Migrants’ Experience with Learning Host Society Languages in Barcelona, A Study of Different Learning Contexts

Abstract

This article presents the findings of a small-scale qualitative study conducted by the author in Barcelona, a multilingual city in Spain, with a huge population of migrant background on the experiences of learning host society languages by adult labour migrants from South Asia. The article answers the following questions: Why and how do adult migrants learn local languages in Barcelona? What are the challenges they face? The study identifies 3 types of contexts for learning local languages. It finds that apart from the government supported formal language learning centres adult migrants learn languages in alternative classrooms where the community plays a role as well as through translanguaging practices in social interactions. It concludes that there may be several ways of learning host society languages and there are several challenges as well but the process has a direct impact on the social integration of adult migrants.