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New to English can be supported in many different ways. Here's one school's approach:
Assessment
All learning is based on assessment. Children arrive and sit a baseline assessment. After analysis of result children are provided with appropriate provision. Interim progress reports on progression in EAL, phonics and writing are reviewed every half term.
Beginners
Beginner EAL Learning Intervention (EAL Intervention)
They follow ‘Teaching English an An Additional Language 5-11: A Whole School Resource’ which offers survival language intervention for the early days. This replaces the in class Literacy lesson for a short period until children are able to access the next two steps. Progression in English for beginners is reassessed every half term to check on progress.
Intermediates
Intermediate new arrivals curriculum language support (out of class)
This support provides additional vocabulary and language structure support for those children attending differentiated Literacy in class.
EAL differentiated curriculum support (in class)
Working closely with an EAL teacher to provide language learning differentiation for intermediate learners.
Phonics
All new arrivals are assessed for phonics and provided with differentiated out of class lessons. Reading (with phonic based readers) is part of this. Progression in phonics is reassessed every half term to check on progress.
One to one support:
Where specific EAL needs are identified (for example, after a big write) the EAL teacher will work one to one with children to support their progress with these needs.
Staff Training
Staff training is provided for all staff in integrating language learning objectives alongside curriculum objectives to support all levels of EAL learner in class.
As exam season is coming up soon, this is the perfect opportunity for schools to rethink their current practices in supporting EAL children and families during this time. For multilingual families, exams can have the added stress of getting to know unfamiliar exam procedures, whilst facing their own language or cultural barriers. Below are some practical tips and strategies to help you offer high quality support to your EAL families during this demanding period.
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.
When I was teaching early literacy to adults some years ago, I had two teenage students from a refugee background join one of my classes. They were beginner-level English as an Additional language (EAL) learners and both were non-literate. They had been expelled from the local high school for fighting. At the time, there was a national fundraising campaign to support children in troubled parts of the world.