the underserved seg ments of
society . Cook and Smith (2002) claim that Online centres are part of a community
life cy cle; they provide a 'hook' to support individuals into a life cy cle of learning ,
enabling them to imag ine futures in employ ment, and in turn develop the capacity of
the community to start new centres and informatics-based activities.
A similar effect on the confidence of individuals in disadvantag ed communities
has been shown in evaluations of the US Department of Education's initiative to
establish Community T echnolog y Centers (CT Cs) for adult education and family
literacy , in economically distressed urban and rural communities (Servon, 2002;
America Connects Consortium, 2003; Fisher et al., 2004). T hey show the majority
of centres were run by community -based org anisations in urban areas and offered
adult basic education, Eng lish as a second lang uag e (ESL) and computer literacy
prog rammes larg ely to females, Hispanic/Latinos, in the 25-44 ag e g roup, and the
unemploy ed (America Connects Consortium, 2003). Fisher et al. (2004), focusing
on mig rant Hispanic farm workers and their families in the Pacific Northwest, found
that once the CT Cs were embedded in the interpersonal networks of the
community , they became well used and valued. Word of mouth was the main
means of recruitment and indicated that users had hig h levels of trust and confidence
in the value of the centre to provide information relevant to their every day lives, g ive
access to useful resources, and boost their own confidence and communication
skills, including learning Eng lish.
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484 S. Webb
Community informatics is the term that has come to describe the approach to
solving the dig ital divide throug h developing strateg ies for eng ag ing communities in
using the technolog ies for their own social, economic and political g oals rather than
just providing access to technolog y (Gurstein, 2000; O'Neil 2002; Warschauer,
2004). It is an approach premised on recog nition that the way technolog y is accessed
is 'woven into social sy stems and processes as part of social networks involving
relatives, friends and colleag ues' (Simpson, 2005, p. 103). T o be effective it requires
understanding how learners are accessing and using ICT .
Yet there is a research g ap, particularly in the UK. Little is known about the
experiences of the learners who are participating in the new ICT -based initiatives,
nor is very much known about the way s that learning undertaken throug h these new
media impacts on learners' knowledg e construction and sense of social inclusion.
T here is a need to g o bey ond the debates that focus on what Burbules and Callister
(2000, pp. 20-21) have called the 'conditions of access' and examine the 'criteria of
access', or 'thick' conceptions of access, rather than 'thin'. Research needs to focus
not just on whether or not the creation of publicly accessible ICT -based facilities
increases participation, but it should focus also on the experiences and meaning s of
this participation. What are needed are more qualitative case studies exploring the
meaning of ICT -based learning for excluded g roups. Among these are people from
ethnic minority backg rounds who are disproportionately deprived and often
excluded by lang uag e (SEU, 2000). T he UK National Strateg y for Neig hbour-
hood Renewal (SEU, 2000, Annexe B, para. 13) specifically targ ets these g roups and
sug g ests, 'Access to technolog y can be one escape route from deprivation'. More
specifically , it recommends that the DfEE reviews the adequacy of software for
teaching Eng lish for speakers of other lang uag es (ESOL), identifies g aps in the
software, and encourag es software developers to provide non-text solutions to
lang uag e and cultural barriers for these g roups. Moreover, Warschauer (2004)
sug g ests that to understand the relationship between technolog y and social inclusion
what is needed is a focus on four ty pes of resources that affect how people use ICT .
T hese resources include the phy sical, such as access and devices, the dig ital, such as
the materials and the content available, the human, such as the ty pes of literacy
practices and education, and the social, such as communities and institutional
structures in which the ICT is used. T his article seeks to fill some of these g aps by
reporting finding s from a qualitative case study examining the phy sical, dig ital,
human and social aspects of adults learning ESOL throug h computers in seven
learndirect ICT centres in Eng land, and contributes much needed insig hts into the
potential impact of technolog y on learning processes (Felix, 2005).
T he arg ument beg ins with a brief outline of the policy context that informed the
case study . Links will be made between the policies for Basic Skills, ESOL and ICT
that have provided the rationale for selecting the case of one socially excluded g roup,
ethnic minorities, excluded by lang uag e, and for whom new learning opportunities
throug h ICT have been made available in Eng land. Brief reference will also be made
to research literature on lang uag e learning and computer-based lang uag e learning in
order to contextualise the discussion of the learners' and tutors' experiences of
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Can ICT reduce social exclusion? 485
learning with these new media. T he article continues with a description of the
methodolog y and methods used in the empirical work and provides details of the
learners who participated in the case study , before presenting some finding s. T hese
finding s discuss learners' perceptions of the effectiveness of the impact of learning
ESOL via an ICT software packag e. Specifically , this is explored by considering
learners' motivations and experiences of using the software in different setting s.
T hroug h this, the article explores the relationship between computer-based learning
of ESOL and two approaches to learning and teaching , one drawn from experiences
in open access ICT centres with g eneric tutoring and the other from community
centres with dedicated ESOL tutors.
Policy and research context for ESOL and computer-based learning
Reducing the social exclusion of ethic minority communities in the context of the
UK has been conceived in terms of strateg ies that focus on 'possible lang uag e and/or
cultural barriers' and ensuring 'that ICT s could be made more accessible in deprived
neig hbourhoods' to overcome 'disadvantag e ... in the jobs market' (SEU, 2000,
Annexe B, para. 13; 5.10). T o understand why these policy strateg ies have striven to
connect ICT -based learning and lang uag e learning requires some discussion of
recent policy and research on the learning needs of ethnic minority communities, the
role of ICT in learning g enerally and, more specifically , the role of computer-assisted
lang uag e learning (CALL). T hree interlocking themes can be discerned which have
informed the development of this strateg y . Firstly , policy has determined that levels
of social exclusion are related to levels of survival skills; secondly , ICT skills are
reg arded as commodities that can increase human capital; and thirdly , ICT -based
learning is reg arded as a process for the individual transformation of self, which can
increase the motivation to participate in learning .
T he first theme which has informed these policy strateg ies is that links have been
made between the social exclusion of ethnic minority communities and their survival
skills. T hese can be traced to the Basic Skills Ag ency 's survey of the lang uag e skills of
the UK population: Lost opportunities: the lang uag e skills of ling uistic minorities in
Eng land and Wales (Basic Skills Ag ency , 1996). T his report focused on the issue of
survival and on identify ing the learning skills needed for full participation and
inclusion in society . It identified how different factors such as ling uistic g roup, ag e,
g ender, number of y ears resident in the UK, employ ment, and leng th of schooling in
other countries and in the UK combined to indicate 'survival levels', a proxy for
levels of social inclusion. It arg ued that those with the lowest survival levels have the
hig hest educational needs. Following the publication of A fresh start-improving
literacy and numeracy (DfEE, 1999) and the report Breaking lang uag e barriers (DfES,
2000), the Government committed the education services and other cross-sector
national bodies to introducing a core curriculum for ESOL and reducing the number
of adults, particularly from ethnic minority communities, who strug g le with literacy ,
lang uag e and numeracy . As a consequence, new requirements have been assig ned to
the further education sector to take responsibility for ESOL, and in particular to the
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486 S. Webb
University for Industry throug h learndirect,' and in these way s such learning has
been linked to the learning of information literacy .
