Supporting English as an Additional Language (EAL) students in the classroom presents both challenges and opportunities. With a growing number of multilingual students in schools, we - teachers are tasked with ensuring these students can access both the curriculum and English language learning at the same time. However, when supported effectively, EAL students bring a wealth of cultural and linguistic diversity that can enhance the learning environment for everyone in our classrooms.
The Bell Foundation’s Five Principles for Effective EAL Pedagogy
The Bell Foundation’s framework for EAL pedagogy provides essential guidelines for teaching EAL students. Let’s explore how these principles can shape teaching strategies in our classrooms in general:
Multilingualism as an asset
Multilingual students possess valuable skills, and their home languages can enhance their learning of English and the curriculum. By allowing students to use their first language in the classroom, they can access complex ideas and build confidence. We can do this by:
Encouraging the use of bilingual glossaries, dictionaries, and subtitles in students’ home languages.
Providing opportunities for students to work in pairs or groups where they can use their first language to aid understanding.
High expectations with appropriate support
It’s important to maintain high expectations for EAL students while offering the necessary scaffolding to help them succeed. We can do this by:
Using scaffolding tools such as writing frames, sentence starters, and fill-in-the-blank activities.
Pre-teaching vocabulary and key concepts, and ensure that students have access to clear definitions and explanations of new words.
Integrating focus on content and language
Learning should not separate content from language. EAL students need to engage with both simultaneously. We can do this by:
Using dual coding (pairing text with visuals), subject-specific flashcards, and knowledge organisers to help students link new vocabulary to the content.
Focusing on vocabulary retrieval practices to reinforce new words and concepts, ensuring students integrate language learning into the subject matter.
Effective and holistic pupil assessment
EAL students should be assessed not only on their content knowledge but also on their English language proficiency across listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Why and how:
Using regular formative assessment and this should serve to assess both in academic content as well as in language progress (TL and English).
Considering using seating plans to strategically place EAL students next to peers who can support their language.
Social inclusion
Ensuring that EAL students feel a sense of belonging and inclusion is vital.
Students’ English language proficiency is evaluated across four key areas: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Based on their performance in these areas, students are placed into specific proficiency categories, which guide the level of support or intervention they require.
10 Strategies you can apply to support EAL students in your languages classroom
Using visuals: Incorporating visuals, such as dual coding, knowledge organisers, subject-specific flashcards, and labelled classroom equipment, to support learning and reinforce key concepts.
Leveraging their first language: Encouraging the use of students' first language to aid understanding, such as through bilingual glossaries, subtitles on videos, and bilingual dictionaries or translation tools.
Encouraging oracy: Fostering oral communication in the classroom, allowing students to use their home language with a buddy when appropriate. This can help them feel more confident and supported while practicing English.
Explicit vocabulary teaching and retrieval practice: Pre-teaching key vocabulary and reinforcing it through consistent retrieval practice. This helps students gradually build a solid foundation of essential words.
Providing advance lesson materials: Giving students a preview of upcoming lessons or topics so they can research them in their home language beforehand. This prepares them to better engage with the material in class.
Defining new vocabulary: Providing clear definitions for unfamiliar words or terms, ensuring students have a solid grasp of key concepts and language used in lessons.
Scaffolding writing and speaking tasks: Using writing frames, fill-in-the-gap activities, and sentence starters to help students focus on content rather than struggling with language. This scaffolding ensures they can engage with tasks effectively.
Modelling high quality work: Showing EAL students examples of high-quality work to help them understand expectations. Making sure to check they fully grasp what good work looks like in both language and content.
Using effective questioning strategies: Regularly using questioning to assess both content understanding and language comprehension. This helps gauge progress and identify areas for additional support.
Being consistent and clear with language: Using straightforward language and avoiding confusing synonyms or idioms. For instance, being consistent with terms like “floor” instead of switching between “carpet” or “mat.” Rephrasing or repeating if needed, especially for students who may not yet grasp idiomatic expressions like "Give him a hand."
If your student has learned vocabulary, such as parts of the body, they might still be confused by idiomatic expressions like "Give him a hand." In these cases, be prepared to rephrase or repeat the language. It's essential to think carefully about the key words and phrases you want to use and maintain consistency in their usage.
The power of multilingualism in EAL
Research shows that giving students the chance to use all their languages enhances their ability to access the curriculum and improve their proficiency in English. Students’ grammatical knowledge and expertise in their first language can be leveraged to develop their skills in English.
Rather than focusing on one language at a time, a holistic approach that considers the full linguistic repertoire of learners, as proposed by Cenoz & Gorter (2011), is more effective. They argue against a "monolingual bias" and advocate for codeswitching and translanguaging, which can be valuable in the classroom.
While using a student’s first language may seem most relevant for those new to English, it can also benefit more advanced EAL learners. These students can use their native language to articulate complex ideas in subjects like science or history, which helps them express their thinking more clearly.
