Madelaine Wank, FCLC 2025

MAJOR: English

BIO: I am from Wheaton IL, a small town in the suburbs of Chicago, and am currently a Junior at Fordham University studying English. This summer I was luck enough to receive funding from the Dean's Summer Research Grant to conduct ethnographic research in Johannesburg, South Africa. This research helped open my eyes to the real world applications related to language, and my major as an English student.

PROJECT TITLE: The Three2Six Program in Johannesburg: Teaching English to the Children of Refugees, Asylum-Seekers and Other Migrants in Johannesburg, South Africa

MENTOR: Ronald Nerio, Department of Sociology

ABSTRACT: This project is a study of the considerations and attitudes around the choice to teach English at the Three2Six program– an educational program in Johannesburg, South Africa, that provides education, along with transportation and meals, to hundreds of children of refugees, asylum-seekers, and other migrants who are from, or whose parents are from, Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, Somalia, Zimbabwe, and other countries. Through ethnographic research methods, such as participant observation and interviews, it investigates the questions: How does the program teach English to children from a variety of language backgrounds? How do refugee children learn about “South Africanness'' through this English education program? It uses an analysis of field experience to show that language education was a foremost concern of the teachers and administrators at the program and to explain the ways in which the program viewed English education as parallel to future success in Johannesburg. A literature review is used to expand the study’s focus; it places the Three2Six program in the context of its location in South Africa– a multilingual country with a history of colonization and apartheid that recognizes 11 official languages– and, more specifically, in the multicultural city of Johannesburg. The study reveals the complexity of the forces at play in the choice of English education at the Three2Six program. It argues that English language education is not simply related to language but encompasses concerns about immigration, xenophobia, and identity.