T he second theme is that lang uag e learning has become linked to the acquisition
of a basic skill for lifelong learning because ICT skills are seen as essential to
employ ability in the policy discourses of European knowledg e economies (Jarvis,
2004). T he abilities to use ICT are reg arded as valuable commodities or human
capital essential to the working of successful knowledg e economies (DT I, 1998).
T herefore, the acquisition of the skills and knowledg e to use ICT are reg arded as
necessary for economic competitiveness and the enhancement of individual life
chances (DfEE, 1998; DfES, 2003).
T he third theme is that ICT -based learning is considered a tool for transforming
the learning process and learners themselves. It is claimed to increase participation
in learning and the form that learning takes (Hawkey , 2002). T he arg ument is that
this is achieved by dispelling the many phy sical and structural barriers that prevent
some adults from becoming participants (Halal & Liebowitz, 1994). By g iving
learners more choice, the technolog ies are thoug ht to empower them to control
when, how, and what they learn, and to challeng e ideas about the role of the teacher
and how knowledg e is g enerated and by whom (Sproull & Kiesler, 1993; Gell &
Cochrane, 1996; Laurillard, 2002). It is arg ued that by 'removing some of the
barriers of time, place and pace of learning which prevent adults from realising their
full potential' it can transform the g eog raphy of lifelong learning (Essom &
T homson, 1999, p. 21) and 'allows almost any one to learn almost any thing from
any where at any time' (Halal & Liebowitz, 1994, p. 21).
However, learning lang uag es throug h ICT poses new challeng es for adult
educators and adult learners, because the evidence-based practice base is limited
and the learners often have different levels of education experience and qualifica-
tions. ESOL learners in Britain tend to be heterog eneous and reflect the history of
Britain's relationship to the Commonwealth and its level of openness to different
g roups of refug ees and other ty pes of immig rants. For example, Clay ton, (2001)
found that many refug ees attending basic skills and ESOL prog rammes were already
well qualified, but because they needed to improve their Eng lish lang uag e they were
channelled into these classes. Now that these prog rammes are also the targ ets of
ICT -based learning initiatives to facilitate social inclusion, an important research
question is how do such diverse learners experience these prog rammes? T o date, little
empirical research exists in the field of ESOL and computer-based lang uag e learning .
Barton and Pitt (2003, p. 16), writing for the DfES in the UK, conclude from their
literature review on adult ESOL pedag og y that 'there is no research that investig ates the
role of such developments in ESOL learning and pedag og ic practice'.
In contrast, research on computer-assisted lang uag e learning (CALL) does have a
considerable history . Computers have been used for lang uag e learning and teaching
for decades, particularly since the 1960s. For Warschauer and Healey (1998) this
40-y ear period can be divided into three main stag es: behaviourist CALL (1960s-
1970s), communicative CALL (1970s-1980s), and integ rative CALL (from the
1990s). Each stag e corresponds to the level of technolog y and pedag og ical theories
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Can ICT reduce social exclusion? 487
dominating at the time and marks the shifts in lang uag e learning away from drill and
practice and a focus on form in lang uag e, to a focus on neg otiated meaning and
interactive learning . Increasing ly , such simplistic accounts, identify ing three discrete
stag es of development in the history of CALL, have been contested (Bax, 2003).
Many current software packag es are informed by a rang e of pedag og ies, from
behaviourist to more interactive, even thoug h this may not be explicit (Webb et al.,
2004).
Levy (1997) sug g ests that the arrival of the CD-ROM and DVD have finally made
it possible for computers to present learners with stimulating lifelike dialog ues and
interactions that allow learners to become more autonomous and independent from
the tutor. T his is the so-called third stag e of integ rative CALL development. In this
stag e, 'the emphasis [is on] ... the computer as tutor or "helpful teacher" as the
primary g oal' and 'the teacher is shown to only have a minor role in this conception
of CALL (Computer-assisted lang uag e learning )', which 'focuses on developing an
accurate model of the individual learner' (Levy , 1997, pp. 101-102). Autonomy in
lang uag e learning seems at last to be possible for all ty pes of learners (Cotterall,
2001).
T he meaning of the term autonomy may be ambig uous g iven that Levy (1997)
also notes that this more recent conceptualisation of CALL in lang uag e learning
frees up the teacher from the constraints imposed by heavy teaching sessions by
shifting much of the drill and revision sessions to the computer. Similarly , De Castell
et al. (2002, p. 5) warn that the potential to provide g reater autonomy for learners
may be undermined by teachers' sedimented practices. Rather than constructing
learner tasks desig ned specifically for the new tools, they found teachers re/mediating
their existing assessment practices, such as the 'standardised test'. In other words,
rather than fostering autonomy in learners, these technolog ies may simply provide
an environment in which learners are presented with 'an active way of being very
passive' (Davies, 2002, p. 7).
Caution is needed in drawing such g eneralisations about the impact of CALL on
lang uag e learning . In spite of the quantity of research in CALL, especially during the
last decade, the focus has been small scale, frag mented and piecemeal for the most
part (Webb et al., 2004). T he research has often been either technolog ically driven
or practitioner driven, and as a consequence, often it has not been informed by
lang uag e learning theories (Chapelle, 2001). Moreover, the learners that have been
the subjects of many of the research studies of the last 10 y ears in CALL have been
drawn from sectors such as schools or universities, rather than the sectors in which
adult speakers of other lang uag es predominate; the pedag og ical practice studied has
normally involved blended learning , a mix of CALL and face-to-face learning , rather
than the pedag og ic model that ty pifies the policy context in the UK. Whilst there
have been many benefits identified for CALL, from improvements in specific
lang uag e skills, to increases in participation by lang uag e learners (see, for example,
Liu et al. [2002] for a review of recent research), there is still a g ap in research in
relation to adult ESOL learners and ICT -based learning . It is to this context that the
present study seeks to contribute throug h exploration of the research question,
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488 S. Webb
'What are the experiences of adult speakers of other lang uag es learning Eng lish
throug h ICT ?'
A case study in ESOL and ICT -based learning : context, methods and
sampling
In 2001 an opportunity arose to examine how adults learn ESOL throug h ICT when
the Ufi/learndirect introduced an ICT -based CD-ROM learning packag e called
Eng lish Lang uag e Learning and Instruction Sy stem (ELLIS)2 for adults learning ESOL
at a limited number of learndirect centres in Eng land. A research team from the
University of Sheffield undertook an evaluation of the use of this ELLIS packag e in
all of these centres.3 T his provided much needed data to answer the research
question about the experiences of adult ESOL learners using ICT . T he framework
for examining these experiences comprised the four dimensions identified by
Warschauer (2004): the phy sical-the org anisation of the hardware and the setting s
in which the CD-ROM software was used; the dig ital-the CD-ROM content and
pedag og ical assumptions of the materials, tasks and assessments; the human-the
practices and experiences of the learners and the tutors and centre manag ers; and the
social-the institutional arrang ements and org anisation within which tutors and
learners used the software. T he study compared the effects of different setting s and
ty pes of tutoring on the learners' experiences and perceptions of the value of the CD-
ROM for learning Eng lish. Open access ICT rooms supported by g eneric tutoring
were compared with setting s where ESOL trained tutors provided more structured
support by blending more traditional learning and teaching with the technolog y and
both setting s were compared with learners using the software with no tutor support.
