Abstract

Focusing primarily on how curriculum theory and assessment directly impact upon learning, this study explores learners’ lived experiences of studying GCSE English Language at a Further Education (FE) college in London. The aim of this research is to deepen understanding of why disengagement with formal modes of the study of English language is so prevalent among learners in FE. Analysing whether student engagement in English language learning can be increased by introducing more socially-situated literacies into vocational learning and language acquisition and development activities, this study also explores the role aesthetic experiences, such as interactions with music or art, might play in reuniting disengaged learners with the lived emotional experience of engaging in education.

This approach to exploring how students respond to the dis-connect between socially-situated literacies and functional literacies is informed by Gadamer’s Fusion of Horizons (2014). Subsequently, Gadamer’s work leads me to discussion of the respective works of Zimmerman (2015), Freire (1970), Dewey (2005, 2011) and Bernstein (1996, 2000).

It is argued that low attendance and disappointing outcomes in GCSE English resits in FE are symptoms of wider issues surrounding a deep-rooted disengagement with the study of language. Data collected and reported in this thesis suggest that learners can engage meaningfully with language when the mode of language they study more closely reflects the realities of their own cultural and social experiences.

Literature on this theme suggests that opinions around language that exist in some educational institutions may contribute to this disenfranchisement. At best, this highlights an excessive reliance on traditional values, but perhaps even more troubling, is the acceptance of a wider and rather elitist ideology regarding the ‘correct’ use of English. The assumption that there is one ‘correct’ way to use the English language is often coupled with the assumption that there is only one way in which ability with language can be assessed – through pen and paper examinations.

This study looks beyond and behind the view of what may be considered as ‘correct’ or ‘incorrect’ use of the English language. Instead, the focus of this research is upon how encouraging students to use language more appropriate to context, identity, and their socio-cultural environment through aesthetic experience, might assist them in re-connecting with language in an educational context.