A Welcome Dictionary: refugee families using dictionary resources to support English Language Learning -: A Report on A S Hornby Dictionary Research Award Project

Despite the scale across the globe and the significance for families, research on refugee language education has remained, over the course of the last 45 years, rare. This research redresses some of this gap. Situated in a refugee resettlement volunteer-led language education project in Northern Ireland, this dictionary-focused research investigated how refugee-background families use a bilingual dictionary and associated digital lexicographic resources as they move into local communities. This evidence of practices, preferences and problems of dictionary use, which comes directly from the families themselves, allows for a more informed approach to learner training and volunteer/teacher training. It has also provided insight into the lived experiences of families trying to learn English in a resettlement context. These insights challenge the assumptions that living in a ‘host’ country alone will enable the development of language proficiency and that the provision of formal language classes will be sufficient to enable families to live, work, and integrate with the communities where they have been placed. It also offers a number of very clear paths as to how the desired outcomes of the development of language skills to support integration in communities can be achieved differently.