Data was collected throug h a variety of methods. T hese included the following :
semi-structured interviews in Eng lish4 with 25 learners and 20 tutors and manag ers
from six sites, including the comparator site, where there were no tutors;
observations (approximately 60 hours of field observations, including the use of
talk aloud protocols with learners); documentary analy sis of learners' prog ress tests,
'take home' workbooks and the log s recorded within the software prog ramme
showing the tasks undertaken and time spent by learners on these; structured
accounts of tutor/learner interactions were provided throug h diaries kept by the
tutors; and questionnaires were completed by all of the 46 learners in the learndirect
pilot identify ing their biog raphical and previous educational experiences. For the
purposes of this article the analy sis draws, in the main, on the qualitative data
(interviews and observations). T hese data were analy sed thematically and
descriptive categ ories developed to identify the learners' and tutors' perceptions
and experiences of this medium and its effectiveness for learning a lang uag e. T he
article reports one set of issues arising from these analy ses that relate to the research
question about the perceptions and experiences of learners and their tutors and
manag ers located in the two main ty pes of setting , the formal colleg e-based learning
resource centres and those operating as community -based centres, in order to
contribute to the debate about the role of ICT in aiding social inclusion.
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Can ICT reduce social exclusion? 489
T he centres were located in urban areas in the south and south-east of Eng land,
with only one g roup of learners drawn from a northern city . T he majority of learners
(60%, 28 of the 46) were study ing in colleg e-based open access centres, 20% (9)
were study ing in community -based setting s and 20% (9) formed the comparison
g roup that were g iven access to the CD-ROM software without any tutor support.5
T he tutors were all women. In the open access colleg e centres they were employ ed to
provide g eneric support to any ICT -based learning , and they were not required to
have any qualifications in the teaching of ESOL, in contrast to the ESOL specialists
in the community centres. However, in one open access centre (H), the g eneric
tutors liaised with an advice and g uidance specialist for ESOL and Basic Skills, who
was male, at the point that prog ression to other prog rammes was considered.
T he learners were a diverse g roup, reflecting each of the various broad categ ories
of ESOL learner identified by the DfES (2001). T hey included people from settled
communities, settled refug ees, mig rant workers, partners and spouses from all parts
of the world, some of whom had been settled for a number of y ears and others whose
partners were temporarily working or study ing in the UK. In their diversity , the
learners were ty pical of ESOL learners (Barton & Pitt, 2003), y et three clusters
dominated, those who had arrived in Britain recently with little experience of formal
education; others from ethnic minority communities who had been in Britain for
some time, but had had few opportunities to practise Eng lish speaking ; and those
who were recent entrants to Britain (either as refug ees or as spouses of economic
mig rants) and were more formally qualified. One-third of the learners had been in
the UK for less than a y ear, just over a third had been resident for 1-3 y ears and less
than 20% had been resident for more than four y ears, of whom only two had lived in
the UK for more than 10 y ears (see T able 1).
Not surprising ly , within and between these three clusters, individual needs varied
considerably , as did aspirations, educational backg round, lang uag e and literacy
backg round, and aptitude for lang uag e learning . T he learners varied in ag e from
y oung adults in their late teens and early twenties to older adults in their forties and
fifties, and whilst they had a rang e of educational experiences, from those with few
formal post-school qualifications to g raduates and those with professional
qualifications, the most qualified tended to be older and more recent residents.
T wo-thirds of the sample was female and one-third was male, thoug h these g ender
T able 1. Leng th of residence in the UK of ESOL learners
Residence in UK No. of learners % of learners
Less than 6 months 9 20
6-11 months 6 13
1-3 y ears 16 35
4-10 y ears 7 15
More than 10 y ears 2 4
Not known 6 13
T otal 46 100
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490 S. Webb
g roups were not evenly distributed across the different learning centres. T he four
colleg e-based centres had recruited and retained mainly women, whilst of the two
community centres, one was more g ender balanced and the other used the
prog ramme as an adjunct to a women-only class. Also, the ag e rang e at this last site
was more limited than at the other centres, with a spread from 21 to 34 y ears of ag e.
Across all the centres, thoug h, the learners came from a very wide rang e of countries
(29 in total), including 14 from Eastern Europe and the Middle East, 13 from South
East Asia, 10 from Western Europe, 5 from Africa and 4 from Central and South
America.
Also, not surprising ly , g iven the emphasis within the marketing of learndirect
prog rammes to tackle social inclusion and learning for economic development by
learning Eng lish as an second lang uag e to provide skills for life, less than a third
(28%) of the learners described themselves as employ ed full-time, and only 9% were
employ ed part-time. T he remainder stated they were unemploy ed or students or
housewives (a g ender-specific term the research team had decided to use on the
advice of learning centre staff). T here was some evidence, therefore, that this
prog ramme was reaching the learners targ eted by g overnment social inclusion
policies (see T able 2).
T hese ICT -based learners tended not to be the diseng ag ed. T he majority had
recent experience of study in traditional ESOL classes and had taken computer
courses, usually throug h learndirect. T herefore, there was no real evidence that the
mode of learning broug ht in new, previously diseng ag ed learners, thus confirming
the finding of Selwy n et al. (2002) and Gorard et al. (2003) that the majority of
learners in these ty pes of ICT learning centres were already eng ag ed on learning
trajectories6 (see T able 3).
In other words, since the learners in the case study were already eng ag ed on
lifelong learning trajectories there is little evidence to sug g est that ICT as a mode of
learning encourag ed the participation of individuals who were not already lifelong
learners. T he more interesting research questions the case study addressed were:
what were the experiences of these learners in relation to the phy sical, dig ital, human
and social aspects of ICT -based learning ; and how did the mode of learning and
teaching affect motivation and continuing participation and retention? Research
literature on CALL has stressed that ICT -based learning has benefits not only in
terms of specific lang uag e learning skills, but also in terms of encourag ing g reater
T able 2. T he employ ment status of ESOL learners
Employ ment status No. of learners % of learners
Full time employ ed 13 28
Part time employ ed 4 9
Unemploy ed 13 28
Students 8 17
Housewife 8 17
T otal 46 100
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Can ICT reduce social exclusion? 491
T able 3. T he computer literacy level of ESOL learners
Computer literacy No. of learners % of learners
None/little/beg inner 19 41
Basic 8 17
Intermediate 9 20
Advanced 7 15
Not known 3 7
T otal 46 100
participation (Liu et al., 2002). T herefore, to focus on the effect of the mode of
learning on motivation, participation and retention is particularly relevant g iven that
much of the CALL literature is derived from studies of foreig n lang uag e learners
learning another lang uag e in their own countries and not adults learning Eng lish as
another lang uag e in an Eng lish-speaking country .
Overview of main finding s
Across all ty pes of setting s from the open access colleg e centres to the community
centres and the comparator setting and reg ardless of the ty pe of tutor support from
g eneric, to specific or none at all, learners commented positively on their experience
of learning Eng lish throug h ICT . T he discussion that follows will examine these
experiences to understand how these people became ICT -based ESOL learners.
