Download resource

Please enter your details to download this resource
Login
 

Enter your details to access this video

Or if you already have an account login to watch the video (if you don't you can register here).
Login

For those of us who are EAL teachers in school, selecting our language learning outcomes is only one consideration in our planning. Our students attend our lessons primarily to be able to access the language they are facing in their mainstream classes. This means that we need to be very clear about our context, and about what vocabulary and language structures are relevant to that context.

Take, for example, a Maths lesson in which the students are studying geometry and doing problems related to shape. The vocabulary required includes words such as bisect, centimetre and circumference and the names of shapes such as equilateral triangle. These words are all part of the academic language needed to succeed, but they don’t usually appear in a language classroom at low levels. If we use a contextual approach, we can integrate the content learning with the language learning. This is called CLIL (content and language integrated learning). We can create two different learning outcomes for the lesson, as seen in the resource accompanying this article.

Example of a CLIL lesson

First, I would teach how a prefix gives meaning to a word. For example: cent means 100; we have 100 cents in a Dollar or Euro and a century is 100 years. Likewise, bi = two, and we have two wheels on a bicycle; tri means three, and so on. Once they understand these prefixes, I refer to the Maths vocabulary and ask the students to apply the principle to a specific context to show that they understand what words like centimetre, bisect and circumference might mean. This involves decoding and problem-solving.

The second example you can find in the resource is from a Social Science lesson and integrates the topic of water conservation with listening and writing skills. The final activity consolidates both the curriculum and language learning and can be differentiated to suit individual learners. The key to successful CLIL teaching is ensuring that as teachers, we know exactly what we want to teach in terms of both the subject content and the language structure. Programmes such as the Learning Village enable us to do this more effectively.

Further learning - Blog

Child using graphic organiser
Created: Thu 4th Aug 2022

We all know that there can be resistance to writing in the EAL classroom. To break this barrier, we need to consider the reasons for this, which are often due to a lack of scaffolding and under-confident learners. Working through a process of reading a model text, deconstructing it and then reconstructing your own text by following a scaffold, leads to more satisfactory outcomes.

Change graphic
Created: Mon 25th Feb 2019

How can you take your EAL department forward to play a part in a whole school development strategy? Over the years, I have found that this can be a real challenge. A plan for a whole-school approach to EAL can have a significant impact, and not only benefits the EAL learners, but the whole school population.

Common themes

Blair and Bourne (1998) researched some successful schools and identified some common themes with regard to EAL:

group of students clustered round a teacher
Created: Wed 6th Dec 2023

Moving to and joining a new school is daunting for any child. It is essential that schools have procedures in place to support new arrivals with this transition (discussed in detail in our article here). However, it is important to consider that their parents may also be experiencing a similar transition, without necessarily having a network of support. If support is not provided, there is the potential for parents to struggle to access education, find employment and be part of the school or wider community.