Best Practice

The EAL coordinator: Guidance and practical strategies

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Increasing numbers of learners who are refugees and who are learning English as an additional language are entering our schools. Glynis Lloyd sets out practical strategies for the work of EAL coordinators, along with helpful guidelines for good practice

 

According to the 2022 School Census, 19.5% of all learners in England use English as an additional language (EAL).

Multilingual learners are an asset to their schools, raise aspirations across the whole school body, help all learners build compassion and global perspectives, while possessing rich linguistic resources that form a foundation for their learning in English.

Multilingual learners need support and care as they adapt to a new schooling system, learn English, and learn in English. However, broader challenges for work in EAL include the increasing invisibility of EAL in public policy, curriculum documents and governance; no ringfenced funding; and little or no accountability of schools and local authorities to higher authorities.

Professional challenges for EAL coordinators may include limited access to training opportunities for the position both within initial teacher training (ITT) and as part of CPD, as well as insufficient time allocated to their work and the added responsibility for SEND provision in their school.

EAL coordinators, especially those new to their role, will understandably be experiencing some trepidation at the scale of the task that lies ahead.

So, how might they arrange their priorities and conduct their work in ways that serve the best interests of their learners and allow them to reap the rich rewards of creating learning environments in which new arrivals thrive?

 

 

Adopt guiding principles

“Creating a culture where values around the inclusion of EAL students are explicit and shared across the school makes for a coherent and cohesive bedrock on which any effective practice can build.” (Evans et al, 2020).

The overarching principles that guide EAL work are inclusion and equity. They provide a foundation for EAL work across four key areas.

 

1, Academic

  • Welcome and include learners in mainstream classrooms as far as possible and expose them to the full curriculum.
  • Set and maintain high expectations of learners using EAL by providing support and setting appropriate challenges.
  • Accommodate the strengths, talents, and needs of each individual learner.
  • Recognise each learner’s language and education profile: what languages they speak, how much schooling they have had in each language, and when they started learning in English.

2, Linguistic

  • Create a multilingual school environment where all languages are visible and heard.
  • Implement an assets-based approach that recognises the rich language repertoires of EAL learners. They have knowledge in the languages they know, they may engage in literacy practices in the languages they know, and as multilingual learners they know about language.
  • Link language learning with content learning in all subjects. Identify key language content and build language support into all lessons.

 

3, Social

  • Build a welcoming and inclusive environment across the whole school.
  • Make sure that children who are learning EAL are included in all activities.

 

4, Teachers’ attitudes

  • Work with teachers to ensure they view new learners as assets to the whole school.
  • Create a clear separation between EAL and SEND and recognise that learners using EAL are simply children who are exposed to and use languages other than English at home. EAL is not a SEN or disability and only a small minority of learners using EAL will also have SEND.

 

Effective implementation of EAL strategies

Now let us turn to some practical strategies to support EAL coordinators and create opportunities for effective leadership and implementation in EAL teaching and learning.

The strategies draw on the experience of schools that have worked in EAL education over several years, on best practice guidelines from international contexts, and on research in the UK, including the work of The Bell Foundation.

 

 

Understand your role and responsibilities as an EAL coordinator

If you are new to the role, and perhaps taking over from a previous incumbent, your first priorities should be:

  • Clarifying the exact nature of your role with your headteacher, including whether it will include teaching learners using EAL, whether you will manage a team of teachers and/or teaching assistants, and how much time has been allocated to your role.
  • Establishing what framework is in place in your school, including an EAL policy, an EAL plan, and procedures for how new learners are welcomed and included.
  • Locating any records of learners using EAL, including their proficiency in English attainments.
  • Establishing among staff the understanding, knowledge, and ability they have to teach and support learners across all subject areas.