Four main factors are considered: motivation, IT literacy , tutoring , and the learning
'space'. Firstly , motivation, observation of learners' use of the software, and
interviews with learners and tutors revealed that there were variations in motivation
and the level of positive responses expressed. T hese related to learners' ambitions to
feel included in the host community and their perception that Eng lish was an
economic imperative. T he most positive views about learning ESOL throug h ICT
were expressed by those who admitted that fluency in Eng lish was a necessity and
their opportunities for learning Eng lish by other means were limited, and in part
these differences were g endered.
Secondly , previous IT experiences contributed to successful learning . T hese skills
were valued because they were perceived to affect the confidence, speed and levels of
tutor support learners needed to become independent learners with these media.
T hirdly , different learning setting s and tutor attitude made a difference to the
learners' use of these media, with the g reatest use of the software being found in the
open access centres that favoured independent learning , rather than the community
centres, where the software was more of an adjunct to traditional classroom
teaching . Fourthly , ICT -based learning seemed to offer a learning 'space' for
effective lang uag e practice, which appeared larg ely absent in other ESOL learning
contexts. Most learners from the open access learning centres, who described
experiencing feeling s of marg inality in traditional classrooms and in every day
encounters with the host community , felt more able to practise their lang uag e skills
in these ICT -based contexts.
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492 S. Webb
Becoming an ICT -based ESOL learner: learning with 'serious intent'
T he theme of learners' motivation was a recurring feature in interviews with learners,
tutors and other support staff and was presented as an example of one of the qualities
required to become a successful ICT -based ESOL learner. Staff noted that the
majority of learners in the pilot were 'hig hly ' or 'very ' motivated because they used
the software twice a week or more, and they did their best to encourag e and further
motivate these learners. Staff associated the frequency of use with other attributes
they thoug ht had prompted the learners' choice of study , and learners' accounts
confirmed the importance of these reasons for attending ICT -based ESOL centres.
Learners' motivations were divided into two ty pes, instrumental or integ rative,
which confirm previous finding s about the motives of learners in second lang uag e
learning theory (Gardner & Lambert, 1972). For example, at one centre the tutor
said she encourag ed those learners she saw had 'a serious intention to learn Eng lish
... someone who is really keen' and she went on to say , 'I think the serious intent
mig ht come from the fact that they are hoping to find work, g et a job' (Open access
centre F, T utor 1). Similarly , at another centre the tutor said that the 'keenest were
refug ees who saw it as a means to g etting a job' (Open access centre B, T utor 1). Her
colleag ue went further and sug g ested that retention was related to motivation, and
that both instrumental and integ rative g oals were important in sustaining learners:
if y ou are doing thing s out of necessity rather than with a purpose then it is not so
meaning ful ... all of these individuals need it in some form in their life, whether it is for a
job or whatever ... that is what has g iven them such a g ood focus and made them quite
determined that they would like to finish it. (Open access centre B, T utor 2)
Comments from learners confirmed that they were motivated by these extrinsic
factors, either instrumental or integ rative g oals or a combination of these:
Eng lish is the world lang uag e and it's necessary for every body ... If y ou know Eng lish,
y ou can g et a g ood job ... a job any where. (Female learner, Mexican, ag ed 34, Open
access centre S)
I want to learn Eng lish because I come to live here and it is important for me ... to
communicate with every body . (Female learner, Venezuelan, ag ed 30, Open access
centre F)
For some others their decision to follow an ICT -based prog ramme, rather than take
a traditional class, was constrained by other external factors and their social location.
T hese constraints appeared to be g endered, and reflected the different cultural
milieu experienced by different ethnic g roups or their perceptions of their caring
responsibilities. Only women learners cited family reasons as the factor that
restricted their choice of mode of study , and which led them to choose an ICT -based
course because the flexibility suited them, even thoug h their preference had been for
a traditional class. And since drop-out was g reatest among st men, tutors speculated
that some men's rejection of the ICT option mig ht reflect their g reater opportunity
to choose the mode of study . For example:
She is very strong ly motivated, but I don't know whether the men feel that ... the
women don't have the choice and option either for cultural reasons or for childcare
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Can ICT reduce social exclusion? 493
reasons, they [the women] do like it but if they had unlimited opportunities. Who can
say really whether it's second best or whether it's a positive choice. (Open access centre
F, T utor 2)
For many of these learners the decision to participate in ICT -based ESOL was
related more to their g eneral motivations to learn Eng lish and the constraints under
which they eng ag ed in learning than the result of a positive decision to choose ICT -
based study . For example, this learner continued to use the software in spite of
expressing some neg ative views about learning with a computer:
I think with this prog ramme y ou have little motivation because it is too cold because
y ou are in front of a machine, and I mean, if y ou are with a person, may be y ou have
more motivation and y ou feel that y ou learnt more. You can establish a relationship,
and I think that is very important for learning . (Female learner, Spanish, ag ed 19, Open
access centre S)
What encourag ed this learner and others like her to continue using the software?
Was it just the economic imperatives and the need to feel socially included in the
UK, or the lack of other suitable way s of learning Eng lish? A number of the learners
mentioned the value of the structure of the open access centres, which permitted
them to fit their study around other aspects of their lives, but the factors that learners
identified that encourag ed them to use the packag e, reg ardless of the ty pe of centres
they studied at, were twofold. On the one hand, they were to do with the ICT
resources themselves, and on the other hand, they were to do with the social
org anisation for learning within the centres and the relationships they formed with
staff and fellow learners. In order to understand how they became committed ICT
lang uag e learners these two areas will be examined further and considered tog ether.
Becoming an ICT -based ESOL learner: IT literacy and tutors make a
difference
Previous research on learning in ICT learning centres (Kambouri et al., 2001) has
identified the effect of learning sty les, prior IT experiences and the culture of the
learning centre on learners' perceptions of their success with ICT -based learning .
Kambouri et al. (2001) pointed out that IT -phobic learners and those at the lower
end of the basic skills continuum required more tutor support until their confidence
and skills had increased. Initially learners were reluctant to work autonomously ,
preferring to learn in g roups. T his arg ument sug g ests that ICT literacy is more than
a cluster of skills. Instead, it is a set of literacy practices7 (Warschauer, 2004)
affected by social context. Cook and Smith (2004), researching informal learning in
UK Online centres, have developed the notion of a three-stag ed ICT literacy life
cy cle which they claim is instrumental in facilitating personal elearning trajectories.
T hey arg ue that the three stag es consist of firstly , simple use of ICT software,
secondly , g rowing confidence and eng ag ement with an online community throug h
the Internet and email and thirdly , eng ag ement in elearning using whatever sy stems
are available, thoug h they found less evidence of stag e three being reached in the
Online centres.
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494 S. Webb
T he present case study supports Kambouri et al.'s finding s in part. Previous IT
experience contributed to the learners' perceptions of successful computer-based
lang uag e learning , and tutors and the learning environment make a difference.
However, this study did not find a preference for learning in g roups, even thoug h
g roup attendance was encourag ed within the community -based learning centres.
