From Reading to Story-Making: A Year-Long Reading Project with Refugee, Stateless and Undocumented Learners in an Alternative Learning Centre in Malaysia

This article reflects on a year-long English reading and writing project with 32 secondary students in an alternative learning centre in Malaysia. Working with refugee, stateless, and undocumented learners, many of whom had experienced disrupted schooling and, in some cases, had little or no prior literacy, I explore what happened when English lessons centred on shared reading, review writing, dialogue, and story making. Over time, students moved from hesitant responses to more confident acts of authorship, culminating in the creation of illustrated storybooks in English. Drawing on classroom texts and my reflections as a teacher- researcher, I consider how sustained engagement with narrative enabled students to position themselves as meaning makers rather than passive learners. The article suggests that long-term, narrative- based English projects can create spaces for voice, identity affirmation, and imagination in contexts where young people are routinely excluded from formal education.