Supporting newly arrived EAL students:
Strategic seating: Place newly arrived EAL students next to someone who speaks the same home language when possible. Pair them with a patient, kind English-speaking role model.
Group dynamics: Vary groupings—using trios instead of pairs can help facilitate interaction and support.
Give time to absorb: Allow newly arrived students plenty of time to listen and absorb the new language before expecting active participation.
Examples of activities to support EAL students in the language classroom:
Language teachers often use strategies that benefit EAL students and can be adapted for all students. These include:
Games like circle games and Simon says: These activities allow students to participate with minimal speaking, focusing on listening and comprehension.
Visual clues and scaffolding: Use writing frames, sentence starters, and word-level games to help students develop both content understanding and language skills.
Role plays and speaking games: Activities like Quiz Quiz Trade and role plays can be adapted to suit different levels and encourage participation.
Storytelling: This is a powerful tool for all learners, providing context and helping reinforce vocabulary and sentence structure.
Modelling and oral rehearsal:
Modelling: EAL students need clear examples, especially if they are unfamiliar with an activity. Show them what to do before expecting them to complete a task independently.
Oral rehearsal: If possible, give students the opportunity to orally rehearse sentences before writing. This allows them to practise language structure without the added pressure of writing.
Visual aids and flexible task design:
Use of pictures: Where writing is a barrier, allow students to use pictures to convey meaning. Support where necessary, but keep the level of challenge high.
Task flexibility: Adjust the number of columns in activities or how many sections you divide sentences into. Increase or decrease options within a column, and mix up the order (e.g., First, Then, Finally) to create more complexity and potential for growth.
Low-stakes language games:
Choral repetition: Encourage students to repeat phrases together to build confidence.
Interactive games: Activities like Splat, Charades, Noughts and Crosses, Which Word Am I Thinking Of?, Bingo, Kim's Game (What’s Missing?), Pictionary, Hangman
Other strategies:
Gradually increasing the challenge
As students’ confidence grows, they can transition from receptive skills (such as listening and responding with numbers or actions to show comprehension) to productive skills, where they are required to actively use key vocabulary. Start with games that reinforce understanding through listening, and then progress to activities that encourage vocabulary production.
Using low-stakes retrieval activities is crucial early on to encourage participation without pressure. These activities remain valuable throughout the learning process, serving as effective lesson starters, reviews, and retrieval tasks to help embed new vocabulary into students' long-term memory.
Storytelling to boost literacy
Incorporating stories into language lessons is a powerful tool for boosting literacy skills, especially for EAL and SEND students. Stories naturally reinforce grammar, vocabulary, and punctuation and create meaningful connections between English and students' home languages. When we discuss how grammar and punctuation differ or align between English and other languages, we enhance linguistic understanding across both languages.
Many of the strategies outlined below are commonly used successfully in primary schools and could also be easily adapted for use in secondary schools.
Simple steps to enhance the status of bilingual students
If possible, include books in your classroom or school library in the various languages spoken by your students. Invite parents to share stories and songs from their home languages and cultures whenever possible - culture day. This not only enriches the classroom experience but also fosters a strong connection between home and school life.
Ensure that invitations for these events are sent out in the home languages of your students to ensure inclusivity and greater participation.
Collaborate with staff members who speak additional languages to record key school messages for the website or newsletters, ensuring important information is accessible to EAL families.
Incorporate cultural learning
When welcoming a new EAL student, take the time to discuss their country, culture, and language background with the class. Use a world map to help students visually identify the country of origin and initiate conversations about what they may already know about that part of the world.
Encourage students to share if they have friends or family from similar backgrounds, promoting a sense of shared experience and belonging.
Leverage the school community's linguistic skills
Investigate the language skills within the school community—whether students, staff, or volunteers (I have done this a few times when Slovakian students joined the school, and their parents were not proficient in English; I was often asked to act as an interpreter.). Someone might speak the same language as the new pupil and could help with their adjustment. If possible, arrange for same-language speakers to work together, whether in peer activities or through parent or community involvement.
Integrate home languages in daily routines
To help EAL students feel more comfortable, greet them by saying the register in their home language, and learn simple phrases like "play" or "toilet" in their language. This small gesture can help build rapport and ease the transition into an English-speaking classroom.
Support literacy with dual-language resources
Provide dual-language books for EAL students to take home, encouraging shared reading with their families. This not only supports literacy development but also reinforces the connection between home and school learning.
Reflective Questions:
What languages other than English do your students speak?
What languages, aside from English, are written by the students in your class?
Have any of your students lived in another country?
Do any of your students attend supplementary school?
Are you aware of your students’ religious beliefs? How might these impact the activities they can participate in?
For more reading, I would strongly recommend the work of Joanna Kolota on X https://x.com/JKolota and her book Empowering EAL Learners in Secondary Schools
Comments