Welcoming New Arrivals and
Raising the Attainment of EAL/BME
Pupils
Objectives
 To develop understanding of the
diverse needs of ethnic minority
pupils
 To develop understanding and skills
in supporting children learning
English as an additional language
(EAL) and Minority Ethnic
Background (MEB) pupils
New arrivals may:
 Have had full schooling in another
country, interrupted schooling or no
previous schooling
 Be literate in one or more languages
 Be used to a different education system
with different pedagogy
 Come from a range of cultural, religious,
linguistic and socio-economic
backgrounds
 Be experiencing cultural disorientation,
loss, grief or isolation
What you need to know to support
EAL pupils
 Country of origin
 First language
 Other language(s) spoken in family
 Immigration status
 Number of years in the UK
 Religion
 Health, diet etc
 Education history
 Ethnicity ??
Barriers To Learning For EAL Students
school/
family
educational
setting
Child or Young
Person
wider
world
community
Barriers to learning for EAL/MEB students
FAMILY
‘LOSS’ OF A FAMILY MEMBER
 LACK OF EXTENDED FAMILY
 CULTURAL EXPECTATIONS OF GIRLS AND BOYS
 ASPIRATIONS OF DIFFERENT ETHNIC GROUPS
 MIXED DISCIPLINARY APPROACHES
 LACK OF FATHER OR AUTHORITY FIGURE
SCHOOL OR
EDUCATIONAL
SETTING
 LACK OF MOTIVATION
 LOW SELF-ESTEEM
 LACK OF BI-LINGUAL RESOURCES
 PRIOR EDUCATION (ZERO – HERO!)
WIDER WORLD
 LACK OF POSITIVE ROLE MODELS
 RACISM / ISLAMAPHOBIA
 EXPERIENCE OF TRAUMATIC EVENTS
 NEGATIVE ATTITUDES TOWARDS MIGRANT WORKERS
 MEDIA CONSTRUCTED IMAGE OF COUNTRIES
 LENGTHY AND ONGOING ASYLUM CLAIMS
COMMUNITY
 LIMITED ACCESS TO ACTIVITIES AND FACILITIES
 CULTURE OR ‘IDENTITY’ CRISIS
 POOR HOUSING
 ANXIETY AROUND AUTHORITY FIGURES
Overcoming barriers for new arrivals
 Translation of key materials and forms
 Use of interpreters and bilingual staff
 Establish pastoral support systems within
school
 Ensure the child’s linguistic and cultural
background is reflected within the school
environment
Creating a welcoming environment
 Multilingual signs around the school
 Displays with positive images of people, places or
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things from the child’s home country reflecting
their culture
Classroom displays written in the scripts of the
languages spoken by children in the class
Dual language books, tapes, CDs in the child’s
language
Stories, poems and drama from the child’s culture
used in literacy lessons
Children using their home language for learning
within the classroom
Whole class and staff using multilingual greetings
language of the month
Key points
 New arrivals are not a homogenous group –
children come from a range of social
experiences and backgrounds and will
therefore have diverse needs
 One of the first steps in welcoming new arrivals
is to help them feel safe and secure in their new
environment
 Schools should always try to provide first
language support through other children or
adults where possible
Key points
 An important part of children feeling safe and
secure is seeing their language and culture
reflected in their surroundings
 All children and staff play a key role in
welcoming new arrivals
 The more (true) information you have about a
student, the better their school experience will
be and the easier it is to teach and learn
EAL and/or SEN?
How can you tell?
Next steps….
Indicators
 How long the child has been in the country
 Which language they use at home and how well
they are progressing in this language
 Progress in literacy especially but in all areas of
the curriculum
 How they present (social, emotional, behavioural
factors)
 Which areas they have difficulties in
 How they are at home (parental concerns?)
Next Steps
 Speak to parents (may need translation)
 Discussion with SENCo
 Assessment/observation (may involve translation)
 Intervention
 External advice and support
 Monitoring
* Beware social stigmas that exist regarding SEN
in some cultures/countries
Teaching & Learning:
Raising the Attainment of EAL/MEB
Pupils
February 2013
Angela de Britos
Part 1 - Teaching & Learning
Aims:
 To understand the principles of effective
teaching and learning practice for EAL/MEB
pupils
 To explore a range of learning and teaching
approaches that support curriculum access
and English language development
 To understand how effective assessment will
support progression and inform teaching
 1. Which two describe ‘diversity’ most accurately?
a) treating people as individuals, fairly and with respect & dignity
b) meeting targets and ticking boxes
c) being inclusive and offering everyone the same opportunities
d) offering vegetarian options in the school canteen
 2. Who was Britain’s first Black mayor?
a) Paul Bogle (1865)
b) John Archer (1913)
c) Lord Pitt (1975)
d) James Taylor (1997)
 3. How many languages are spoken in Plymouth schools?
a) 3
b) 15
c) 40
d) 50+
Some terminology……
 EAL – English as an Additional Language
 BME – Black & Minority Ethnic
 BAME – Black, Asian & Minority Ethnic
 MEB – Minority Ethnic Background
 ASR – Asylum Seeker/Refugee
http://www.ecu.ac.uk/your-questions/should-i-use-bme-bame-orneither
The national context
 MEB pupils make up 24.5% of all primary
school pupils and 20.6% of all secondary
school pupils
 EAL pupils make up 15.2% of all primary
pupils and 11.1% of all secondary pupils
 Metropolitan areas main concentration of
MEB/EAL pupils
Profile in Plymouth schools
 7% of school population
 Approximately 1350 EAL
 Approximately 50 languages including
English
 Majority languages: Polish, Arabic,
Portuguese
‘Every teacher an EAL teacher’
 Aim – to develop sustainable capacity in
order to meet the needs of MEB and
EAL pupils, ensuring that every child
has the opportunity to achieve
Initial Assessment
 Assessment should be carried out by the child’s
teacher
 Children should be assessed within the first few
days in school
 Allow time for sensitive, individual initial
assessment in reading, writing, speaking, listening
and mathematics
 Assess new arrivals regularly in the early stages
Assessing new arrivals
 Avoid undue stress
 Use a range of methods
 Informal assessment
 Observation
 Previous school records
 Discussion with children & parents/carers
Teaching & Learning
 In order to plan and provide for
students who are learning EAL (and
assess their progress), we firstly need to
unpick language learning.....
Can You Order the
Stages of Language
Acquisition?
1. Listening and absorbing
2. Responding to instructions
3. Imitating and copying modelled language
4. