Values, norms and culture

For the most part, the students placed a tremendous value on the learning that occurred in the classroom. When they discussed their learning, they focused on the development of their literacy skills, and to some extent literacy tasks, rather than literacy practices. Most of the students discussed literacy development in relation to the improvement of spelling, grammar, and vocabulary skills. Only Nadine focused on the ways in which she would use literacy outside the classroom. Although she did emphasize the importance of learning skills, she also talked about actively using literacy outside the classroom and the personal feelings she experienced when doing so.

Both Hannah and Marion said that going to school and finding a job were equally important in their lives, but continued to focus on the value of learning grammar, spelling, Hannah said,

I love grammar. I like to learn more language, more English, how to talk. I believe if I don't learn grammar, I will talk broken English. My writing and reading I am comfortable. What I need is more vocabulary and grammar.

Nadine, whose first language is English, also emphasized the importance of learning grammar: "You learn grammar and to make a sentence, to understand which to go where, and to put [on] the first one a capital. I didn't know this." Like Hannah, she also said she felt comfortable with her reading abilities: "It feel good because if you go outside at least you have to know to read something." But Nadine, unlike Hannah, frequently mentioned the importance of literacy in relation to its public uses. She said she wanted to improve the way she did various literacy tasks outside the classroom, such as completing job applications, reading forms and understanding difficult words on signs. She also alluded to her active use of literacy, her practice of literacy, and commented that she no longer felt embarrassed in public situations that require her to engage in literacy activities.