T utors dealt with the need for basic computer literacy by ensuring all learners
were inducted for at least half an hour into how to use the computer and the
software. One tutor described the importance of induction in this way :
If y ou have never used a computer before it wouldn't be suitable but once y ou know
y our way around it's not so hard. If they haven't g ot the IT , they don't know about
clicking , ... not familiar with the windows environment ... if we g ive them that support
at the beg inning it does make it easier for us after because they do seem to be better if
they have that or to have that initial skills. (Open access centre H, T utor 2)
At another colleg e centre, similar views were expressed about the importance of a
g ood induction to encourag e the use of all the features of the software:
I think it would be confusing if all the features of the screen weren't explained to them
at the beg inning ... T here is so much to offer there and they would miss quite a lot if
they weren't explicitly shown what was where. (Open access centre F, T utor 1)
When such g uidance was g iven it resulted in learners, even those who had not used a
computer before, becoming very enthusiastic about the packag e and g aining
confidence in their computing skills as well as their lang uag e skills. One such learner
at a community centre said she liked 'the g ames' and 'the computer'. Her tutor
concurred with this view and said:
Some of them have never used a mouse ... but she picked it up quite quickly . It's fairly
straig htforward to g rasp. I think they do well. Part of the excitement of it is the new
technolog y and it's g iven them [confidence]. (Community centre HW, T utorl)
IT induction was not necessary for all. T here were some learners who had been
educated bey ond a basic school level within their country of orig in, and they were
likely to be more IT literate and able to work more independently from the
beg inning . T hese learners were more likely also to be found at the open access
colleg e centres where the support tutoring was g eneric, rather than at the community
centres, where the tutors were ESOL specialists. T his was fortunate because it
meant the more qualified learners at the open access centres, who were more able to
cope with less specialist support, had less to learn in order to make adequate use of
the software's features. Being familiar and comfortable with IT was clearly reg arded
as an advantag e by learners. Even if their IT skills were weak, the more qualified
learners already saw themselves as competent learners and educational achievers and
so they trusted their ability to manag e their own prog ress throug h the prog ramme.
One such learner (qualified to deg ree level and with professional qualifications, but
unable to work in this field because her qualifications were not recog nised in the UK
and her Eng lish was poor) illustrated this ability to learn independently . She
explained that she had developed her understanding of what was required by taking
a computer skills packag e first:
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Can ICT reduce social exclusion? 495
T he packag e is very clear, it's very clever. While y ou're doing this y ou're thinking what
else is there ...it is very easy and clear ... You can find y our way . If y ou're familiar with
the method, y ou see a button and y ou know to push it, y ou know that it is the same, y ou
know the way . (Open access centre H, female learner, Iranian, ag ed 35)
Even learners who were less well qualified were able to develop the learning centre
'ethos' of independent study providing the tutors org anised individual induction and
some ong oing support, as this comment from a colleg e centre manag er and IT
assistant illustrates:
the learners have been quite independent ... they have come into the Open Access and
seen that it is an area where y ou have to be reasonably independent because every body
comes to do specific tasks they have ... caug ht onto the ethos of the thing ... g ained a lot
of confidence ... coming in for themselves, g etting their disks, g etting their books and
just g oing off to the computer and loading it all up. (Open access centre B, T utor 2)
However, in the community centres where tutors were more resistant to the learning
centre ethos and reg arded computer-based learning as an adjunct to traditional
classroom-based teaching , not surprising ly , learners did not exhibit the same level of
independence in the use of the software. T his sug g ests that the development of ICT
literacy is related to the social context of learning as well as influenced by the skills
that learners bring to learning and the specific skills 'taug ht' during a learning
period. T he two community centres in the study were examples where learning was
less self-reliant. At these centres the tutoring staff encourag ed learners to attend at
specific times to recreate traditional classroom learning g roup dy namics and develop
peer support to sustain individual motivation:
this g roup is quite enthusiastic any way because they all more or less know each other.
(Community centre Q, T utorl)
Yet, whilst the learners at these centres were just as positive about their experiences
as learners at the more open access colleg e centres, they admitted to reluctance to
use some features of the packag e to practise speaking because they felt these needed
privacy . T utors attributed this reluctance to use the voice recording facilities mainly
to the phy sical org anisation of the centres, which offered little space for private
conversation. At the HW community centre, the tutor claimed that the learners did
not use this facility in a room set up as a computer classroom because 'T hey 're
feeling exposed' (HWT 2). And learners said they did not use this because 'there is
not g ap' (between the computers), instead they would prefer to use it at home. T his
learner went on to say that:
I am having difficulties ... not speaking , in listening ... teacher is better because in the
class we discuss with others and with teacher and she asking more questions.
(Community centre HW, female learner, Serbo-Croat, ag ed 24).
Interesting ly , whilst the specialist ESOL tutors in the community centres soug ht to
encourag e learning as a social practice they did not acknowledg e that by encourag ing
g roup-based learning they may have devalued individualised interaction with the
software and hindered the development of more independent ICT literacy skills,
including learners recording and evaluating their own speaking . Althoug h all learners
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496 S. Webb
found the software easy to use providing they had some induction and had some
basic IT skills, the extent to which they operated as independent learners varied in
relation to their previous IT experiences, their previous education experiences and
the ethos encourag ed by the learning centres. Learners seemed more likely to be
using the full rang e of the software facilities within the open access learning centres,
when these fostered independent learning within a supported environment in which
learners could ask for help when needed, rather than at the community centres where
ESOL tutors provided closer g uidance on the use and practices with the software.
T utors in the open access centres made a considerable effort to humanise their
environment and make it 'very calm' (centre H, T utor 2) by decorating the room
with plants, welcoming all users, in some cases by offering hot drinks, and eng ag ing
users in conversation about themselves and their lives bey ond. T hese g eneric
support tutors were aware of their limited expertise in ESOL support and of the
potential for the rows of computers to intimidate newcomers, and drew on their
other resources to encourag e learners. One said:
[It's] important to basic skills tuition to break down that barrier. (Open access centre F,
T utor 1)
Open access centre tutors (all female) used their personal and social skills to support
the learners in feeling comfortable and confident to work independently , to ensure
'that learners feel at ease ... and if they need any help they come to us in a relaxed
environment' (Open access centre H, T utor 2). Equally , learners valued knowing
there was someone they could turn to for help:
T hey 're very important factors, the people. If y ou think that there is somebody
responsible and y ou can ask that is very g ood, but all the time, I don't think y ou need it.
(Open access centre H, female learner, Pakistani, ag ed 25)
T here was also some evidence that learners at some of the colleg e centres developed
peer support for their learning either because tutors encourag ed and made use of this
or because enthusiastic learners simply encourag ed their friends to accompany them.
