Opportunities And Challenges: Afghan Youth Learning English

The focus of this study is to understand what the opportunities and or challenges are for Afghan immigrant youth in the process of acquiring the English language. This research documents the experiences of Afghan high school students in their effort to obtain the English language during several years of residence in Canada. Based on a one-on-one interview of eight participants, including: seven high-school students and one community leader; this study found that there were a number of opportunities used by the students to learn the English language and a number of factors that made learning English challenging. The opportunities that helped the students include, learning the language in informal settings, such as with friends, sports activities, the workplace, and the internet. The challenges that many of the students indicated, mainly involved formal programs in schools, for example, short time period spent in ESL classes, the facilitation of after-school help by other students who did not know the material well, and the embarrassment of participating in class discussion due to disrespect from classmates.