POLICE ESOL Cover - Cities of Migration

Negative experiencesA lot of EFL/ESOL material asks students to talk about their countries and even to compare them to theUK. We felt that it would be best to avoid discussing the police forces in the countries that the asylumseekers have fled from. All our materials therefore focus on the UK police and their role in helping thecommunity.ImpactPolice officer visits have been very successful. Learners have quickly overcome any initial nervousness andscepticism about the visiting police officers’ intentions and have felt able to ask questions and to raise issuesthat concern them. ESOL students told us of their frustrations at asking for information in English and feelingthat they are receiving conflicting information from different well-meaning sources. The project enabled themto obtain clear information from a reliable source, on subjects such as how to abide by the law with regardto driving documentation. The open and encouraging attitude of the officers has helped learners to relax,enjoy themselves and ask the questions they want to ask. Questions have covered several areas:• the life of the police officer, past, present and future, including training;• family feelings about the police officer's job;• the daily routine of the police officer;• the likes and dislikes of the police officer’s job;• the police uniform;• different sections and ranks within the police force; and,• arrests, formal cautions and community service.A Family ProgrammeSeveral women-only ESOL classes in Cardiff take place in primary schools. One school became aware ofthe fact that instances of racial harassment had been reported to the police, and the women and childrenattending these classes expressed their concern, even their fear. The ESOL class and their children(supported by the Ethnic Minority Achievement Service) spent a term exploring the community in whichthey live and the problems they were experiencing in that community, both in separate sessions and injoint parent-child sessions. A female police officer also visited the women and children in their classes. Itis hoped that the course enabled the women and children to feel better about the role of UK police, andto gain awareness of how the police can help them and how they can help the police, particularly in lightof the reported racist incidents.6