Out-of-school language learning and educational equity

Resumen

This chapter explores existing scholarship on out-of-school learning at both a local (Catalan) and an international level. We particularly focus on research that documents foreign language learning and literacy development in both informal and nonformal education across diverse socioeconomic, linguistic and cultural contexts. Research shows that access to extracurricular initiatives and opportunities to engage in informal language learning can positively impact upon formal academic achievement and future professional trajectories, especially for economically under- resourced students, and thus can play a significant role in tackling socioeducational inequalities. These positive effects are enhanced when out-of-school initiatives focus on students' competences and build on their linguistic and cultural funds of knowledge to include their everyday communicative practices. However, while offer of and demand for out- of- school learning - and particularly of foreign language learning - have increased in recent years, so too have inequalities in participation between more and less affluent families, in part due to economic burdens such as access fees, and to public restraints on funding and scholarships.