Coy of the slides for my session on EAL and MFL

1. Supporting EAL Students in
the MFL Classroom
Isabelle Jones, The Radclyffe School
http://isabellejones.blogspot.com
Twitter: @icpjones
icpjones@yahoo.co.uk

2. Aims
• Identify the most common EAL issues
encountered by MFL teachers in UK schools
• Suggest practical strategies to support EAL
learners in MFL classes

3. Find the language…
1. BEM - VINDOS
2. WILLKOMMEN
3. ‫.رحب‬
4. েসিপ্িসিডেসিডেন্রেস
র্রেস
5. 欢迎 ট
6. साइमंड्स
7. ‫پاکستان‬
8. ‫هلمند‬
Rank out of the 15th most spoken languages in English schools?

4. Find the language…
1. BEM - VINDOS Portuguese 9
2. WILLKOMMEN German X
Arabic 8
3. ‫.رحب‬
4. েসিপ্িসিডেসিডেন্রেস
র্রেস Bengali 4
5. 欢迎 ট Chinese 13
6. साइमंड्स Hindi X
7. ‫پاکستان‬ Urdu 3
‫هلمند‬ Farsi X
8.
Rank out of the 15th most spoken languages in English schools?

5. First languages in English schools
http://www.naldic.org.uk/research-and-information/eal-stati

6. EAL Learners
• What does EAL stands for? EFL? ESL?
• Describe what you think are the
characteristics of a “typical” EAL learner?
• What issues did you anticipate him/her to
have with learning a foreign language?

7. The Globalised Classroom: How many pupils? Where?
• 1 in 8 secondary school pupil does not have English as their first
language.
• 1 in 6 primary school pupil speaks a language at home other
than English.
• The percentage of EAL students varies greatly from region to
region and school to school. In some schools it can be 90% +
DfE school census, January 2011
http://www.naldic.org.uk/research-and-information/eal-statistics

8. EAL as a continuum
 EAL refers to any student with English as an Additional Language.
 At one end of the continuum , you find the ‘International New
Arrivals’ (INA.) This refers specifically to students who have entered the
UK within the past two years.
 Subgroups:
- ‘first generation’ : children who were born in another
country and have since resettled in the UK with their family.
- ‘second or third generation’ : children who were born in
the UK into a migrant or ‘dual-heritage’ family.
- ‘migrant worker’ : children whose parents have moved
to work in Britain.
- ‘asylum seeker’ / ‘refugee’ : children who have moved
with / without their parents to escape famine, persecution
and other tragic events.

9. EAL as a continuum : Other criteria
• Language spoken at home
• Existence and role of older relatives
• Literacy in the first language
• Other language spoken
• Parents’ level of education and literacy in both English and first language
• Schooling history and experience
• Traumatic experiences

10. Truth or Myth? Pros and Cons?
1. If new arrival EAL students are segregated and taught English, they will be able
to prepare themselves quicker for taking exams through the medium of English.
2. EAL is a Special Educational Need
3. Speaking another language interferes with learning English.
4. EAL learners should only speak English at school.

11. Fighting Common Misconceptions
1. EAL students will take approximately 5 – 7 years of English-speaking education
to acquire academically-fluent English. This will occur naturally through nurturing
immersion rather than segregated intervention. MFL lessons will be more
accessible in Y7-8 for EAL learners as they often represent a fresh start linguistically
(impact on progress and setting)
2.EAL students have a temporary additional need which is primarily language
acquisition. EAL students are not automatically SEN or ‘special educational
needs’, and should not automatically put in lower sets . Lack of data/ unreliable
data can be an issue if EAL learner is assessed through the medium of English.
There is a social-emotional and cultural dimension to caterin for the needs of EAL
students.
3.EAL students will have potential strengths as well as additional needs.
There are many cognitive advantages to being bilingual. Research
shows that bilingual learners have better classification skills, concept
formation, analogical reasoning, visual –spatial skills , creativity and
divergent thinking, story-telling skills, language awareness.
However, not all EAL learners are truly bilingual.
4. There are benefits if students can carry on developing their
home language at the same time as English, but when and how it
is done need to be thought through.

12. The Challenges : Through MFL we need to…
Nurture language development
Coach students in how to learn
Build stable and productive social groups
The good news?
EAL good practice is MFL good practice!

