Supporting EAL students: Ideas and resources for teachers

As school communities across the country become more linguistically diverse, many teachers who are new to their school find themselves with responsibilities, for the first time, for teaching multilingual children who are learning English as an additional language (EAL).

This can be a bewildering time, but help is at hand in the form of policies, guidance, and networks of practitioners ready to share their extensive experience.

In this article, I will consider how teachers new to supporting multilingual children can equip themselves to deliver best practice by drawing on existing resources, knowledge, and experience.

Expertise in EAL pedagogy draws on an ever-widening body of research. This shows that best practice occurs in schools with clear language policies in place, that celebrate multilingualism, that include children new to English in all aspects of school life and learning, and that devise language support to build English proficiency by drawing on the rich linguistic repertoires that multilingual children bring to their learning (see Chalmers, 2022; Evans et al, 2020; Sharples, 2021).

Teachers can benefit by taking three simple steps to build confidence and extend their expertise:

• First, gather information about what your school already has in place regarding policies, procedures, personnel, and resources.
• Second, access resources and training from external providers or those already available in your school.
• Third, reach out to and join local, regional, and national networks and be supported by professionals in a large and growing field.

EAL advice for ECTs: In a recent article, The Bell Foundation offered specific advice for early career teachers on supporting their students who use English as an additional language. Find this article in SecEd’s annual ECT supplement, available to download for free now.

Gather information about policies and resources in your school

Supporting learners who are new to English is a whole school effort and your school may already have resources for new teachers and EAL provision in place. No need, therefore, for you to reinvent the wheel.

But the type of EAL systems and amount of support will vary by school so a good starting point is to identify those staff members at department, school, or trust level (if applicable) whom you can turn to for advice and information.

Key staff may include an EAL coordinator or lead, the head of your department, the year leader, or the inclusion or pastoral lead in the senior leadership team. In some instances, the SENCO may have responsibility for EAL even though SEN and EAL are distinctly different.

The following questions will help you access the information you need to get started:

1. What EAL policies and procedures does your school have in place? Most importantly, is there a clear language(s) policy that sets out the school’s approach to including the diversity of languages that learners, parents, and staff speak? This policy will help you understand the school’s values and strategies regarding multilingualism.
2. What procedures are in place for the induction of families new to the UK? What information about each new learner’s background and experience (for example, about recent displacement from their home) is collected in that process? This information will help you to get a better sense of the unique needs of each individual learner.
3. What information is gathered about new pupils regarding their linguistic profile, their previous education, and any English education they may have had so that language support strategies can be built on clear information and be tailored to meet individual needs? Who holds that information and how is it shared? This information will help you get a sense of the resources and knowledge that each learner can bring to their learning.
4. Does your school or multi-academy trust have shared curriculum resources that have been adapted for learners using EAL? If so, how are resources, strategies, and expertise shared? Existing resources will save you from having to create or find your own resources.
5. Are there teachers and teacher assistants in the school who speak the languages of the multilingual learners? You can harness these bilingual and multilingual resources to support your EAL teaching.
6. How does your school define the role of teaching assistant in relation to supporting learners using EAL? The role should be regularly evaluated. They can be most usefully engaged where they work with multilingual learners in ways that build learners’ independence and ownership of the tasks they are set. Teaching assistants can supplement and support your work with multilingual learners.
7. What access arrangements, such as bilingual dictionaries and extra time in tests and examinations, are in place? Making sure that learners use bilingual dictionaries regularly in class will help prepare them for exams.
8. What procedures are in place regarding communication with families about their children’s progress (for example, using interpreters or translation apps where necessary) and who is responsible for that? Clear procedures and regular, accessible communication can help ensure that families provide as much support for their children as possible.

Access resources from external providers.

Once you have a good sense of the procedures and policies already in place and can access the resources that are available in your school, the next step is to look beyond your school and trust to access resources, guidance, and training to bolster EAL provision.

1. The local authority may have expertise in EAL provision and be able to connect you with teachers in nearby schools or existing networks willing to share expertise and resources.
2. Some local authorities still offer EAL training and audit opportunities and point schools to external providers.
3. The Bell Foundation provides freely available teaching resources, developed by EAL specialists which you can use in subjects across the curriculum (see further information).

Join local and national professional networks

Reach out to subject-specialist organisations, professional networks and communities which can share resources and expertise and provide a supportive home.

NALDIC is the national subject association for EAL. NALDIC is a professional forum, open to all teachers who work with multilingual learners. Its Regional Interest Groups (RIGS) have been set up to create networking forums in which teachers, researchers, local authorities, and supporters can meet and share information and ideas. There are 13 RIGS across England.

Final thoughts

Given the depth and breadth of knowledge and expertise, alongside the availability of resources, guidance, and training in the field of EAL pedagogy, no teacher new to this work should feel alone or ill-equipped to provide quality support to multilingual learners.

Identifying the right people, asking the right questions, accessing resources and training, and networking with subject specialists will ensure that you can grow and thrive.

Glynis Lloyd is a trainer at The Bell Foundation, a charity working to overcome exclusion through language education. Visit www.bell-foundation.org.uk. Find previous articles from The Bell Foundation's experts via www.sec-ed.co.uk/authors/the-bell-foundation 

Further information & resources

• Bell Foundation: Resources: bell-foundation.org.uk/resources/programme/eal-programme/
• Chalmers (ed): The researchED Guide to English as an Additional Language, John Catt Educational, 2022.
• Evans et al: Language Development and Social Integration of Students with English as an Additional Language, Cambridge University Press, 2020.
• NALDIC: https://naldic.org.uk/ (for more on the RIGs, visit https://bit.ly/3NfwDHN).
• Sharples: Teaching EAL: Evidence-based strategies for the classroom and school, Multilingual Matters, 2021.