At one colleg e centre this tutor noted:
One g entleman is Serb and he started it himself and then told a friend about it and
althoug h his friend's spoken Eng lish isn't very g ood, he is quite g ood at reading and his
writing is sort of reasonable, so he tends to do a lot of the translation support, like when
I was explaining to him how to g et on the sy stem, he was translating it for him so that
his friend knew how to do it, so it was really quite g ood because BL1 is very keen on the
course, he thoug ht it was very g ood. He has been to other classes and not found it as
useful and his friend has been in constantly from the time that he broug ht him. (Open
access centre B, T utor 2)
At another colleg e centre, a more experienced learner provided support to her
friend:
My friend, when she asks, she asks me. In our lang uag e we say one blind leading the
other. (Female learner, Iranian, ag ed 35, Open access centre H)
Such interactions within these formal colleg e learning resource centre environments
sug g est that in spite of the appearance that the learners were spending the majority of
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Can ICT reduce social exclusion? 497
their time in a one-to-one relationship with the computer acting as tutor, even in
these setting s learning was a social activity , just as it had been constructed in the
more whole 'class' based community setting s. T hese experiences provide some
counter to the claims that the pedag og ic practices associated with using ICT ig nore
the social side of learning (Green & Lucas, 1999). What at first sig ht seemed to be a
form of learning that did not encompass any broader cultural experiences
paradoxically may have been more saturated with cultural learning than some
traditional classrooms. T hus, the case study provides an interesting counter to the
account of lang uag e learning presented by Pulverness (2000, p. 1) as follows:
Conventional accounts of recent ELT history rig htly identify the advent of
Communicative Lang uag e T eaching (CLT ) in the late 70s/early 80s as a sig nificant
turning point. T he paradig m shift from an approach based larg ely on form and
structure to a plurality of approaches informed by a concern for meaning introduced a
new 'reality principle' to sy llabus desig n and classroom delivery . One unintended side
effect, however, has been the marg inalising , or even the exclusion, of the cultural
dimension of lang uag e learning .
Further evidence of the power of the community of practice to work in other more
neg ative way s for ICT -based ESOL learning was found in the way some ESOL
trained tutors soug ht to peripheralise the practices of g eneric tutoring because it
permitted learners more autonomy in choosing how to use the software. For
example, whilst many learners worked throug h the packag e in a linear way , they did
so in the knowledg e that they were choosing to study in this way rather than passively
accepting objectives set by the packag e desig ners or by tutors. At the open access
centre H, an ESOL support tutor (male), who was employ ed by the colleg e and was
broug ht in by the centre staff at the point learners were ready to prog ress to other
prog rammes, was critical of the g eneric support tutors (female). He felt that more
specialist advice and g uidance was needed, at an earlier stag e, to ensure that learners
were study ing at what he reg arded as the appropriate level within the ESOL
curriculum. T he learner disag reed with this learning aim. T he ESOL specialist tutor
said:
some of the students seem to have started courses which aren't necessarily appropriate
to them ... the one I was just talking to, she'd actually done an ESOL course at a hig her
level. T his course is not all that suitable. (Open access centre H, T utor 5)
But the learner commented:
It was very g ood because I'm the sort of people who likes to start something from the
beg inning . I'm not the sort who likes to just g o to a class and start talking to people, I
like something ... from the beg inning and I like the packag es because of this y ou g o step
by step ... I found many thing s that I didn't notice or know lang uag e that I thoug ht that
I knew the basic but in this packag e I find it. I found that I was rig ht I had many
mistakes. (Open access centre H, female learner, Iranian, ag ed 35)
T hese concerns about how learners should use the software were expressed even
more strong ly at the community centres by the ESOL trained tutors. T hey were the
most likely to sug g est that learners needed more g uidance to help understand the
role of the packag e in their learning . T here were clear echoes here of tutors re/
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498 S. Webb
mediating ICT -based learning into an adjunct of the classroom activities that they
constructed:
I don't ag ree with [providing g eneric reactive tutor support] ... in order to optimise the
end results, y ou need a tutor there to explain the concept and ask the g rammar concept
... so that they know what they 're doing ... it's [the software] not a teaching facility . It is
a practice ... It's practice, it's complementary , complementary support. (Community
centre HW, T utor 1)
And at the other community centre, support staff (QT 1) commented on the
importance of keeping reg ular checks on learners' activities at the terminals:
Well, the one who it is difficult for just needs a lot of attention because he needs
g uiding , steering towards the bits that he can do and helping , he needs help. T he other
two y ou have g ot to keep y our ey e on them because they quite often seem to be doing
something but then if y ou g et to know the CD y ou realise that they are actually sitting
there doing absolutely nothing and I think it is sometimes that they aren't quite sure
what to do next and waiting to see if something is g oing to happen, they need some
g uiding throug h that. (Community centre Q, T utor 1)
It is possible that these learners were doing 'absolutely nothing ', but the learners
were still attending and claimed to find the software useful. Perhaps the answer to
this puzzle is to be found in the arg ument that these learners are marg inally
positioned in their host society and so valued any opportunity to be g iven the 'rig ht
to speak' (Norton, 2000, p. 8). Some evidence for this idea can be found in the
comments learners made about the relevance of the packag e to their every day lives
and the non-linear way they neg otiated their way throug h the packag e selecting
topics that fitted with their specific interests of the moment; for example:
T oday is more the interview theme because I'm g oing to do that, I've g ot one on
Saturday and I'm g oing to have, I hope, a lot. T he idea is to g et confidence. (Open
access centre H, female learner, Pakistani, ag ed 25)
In spite of these differences in the rang e of activities learners used at the two ty pes of
learning centres, and the most positive views being expressed by those at the open
access centres, rather than the community -based centres, all learners were operating
at the lower end of the ICT literacy life cy cle identified by Cook and Smith (2004).
In other words, they were eng ag ed in a simple use of software and all learners
identified features within the packag e that increased their motivation. T he effect of
these features on becoming an ICT -based ESOL learner will be examined next.
Becoming an ICT -based ESOL learner: the dig ital as a learning space for
marg inalised learners
When learners talked positively about learning ESOL throug h ICT they frequently
identified features and content in the dig ital format itself that had helped to increase
their motivation and confidence. For example, they cited the way the software made
learning seem fun, as in the g ames and quizzes; and made learning seem to be a
private activity , which reduced any embarrassment factor; and they described how it
acted as a private tutor that can speak the learners' first lang uag e. Several learners
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Can ICT reduce social exclusion? 499
also mentioned they liked the inbuilt tests and they were proud of their success in
these. One open access centre (H), recog nising the sig nificance of this to learners,
printed out results sheets to make laminated 'certificates' to be taken home.
Second lang uag e learning theory sug g ests that self-monitoring is an important
motivator in developing independent learning and desig ning g ood CALL materials
(Chapelle, 2001). Not surprising ly , the software includes tests and records of activity
within each 'lesson' to allow learners to monitor their improvement throug hout the
course. T his learner found useful the facilities that allowed her to g aug e her relative
streng ths and weaknesses:
Well, at least now I know what I have to improve but it is more [difficult] improving .
(Female learner, Iranian, ag ed 35, Open access centre H)
Success on these tests also increased confidence for learners, such as this one:
It make me feel more confident ... after learning one part, it make me feel confident to, I
pick the exam, I alway s like to take the test. (Male learner, Chinese, ag ed 18, Open
access centre S)
A related feature of the software that could help motivation is the self-manag ement
element of the packag e. Interesting ly , this facility to repeat and manag e one's own
learning is not reg arded as tedious drill and practice in listening and speaking . For
some, it can be fun, especially the g ames and role play s:
I enjoy ed the film ... y ou can speak with the partners in the film ... y ou can be an actress
in the film, it's very interesting ... I can practise my speaking with other people. (Male
learner, Chinese ag ed 18, Open access centre S)
T he second aspect that was important for some learners was the feeling of privacy ,
and this was what made the packag e special and contributed to its value over a
traditional classroom. T his is because the learners could ask it to repeat thing s many
times without being made to feel stupid; as one said.
