At BMPS, approximately 30% of pupils in our school have EAL. Our families are from a range of ethnic backgrounds and nationality including: Portuguese, Polish, Estonian, Hungarian, Albanian, Ghanaian, Nigerian, Pakistani, Afghan, Iranian and Indian. We have approximately 17 different languages spoken including Polish, Pashto/Pakhto and Farsi. This means that at any one time almost one in three of our pupils are learning English as an additional language and supporting them and their families is very important to us.
We have found a wealth of useful resources and advice at NALDIC. This is the national subject association for English as an additional language (EAL). Its mission is to promote the effective teaching and learning of EAL and bilingual pupils in UK schools. Their website link is on the right hand side of this page.
We have identified our key actions:
- Language assessment on ALL EAL children in school.
- Plan appropriate language acquisition work for individuals.
- Develop projects to support and develop children’s mother tongue and home languages eg: story telling sessions, multi-lingual books etc.
- Create induction pack with key information translated.
- Develop resources for use in the classroom.
- CPD for staff inc: Developing vocabulary across the curriculum, developing the environment, valuing the importance of Mother Tongue, developing strategies for beginners and advanced learners, emotional well-being etc.
Most importantly we need to remember:
- Bilingualism is an asset.
- Mother tongue is key to an EAL pupil’s identity, learning and acquiring an additional language. It is the language of ‘home’ and part of their emotional well-being.
- Cognitive challenge can and should be kept appropriately high through the provision of linguistic and contextual support. (EAL is not a SEN!)
- Language acquisition goes hand in hand with cognitive and academic development with an inclusive curriculum as the context.
No comments:
Post a Comment