The booklet is designed to provide English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) practitioners with background information and ideas to help refugees cope with a new cultural environment and promote mental health. Chapters address these topics: acculturation and biculturalismin the refugee experience; stress in ie settlement (the typos of stresses experience in resettlement, the importance of social support in coping with stress); mental illness in the refugee experience stress and mental illness, posttraumatic stress disorder, availability of mental health services, the role of the ESL teacher in helping refugees with mental health, prevention of mental illness); the connections between ESL and mental health (the classroom as a safe environment, the importance of English and the teacher, English as a key tool to cultural adjustment and employment, appropriate roles for the ESL teacher); and ESL activities to address mental health issues in the classroom. An article illustrating how cultural perspectives manifest themselves in the classroom is appended. (Description from source)