13. Language Acquisition
Stage 1: Pre-production
This is often described as ‘the silent period’ and can last up to six months. English language learners may
have up to 500 words in their receptive vocabulary but they are typically not yet fully able / confident in
speaking. Some students will, however, repeat everything you say. They are not really producing language
but are parroting.
 NC English – P Levels
Stage 2: Early production
This stage may last up to six months and students will develop a receptive and active vocabulary of about
1000 words.
 NC English – Level 1
Stage 3: Speech emergence
Students have developed a vocabulary of about 3,000 words and can communicate with simple phrases
and sentences. This stage will tend to last up to three years.
NC English – Level 1 → 2 BICS (Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills) =conversational English
Stage 4: Intermediate fluency
English language learners at the intermediate fluency stage have a vocabulary of
6000 active words.
NC English – Level 3 – 4
Stage 5: Advanced Fluency
Starting as a new speaker of English, it takes students an average of 7 - 10 years to
achieve academic language proficiency in a second language. At this stage,
students have the range of listening skills necessary to participate fully within the
curriculum and can be fairly assessed using only the National Curriculum for English.
NC English – Level 4 and above CALP= Cognitive and Academic Language
Proficiency (minimum 5 years)

14. EAL support?
• Peer support not always available
• Many schools have no EAL department as
such
• EAL expertise varies greatly from school
to school
• Languages are not always seen as a
priority for support

15. Type of EAL support?
Restricted timetable/
Withdrawal lessons
In English/ in home
language
Teaching Assistant
Peer support
Class teacher
Cummins’ Interdependence theory
Concepts can be transferred from one language to another.
EAL learners need to continue to develop both languages to
derive maximum benefit of their studies.

16. Interdependence Theory and
Literacy
• Many children new to literacy in English will have experience of literacy in other
languages
Child’s experience of Literacy Potential benefits for
in another language acquiring literacy in English
Can decode the script but with Recognises that literacy
little understanding involves connection between
sound and symbol
Visual memory
Can read and write with Reading for understanding
understanding strategies
No home literacy but oral story Range of genres
telling and language games Language as a fun activity

17. EAL, assessment and data
• Progress is a key accountability measure
for OFSTED.
• Baseline tests in Y7-What are the issues
for EAL learners in general? And for the
assessment of a foreign language in
particular?

18. Common experiences of EAL students:
If I keep quiet I will not
I feel different.
get laughed at or told
off.
Can I eat this? Is it
OK do this? What will I miss home. Why did I
my family say? get sent here? I am not
used to those busy
streets and cold
weather.
Why do some people
avoid talking to me? Why
do they speak to me so
loudly and slowly ? I just can’t keep up… it’s
really tiring, but I have to
learn so that I can help my
family with the language.
Where is my next lesson? I
am never sure of what to
At my other school I had
do and where to go…
much more interesting
work. All I do here is listen
and write.

20. Generic strategies to support EAL learners:
Challenges & Benefits
7. Coaching  Schemes of work need to 6. Communicating  The use of
build in activities that demonstrate and English and TL should be supported
practise language. Not just subject-
. by visual cues and practical
specific words but general academic examples. A dictionary could be
words like ‘compare’, ‘analyse’ etc. used provided the student’s literacy
in L1 is strong enough.
5. Mentoring  The student’s form tutor or key
worker needs to regularly catch up with them
to address queries / confusions, ensure
homework is being managed. The mentor 4. Buddying  Pair with a
filters information through to student and responsible, caring, articulate
support with practical academic & pastoral student who will act as a
issues. guide, friend and role model.
Reward students for acting as
3. Grouping  Place EAL students with buddies. (This can be
supportive students of similar ability, who can arranged by class teacher or
provide a good linguistic model in English. EAL support)
2. Knowing  Identify their language
1. Naming!  Ensure that you levels. Try to find out a little about their
address the student by their native / home culture. With INAs, find out
correct name and that you their ‘story’. Link with EAL support as
pronounce the student’s appropriate.
name correctly.

21. Sharing culture
• Encouraging students to complement the topics you
are teaching when working independently e.g. fruit
and vegetable
• Finding out about specific features of EAL learners’
home language e.g. forms of address, word order,
pronunciation, cognates, funny-sounding words…
• Encouraging students to share information
in the Target Language about their home
countries, language and culture.

22. Newbury Park: Language of the month
http://www.newburypark.redbridge.sch.uk/langofmon

23. Language Awareness starters
• Introduce the idea of “families” of
languages e.g. latin (word order)
• English is great at borrowing words from
other languages…

24. Language Awareness starters
Which languages have these been borrowed from?
• Jar, coffee, sugar Arabic
• Sky, leg, wife Norwegian/ Danish
• Pill, wagon Dutch
• Damp, luck German
• Shampoo, bungalow, cot Hindi
• Umbrella, piano, corridor Italian
• Tent, café, route French
• Rose, atlas, museum Greek

25. EAL learners: Attainment
Expectations and Reality
Early Years/ Foundation Stage
Phonics screening check
KS1
KS2
KS3
KS4

26. EAL learners: Attainment
Expectations and Reality
Early Years/ Foundation Stage: 56%/ 65%
(generally improving trend)
Phonics screening check no difference or +
KS1: lower % (generally improving trend)
KS2: 72%/75% (improving trend)
KS3: catching-up phase
KS4: 78.1%/71.1% (English)
average point score for bilingual
pupils higher for languages!