... computer for me only . T he class is g ood y es, but this to teach to every one same, y es?
When y ou and computer ... it doesn't tell y ou any time when y ou want to g o on same
word, so y ou can [ask it] hundred times. And she [the classroom tutor] g oing to g et bad
and say y ou stupid or what y es, but a computer no, not g et too embarrassed ...
sometimes y ou have a problem to understand, y our computer is wonderful. (Female
learner, Venezuelan, ag ed 30-35, Open access centre F)
Such privacy also reduces the feeling s of embarrassment for this learner:
It's because when y ou are on y our own ... something like that like the pronunciation
sometimes I'm embarrassed when y ou are with someone Eng lish and y ou are try ing to
say one word and all the time they 're correcting y ou. And then when y ou can't [say it]
... it's like y ou have more courag e to do it. (Female learner, Iranian, ag ed 35, Open
access centre H)
For another learner privacy meant that the computer was acting as a private tutor in
the way that Levy (1997) had sug g ested is increasing ly possible with newer
interactive technolog ies. T his is because it would repeat thing s until the learner had
been successful whereas their experience of a traditional class in their own country
had been:
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500 S. Webb
terrible for me because it is 40 students one class ... [T he software] help me because I
learn ... it is because this one teacher is computer and repeats, lots of time, repeats
repeat, repeat, in colleg e teachers no repeat, it is finished. In last test 100% because I
repeat, I learn. (Male learner, Serbian, ag ed 44, Open access centre B)
Repetition was reg arded by learners as a learning strateg y best conducted in private:
I'm very shy about speaking Eng lish ... and alone I g et on with it, because it doesn't
bother me but with other people in front, I would be very inhibited. (Female learner,
Mexican, ag ed 34, Open access centre S)
Enabling the development of this learning strateg y was a key to the underpinning
pedag og y of the software, but it required an appropriate org anisation of the learning
centre to enable this to happen. Even in one open access learning centre the speaking
facility was underused until 'pods' were introduced in which the computers were
separated a little from each other. In contrast, the phy sical lay out of the community
centres was desig ned for whole class social interaction and privacy was more difficult
to achieve. T his affected the extent to which learners in these centres used the
speaking aspects of the software:
I alway s use vocabulary g rammar because I don't like to hear my voice. If I can use this
in home, at home I can repeat it, but not here. (Female learner, Hung arian, ag ed 21,
Community centre HW)
Also, the 'computer as tutor' permitted learners to behave 'selfishly ' or say thing s
that would seem impolite if spoken face to face, as this learner illustrates:
And selfish words ... When I want somebody to speak to say it ag ain, when I speak the
human being is British I will say pardon, where with [this] I can click it, it can say it
ag ain, where it is hard to say pardon ... may be sometimes I said probably twice, two
pardons or three pardons, I cannot understand, but somebody will g et ang ry with me.
(Male learner, Chinese, ag ed 18, Open access centre S)
Another example was learners choosing to focus on aspects that would support their
integ ration into the social life of their local milieu. Frequently , it was this aspect of
the packag e that they valued rather than the themes that explicitly taug ht
employ ability or citizenship skills, such as using the telephone to make an
appointment with a doctor. For example, this learner wished to focus on her
pronunciation:
every time I find examples of sentences that used every day and it's very helpful to me
and I hear thing s that otherwise I wouldn't recog nise, perhaps it wasn't important or
something , perhaps they were talking to each other, but I wanted to know what it was
say ing . It bothered more, I couldn't g o and ask them what are y ou say ing , they wouldn't
like it but I can ask them more and more and I can recog nise better. (Open access centre
H, female learner, Iranian, ag ed 35)
Another learner commented on the value of learning an appropriate spoken reg ister:
It's very g ood, y es, because y ou use outside ag ain ... we need that on the street. (Open
access centre, male learner, Somalian, ag ed 35)
Other learners commented on the value of an exposure to colloquial lang uag e,
particularly in the spoken medium:
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Can ICT reduce social exclusion? 501
At the beg inning if I was my self with my knowledg e and I am in a restaurant and my
friend comes I'd say 'I am here', 'Come here' something like that and when y ou see that
on that movie he just calls the name 'over here' and it was so simple that y ou can use
'over' to say that I am over here. He doesn't say I am over here, he just say s 'over here',
so I've used it. (Open access centre, female learner, Iranian, ag ed 35)
T he sense of power and control these learners talk about when describing their
experiences of using the computer for lang uag e learning is very salutary . It convey s
something about the learners' experiences not only in traditional classrooms but also
about their place and position in the wider society . Norton (2000) found adult
women, mig rants to Canada, learning Eng lish experienced similar difficulties in
finding enoug h opportunities to practise their lang uag e use either in traditional
ESOL classrooms or in their every day interactions. Yet this is paradoxical because
current second lang uag e acquisition literature promotes the use of authentic
lang uag e communicative practice in the classroom (Pulverness, 2000). In order to
understand why ESOL learners had difficulty practising their Eng lish speaking ,
Norton has drawn on Bourdieu. She has arg ued that ethnic minority Eng lish
lang uag e learners are positioned subordinately in the societies they have mig rated to,
even when they may have occupied positions of hig her status in their country of
orig in. If they are in employ ment, often they are not in positions where they are
expected to eng ag e in equal conversations with their employ ers, or with the people
they may come into contact with throug h this employ ment because often they are
involved in service work. T heir marg inal position and mig ratory status means they
live in areas where there are few opportunities to eng ag e in conversations with native
Eng lish speakers on an equal footing ; they have few opportunities for social
encounters with these people. When unequal power relations operate in the
encounters they experience throug h their employ ment or with people in professional
roles such as teachers and landlords, Norton concludes that ESOL learners do not
have the 'rig ht to speak' or the opportunity for neg otiating the meaning of lang uag e
and questioning lang uag e speakers. Yet neg otiations over the meaning of lang uag e
are the strateg ies that lang uag e theorists reg ard as essential for the development of
effective lang uag e learning .
Some lang uag e learning theorists recog nise that lang uag e classes are not providing
the space for effective lang uag e learning . For example, Nunan arg ues, 'T here is
g rowing evidence that, in communicative classes, interactions may , in fact, not be
very communicative' (Nunan, 1987, p. 144). Similarly , Leg utke and T homas have
found:
In spite of trendy jarg on in textbooks and teacher's manuals, very little is actually
communicated in the L2 classroom. T he way it is structured does not seem to stimulate
the wish of learners to say something , nor does it tap what they mig ht have to say . ...
Learners do not find room to speak as themselves, to use lang uag e in communicative
encounters, to create text, to stimulate responses from fellow learners, or to find
solutions to relevant problems. (Leg utke & T homas, 1991, pp. 8-9)
Given these criticisms of traditional ESOL classrooms it is not surprising that the
learners in this case study said that the computer-based learning packag es did offer
them something they could not find in traditional classrooms and in their every day
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502 S. Webb
lang uag e encounters. T hey described how the learning experience increased their
confidence to feel they have a 'rig ht to speak' in situations involving the host
community . And the software packag e, according to the learners, offered some
potential for them to question the lang uag e 'in use', albeit not in real situations and
not involving full neg otiation of lang uag e meaning . Nevertheless, it seems likely that
along with the facility to monitor their prog ress, it is the facilities for learners to be
selfish, to question the software and to practise in private without fear of ridicule that
helped their motivation and contributed to their positive views of the learning
experience in comparison to some previous classroom experiences.