According to Bellsham-Revell and Nancarrow (2019), the responsibilities of EAL coordinators vary from school to school and could include:

  • Identifying and keeping records of learners using EAL, monitoring their progress in English, and working with colleagues to track their curriculum attainment.
  • Identifying and assessing pupils’ language development needs; planning, teaching, and monitoring support where required.
  • Supporting staff to develop their understanding and use of EAL pedagogy.
  • Working with the senior leadership to ensure the needs of learners using EAL are embedded within the school development plan.
  • Working with colleagues to ensure that the curriculum and resources reflect the diversity of the school community and support learning.
  • Working with parents/carers to support their role in their children’s learning (see resources for advice from The Bell Foundation regarding parental involvement).

 

Build networks and support

In your first days in the role, establish what support you can draw on and what networking you can do to make your job easier.

Talk to your headteacher about what you need from them, the leadership team, and other teachers. The more investment the whole team places in EAL plans and work, the more impactful your work will be.

Look to your board of governors, other EAL coordinators in your area or multi-academy trust, and any staff in your local authority who might have experience or resources in EAL provision.

Identify courses that could boost your understanding of EAL welcome, inclusion and provision.

 

 

Devise and enact action plans

  • Make sure that your school’s EAL plan, puts you in charge and able to lead, and draws in your colleagues and senior leadership (and sets out their roles clearly).
  • Start at day one of a learner’s school journey and focus on the admissions process.
  • Move on to the welcome and induction process, setting out what will happen to new arrivals in the first few days they attend your school. See our new arrivals advice (see resources).
  • Create profiles of all new students learning EAL and share these with their teachers. Encourage teachers to see the unique nature of each learner’s language and schooling background, and to devise support and expectations for that learner appropriately. See our guidance Creating a learner profile for plurilingual learners who use EAL (see resources).

 

Focus on three areas

 

Whole school ethos

  • Integrate new learners in all school activities and empower learners through buddy schemes. For example, the Young Interpreter Scheme from Hampshire County Council trains learners as interpreters (see further information).
  • Set up training and support for yourself and all role players, including teachers in all subjects, and teaching assistants. The Bell Foundation has training opportunities (see resources).
  • Promote multilingualism across the school: put up welcome signs in all the learners’ languages; invite family or other community members who speak the new arrivals’ language to help with translating; encourage family members to conduct story-telling and reading in the languages they know, in the appropriate lessons.

Teaching and learning

  • Set high expectations through providing bilingual support, constructing a simplified learning process, building in assessment for learning, and devising stimulating and challenging lessons.
  • Build multilingualism using full language repertoires. EAL learners can draw on the resources they have in the languages they know and their background experience to foster their learning of English and their learning across the curriculum.

Family liaison

  • Talk to family members so that you can add to learner profiles about their language and cultural backgrounds. For example, they may be learning their home language in community classes or studying the history of their religion.
  • Access translators in your area who can join you and help in meetings with families.

 

Conclusion

Adopting key guiding principles, understanding your EAL coordinator role, drawing on support and networking, planning, and implementing practical strategies, and accessing resources will lighten the load and increase your job satisfaction. It will also help to create a school-wide welcoming and inclusive environment for all new EAL learners, in which they can thrive and reach their full potential.

 

 

 

Resources from The Bell Foundation

 

References, resources & further reading

  • Auslander & Yip: School-Wide Systems for Multilingual Learner Success, Routledge, 2022.
  • Bellsham-Revell & Nancarrow: The EAL Coordinator: The first 100 days, EAL Journal, NALDIC, 2019: https://naldic.org.uk/publications/eal-journal/issue-7/
  • Chalmers (ed): The ResearchED Guide to English as an Additional Language, John Catt Educational, 2022.
  • Conteh: The EAL Teaching Book: Promoting success for multilingual learners, Sage Publications, 2019.
  • Evans et al: Language Development and Social Integration of Students with English as an Additional Language, Cambridge University Press, 2020.
  • Hampshire County Council: Young Interpreter Scheme: https://bit.ly/2WER0EX
  • Sharples: Teaching EAL: Evidence-based strategies for the classroom and school, Multilingual Matters, 2021.