How To Effectively Support Our EAL Students In The Classroom

Research makes it clear that teacher quality makes the most difference to student achievement. It is therefore imperative that classrooms are filled with high quality practitioners who are steadily developed over time through a robust and rigorous CPD plan.

To create a truly inclusive learning environment, leaders must ensure that quality first teaching is embedded within each classroom. The foundation of mastering a curriculum is having full access to all aspects of that curriculum.

All English as an additional language (EAL) learners have the ability to master the curriculum within which they study: with the right support and appropriate learning scaffolds, EAL student will be able to catch up with native speakers who are working at age-related levels.

When supporting students with EAL, it is important to note that EAL is not synonymous with special educational needs (SEN) and the automatic connection should not be made. Although students with EAL may have an additional educational need, this is in no way different to any additional educational need that a native English speaker may have.

If you are unsure of whether your EAL student has a special educational need as well, then there are a few things the school could do to check.

• Conduct a language assessment in the student’s native tongue. If learning issues are identified in the student’s native language, then it may impact their progress in learning English and accessing the wider curriculum;
• Conduct wider assessments, including spatial reasoning assessments, non-verbal reasoning assessments, and quantitative reasoning assessments. This will identify any issues in other cognitive domains that are unrelated to language;
• Utilise assessments that identify SEN in students. There are a number of these assessments that cover all age groups and even those that have been identified already as having EAL. Your school’s SENCO will be able to suggest the best-fit SEN assessment for your students;
• Continuous observation and the monitoring of the students’ progress and attainment can also be very telling. EAL students in which SEN is suspected should continue to be monitored through lesson and playtime observation and data tracking.

Triangulating observations and tracking with the range of assessments stated above and the feedback received from specialists and carers can support an early identification of SEN within EAL students. Early identification of what a student’s needs are reduces frustration for the student and prevents a potential misdiagnosis of their needs.

The great thing about quality first teaching is that it benefits all students, not only those with EAL or SEN. Below, I will share a few tips on how to support language acquisition within your classroom for your EAL students.

• Encourage children to communicate in their mother tongue;
• Use a variety of resources, including widgits (symbol-based language) to give instructions, and bilingual resources (including books and dictionaries);
• Allow for collaboration among students and increase opportunity for peer-to-peer talk;
• Use language structures to reduce cognitive load when students are attempting to formulate well-constructed sentences;
• Pre-teach key vocabulary and important topic-related information to help build background knowledge and understanding;
• Colourful semantics can help as a scaffolded tool to support students when practicing constructing grammatically correct sentences;
• Play games that utilise language such as role plays, rap battles or fun playground performances.

It is important that everything stated above is underpinned by a robust wellbeing programme for all students, and in particular those with EAL. I believe that students should ‘Maslow before they can Bloom’.

 

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