I am in awe of anyone who is bilingual: I am waving goodbye to my 20s with just enough knowledge of French to order a bottle of red.
This missing skill is all the more shameful for me as I am in my fourth year of teaching in an international school where most students speak two or three languages fluently. I am reminded of my deficit in language skills daily.
Teaching English as an Additional Language (EAL) is still a challenge, however, and I’ve found that the expectation to support EAL students often falls heavily on English departments. Initially, this is another area where I lacked skill - my support for EAL learners was nearly as bad as my French. I got no specific training in EAL, so I have had to learn on the job.
This is not good enough. I believe that schools should not be without dedicated EAL departments and specialists. These are the amazing teams who look at the bigger picture and whole-school policies: the induction processes, buddies, teaching assistants, ongoing intervention, explicit language instruction and so on.
However, are there things that we can do in day-to-day lessons, alongside whole-school approaches, that can be adopted in order to support the development of EAL students?
I’m no expert, but I have picked up some things that I believe work and will hopefully complement the wealth of information out there, such as the great advice you can get on Twitter (check out @DiLeed, for example). This list summarises my teeny snapshot of a wealth of strategies available to us.
- Frame students’ verbal contributions
You pose a question/statement to the class - for example: “Explain why the Roman Empire fell”. For every contribution, demand that they open with a prescribed phrase, such as: “The primary cause for the fall of the Roman Empire was…”; or “It could be argued that the Roman Empire fell because…”.
By insisting on framed verbal responses, you are indirectly teaching the students about syntax (word order), and the more practice they get, the better. This is also very useful for practicing vocabulary, and it gives them an ever-useful starting point.
- Be aware of cultural differences and take care to explain them
English teacher anecdote: I taught a lesson where the central activity was a comparison of Charlie Brooker and Russell Brand articles. Exciting, I thought: kids love (and are always hooked by) the acerbic and profane humour - it’s an easy way to engage them. Wrong!
Understanding language isn’t just about the technicality. Always take care to explain or explore the cultural elements of texts, as these could be profoundly different to the customs in another language or culture. I often ask students “would you expect to find x (technique) in an article written in x (language)?” It’s nice to take an interest.
- Notice your use of idioms or colloquialisms and draw attention to them
I’ve had some fun with “idiom of the day”. Think about how often you use idioms: “Feeling blue?”; “Did it cost an arm and a leg?”; did you tell the students to “Break a leg” before a test?
Through drawing attention to idioms, EAL students improve their cultural/linguistic awareness, and they have great fun trying to work out the absurdities that we use every day. Knowing or using idioms themselves is quite novel.
- Draw attention to Greek and Latin root words
Understanding Greek and Latin roots can help EAL students identify the meaning of many new words. For example, ‘Vict’ means ‘conquer’ in Latin, and can help students to determine the meaning of words containing this root (victory, victim, convict, Invictus, and so on). As well as vocabulary acquisition, knowledge of roots can assist in spelling development.
Wherever possible, point out roots and quickly reflect on words from the same family that share the root. Additionally, Romance languages (e.g. French, Italian, and Romanian) originate from Latin, meaning that root words are shared across several languages. This could help EAL students to make connections if their first language is a Latin derivative.
- Know your grammar
Controversial viewpoint: if you’re part of teaching and learning in schools in any capacity, it’s your responsibility to know your grammar. The seemingly minuscule misconceptions of language and grammar that pervade even the most able EAL students’ work can make sentences and whole texts feel disjointed.
Why is it the “big brown dog”, not the “brown big dog”? This is the internalised knowledge of language and grammar that we take for granted, and we need to be sensitive to how it’s not “obvious” to EAL students. If you can’t explain why the rule exists, it’s still useful to acknowledge it.
So when you write something on the board, comment on the grammar. Spelling: draw attention to it. Whole sentence: explain why the comma goes where. Use every opportunity to explain little details about how our language works. If this becomes part of the culture of the school, the development EAL students will be supported over time through such consistent reinforcement.
Erin Miller teaches English at an international school and tweets @Miss_E_Miller.
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