27. ? A few points to consider…
?
1. Where are your EAL students and who are they sitting with? How is that
likely to help or hinder them?
2. How would you make it easier for your EAL learners to understand
instructions-orally and on a worksheet for instance?
3. How do you think EAL learners can contribute to enhancing our subject?
4. An EAL student pronounces or writes a word incorrectly –
What do you do?
5. From a standard MFL scheme of work- what specific
vocabulary is needed in English to understand the
activities and their purpose ?
6. What will you have to consider when assessing EAL
students’ progress in MFL in all four skills? What should you
avoid?

28. 7 Steps to introduce New Language
When learning new language, EAL students need to:
1. See the word / phrase
2. Hear the word / phrase
3. Link the word / phrase to meaning
4. Practise and self-repair the word / phrase
5. Listen to the word/ phrase being recast
6. Revise the word / phrase

29. Scaffolding Learning: (Listening & Reading)
Visual Support
• All teaching materials should include visuals like
photographs, pictures, drawings or paintings to
support learning. Beware of hidden cultural
references in visuals.
• Use spot the difference pictures to reinforce simple
structures in the affirmative and negative forms or
introduce comparatives.
• Concept maps
• Props, puppets and images
• Mime, gestures, acting out
• Display

30. A house or a house?

31. Pictures and Photographs
• NEN Gallery http://gallery.nen.gov.uk
• Flickr http://www.flickr.com
• Tag Galaxy http://taggalaxy.de
• Pinterest http://pinterest.com/
• Visual searches: http://www.wordsift.com
• Google.fr Google.es

32. Reading… (lire/ leer/ lesen…)

33. DARTs Activities (reading/writing)

34. DARTs-inspired
Language Activities
• Text sequencing
• Prioritising decisions/ ranking opinions
• Matching pictures to text
• Matching phrases to definitions
• Matching beginning and end of sentences
• True/ False/ Not Mentioned
• statements about a text
• Sorting activities (gender/ verbs or
• nouns)…

35. Bonjour!
Je m’appelle Ludovic. J’ai treize ans. Je suis
en sixième. J’habite près de Toulouse.
J’ai les cheveux courts et châtains et les yeux
marron. Je suis assez grand.
Je mesure un mètre cinquante. Je porte des
lunettes.
Je joue de la guitare classique. Je
suis sportif. J’aime le football et le
rugby. J’ai une chienne qui s’appelle
Léa.

36. Word clouds and mind-mapping
• Wordle http://www.wordle.net
• Tagxedo http://www.tagxedo.com/
• Freemind
http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.
php/Main_Page
• Mindomo http://www.mindomo.com

37. EAL Attainment Data
http://www.tagxedo.com/artful/2a50dd53fe98461

38. Dictionaries
Bilingual dictionaries
Monolingual dictionaries
Thesaurus
Pros and Cons?

39. Flip your lesson!
Pre-teach key vocabulary/ structures:
How would you do this?
Advantages and inconvenients?

40. Visual support & Engagement
Classtool.net http://classtools.net/
Site with templates for resources to be printed
or put on a blog or a VLE.
Drama!
http://www.triptico.co.uk/

41. Scaffolding Learning:
Audio support (listening/ speaking/
reading/ writing)
• Repeating key words and phrases and using
visual support at the same time.
• Rephrasing: get students to rephrase in
English and move from complex to simpler
language.
• Recasting: model by providing a
gramatically correct or longer version
of what the student said.
• Target Language Use

42. Text-to-speech http://text-to-speech.imtranslator.net/

43. Supporting and Recording Talk
http://www.easi-speak.org.uk/ http://audacity.sourceforge.
net/
http://www.voki.com Ppt recording function

44. Scaffolding Learning:
Models and Modelling
• Provide a model and deconstruct texts.
Sequencing activities will support the
development of literacy skills as well.
• The model could be a story, a transcript from
a short video clip, a recipe, 2 sides of an
argument, the evaluation of a product
or a performance, a timeline …
• Writing/ Speaking frames (talk stems/
sentence starters)

45. Writing and structure of first
language
• In Urdu, gender and number are both
shown through the verb inflection and the
tense through a verb suffix.
• Nouns in many South Asian languages
have cases.
• Most languages do not have definite
• and indefinite articles.
• In many South Asian languages
yesterday and tomorrow are the
same word.

46. Scaffolding Learning:
Questioning
• No hands rule
• Yes or no question to check
understanding
• Multiple choice questions
• Traffic lights

47. Literacy Across the Curriculum
(LaC) and EAL students
How can you contribute through your foreign
languages lessons?
Grammar terminology
Punctuation
Use of apostrophes (comparisons)
Vocabulary

48. Keep an open mind…

50. Aims
• Identify the most common EAL issues
encountered by MFL teachers in UK schools
• Suggest practical strategies to support EAL
learners in MFL classes

51. Top 3 priorities to get prepared
for your EAL students…
• 1. Get to know your EAL students and how they are catered for at your school
• 2.
• 3.

52. Supporting EAL Students in
the MFL Classroom
Isabelle Jones, The Radclyffe School
http://isabellejones.blogspot.com
Twitter: @icpjones
icpjones@yahoo.co.uk