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Scenario: You are moving to a new country (pick a country which has a different script such as China, Saudi Arabia or Bangladesh).  You can only take a suitcase with you.  Discuss your thoughts on the following groups of questions;

How would you feel about moving?

  • What would you take?
  • What would you leave behind?
  • Who would you miss?
  • What activities would you miss?

How would you feel about learning the language?

  • Do you think other people would speak English?
  • What if no one spoke English – how would you communicate?
  • Do you think you would be able to make friends?
  • How would you feel if people laughed at you when you tried to speak their language?

How would you feel about your work?

  • How would you understand the lessons?
  • How would you feel if you couldn’t write the alphabet/characters?
  • Which lessons do you think you would understand more easily?
  • What things could your class and teacher do to help you learn?
  • Each group could give a short oral presentation and together come up with a plan for the new arrival.

Plenary: Feedback the information from the groups. 

Progress the thinking: “Using your understanding of how someone may feel about arriving in a new place and not being able to speak the language – can you think of actual things we can do in our class or school to help our new classmate settle in?”

Put together an action plan as a class with up to 5 concrete ways they can help.

This article follows ''A Recipe for a Successful Start for New Arrivals in School.'

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Further learning - Blog

SEND support: Expressive language - Feelings & emotions

Created: Mon 13th Nov 2023

Learners may have difficulties expressing their own ideas, thoughts and feelings.

Tip or Idea: Name the emotions. Use puppets, flashcards or simply hide and uncover your own face. Who can be first to name the emotion? Extend by giving a reason why e.g. He is happy because…

Learning Village resource: Feelings Snakes & Ladders game - land on a picture. Describe it and move forward 1 space! (I am happy when…/I am sad when…/I am shocked when…)

EAL students writing

Hook in your EAL learners at the start of a writing lesson

Created: Wed 23rd Feb 2022

The traditional way to start a lesson with Secondary school learners is with a 'do now!' activity. It works. You get a focused start to the lesson, with students calmly settling into an activity as soon as they enter the room. Moving on – and introducing the ‘learning intention’ – however, can be a little more challenging. This is especially true for EAL learners, particularly if the lesson is a tricky or more academic one, such as a writing lesson, that may have negative connotations for some pupils.

Woman looking up with a lightbulb and question marks above her head

Acronyms used in English language teaching

Created: Tue 5th Sep 2023

I have been teaching English for over 20 years and in that time I have held various teaching titles; I had a different acronym depending on which country or school I was teaching in. Over the past 20 years, I have been an ESL, an EFL, an ESP, an ESOL and an EAL teacher. As you can see ELT - English Language Teaching - comes with a whole host of acronyms. I will identify and describe them below.

*All terms below refer to students whose mother tongue is not English and who are learning English.

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