ICT -based ESOL learning and social inclusion: some conclusions
T his article beg an by exploring the issue of whether ICT -based learning is an
effective method for widening participation or simply the latest form of learning
technolog y , which, by itself, cannot overcome entrenched social inequalities. T he
case study has shown that thing s are not that simple. It has shown that there is a need
to examine these ideas further throug h empirical research. T o date, there has been
little research examining ICT and social inclusion even thoug h this is a central focus
of much policy and practice in the UK. T his article is a contribution to filling this
research g ap by examining the experience of ICT -based ESOL learners.
T he case study has found some support for the arg uments of Selwy n et al. (2001)
that learner participation mig ht not be increased by the use of such technolog ies.
Many of the learners in the present case study were already eng ag ed on learning
trajectories. However, in contrast to this previous research, this case study has found
that when the new media are used in way s that take account of the social aspects of
learning , ICT has the potential to increase motivation, and enable ESOL learners to
take g reater control of their learning . It confirms the finding s of Fisher et al. (2004)
and Servon (2002) about confidence g ained by the hig h participating ESL learners
in Community T echnolog y Centres in the USA.
T he case study has found that previously marg inalised learners (adult speakers of
other lang uag es) claimed that the ICT -based learning provided them with
opportunities to listen to authentic lang uag e in use (albeit vicariously ) and to
practise their speaking skills in way s they often could not in traditional classrooms or
in their every day lives. Positive experiences of learning ESOL throug h ICT were
created. Learners attended ICT -based learning centres with their own ag endas,
often an urg ent need to improve their Eng lish in order to obtain work, which
propelled them into using the prog ramme conscientiously . T heir motivational
orientations rang ed from integ rative, to instrumental, thoug h this needs to be seen as
a continuum rather than a dichotomy . Many learners were located at various stag es
on this continuum, rather than at either end and for some, ICT -based learning may
have been the only option available to them.
In sum, in this underresearched area the case study has shown three key thing s.
Firstly , to become a successful ICT -based ESOL learner, previous and/or
concurrent IT experience helps learners' motivation and participation, and tutor
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Can ICT reduce social exclusion? 503
support is critical in fostering these IT skills and encourag ing independent learning
and prog ression within an ICT literacy life cy cle. Secondly , there are features within
the software that encourag e self-monitoring and enable learners to focus on learning
objectives within the packag e that meet with their own interests and needs, which
may not be met by other forms of learning or practice of the lang uag e. In this way ,
computer-assisted lang uag e learning (CALL) can offer a space for marg inalised
lang uag e learners to practise and neg otiate lang uag e meaning s, and throug h this it
further sustains their interest in learning by this method. T hirdly , learning throug h
ICT within these ICT -based learning centres is a social practice in which the role of
the tutor is sig nificant in constructing a phy sical and social space for learning and for
interacting with fellow learners and tutors as well as the computer. Open access
colleg e centres and the g eneric tutoring provided (in spite of some drawbacks in
providing lang uag e specialist feedback),8 was more likely to enable learners to use
the full rang e of the software than the specialist tutoring provided in community
centres. T hese two ty pes of centres were distinctly different social learning spaces
where particular learning practices were either encourag ed or discourag ed. T utors
working with ICT -based media can encourag e g roup or individualised learning or a
combination of these. In so doing , they may encourag e learners to exploit the
media's potential to the full or they may seek to re-mediate it and recreate traditional
classroom experiences. In the cases where learners use the full potential of the media
they act autonomously and chart their own learning path throug h the packag e,
sometimes to the consternation of tutors who have other ideas about how learning
should proceed. Nevertheless, autonomous learners are more likely to claim that
ICT -based learning has provided them with opportunities to practise their lang uag e
skills in private and safe environments that are not normally open to them as learners
in traditional classroom setting s and in their lives as marg inalised members of
society . For such learners, with supportive tutors, ICT -based learning was a medium
that encourag ed learners to imag ine a future of g reater inclusion in the host
community .
Notes
1. Ufi, the University for Industry , operates under the brand name of learndirect in Eng land,
Wales and Northern Ireland and in a separate form in Scotland. It provides a telephone help
line advising people of learning opportunities in a rang e of institutions as well as providing , in
Eng land, Wales and Northern Ireland, its own ICT -based prog rammes in learndirect centres
and associated community -based centres with UKOnline.
2. ELLIS-Eng lish Lang uag e Learning and Instruction Sy stem (details of which can be found at
www.ellis.com/company /index.shtml) is a learning packag e adapted for the Eng lish market
and aimed at equipping speakers of other lang uag es with the lang uag e skills for work, home
and leisure. It consists of scripted video sequences using native speakers in a variety of
every day setting s. T he software enables the learner to examine the dialog ue in these sequences
from a rang e of perspectives. T hese include the following : vocabulary -new vocabulary is
hig hlig hted and explained; g rammar-key g rammatical structures and verb tenses are
hig hlig hted and explained, further examples can be found and there are opportunities to
self-test knowledg e and understanding with a variety of tasks and tests; pronunciation-the
learner is shown how difficult sounds are made and can practise these; role play -the learner
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504 S. Webb
can play one of the roles in the dialog ue, record themselves alone or with others and play back
the dialog ue to check their pronunciation; repetition-the learner can play back any piece of
dialog ue at different speeds to practise their listening skills; and finally the learner can monitor
their prog ress by completing the end tests both within the packag e and in take-home books for
each unit and level.
3. T he study was funded by Ufi Ltd. T he results of the study were used to inform further
developments in the desig n of the packag e, the pedag og ic needs to enable learners to use the
packag e successfully in learndirect centres prior to the packag e being made available at centres
across the country . T he research team comprised Pam Cole, Anita Franklin, David Hy att,
T oni Ibarz and Sue Webb.
4. All learners participating in the piloting of ELLIS had sufficient skill with Eng lish to be
interviewed in this rather than their first lang uag e, thoug h care was taken to ensure they felt at
ease in this situation.
5. T he one workplace site in the Ufi pilot failed to recruit learners. However, the site was
analy sed and the tutor, who also worked at another centre, was interviewed.
6. It must also be stressed that since this study was based on a pilot introduction of the CD-
ROM, word of mouth recruitment may have increased the recruitment of learners already
eng ag ed on a learning trajectory . Gorard et al. (1999) arg ue that there are four learning
trajectories that reflect an overall lifetime pattern of participation of an individual and this is
predictable from their socio-economic and educational backg round. T he four trajectories are:
lifelong , delay ed, transitional and non-participant.
7. See de Castell and Luke (1986) for an account of different literacy paradig ms. T he use of
literacy practices rather than skills indicates that literacy is a relative social construct and needs
to be understood within its social context.
8. See executive summary of full report (Webb et al., 2003), which identified the need for some
specialist ESOL tutoring in open access centres to support the use of workbooks and to g ive
feedback on assessment tests.
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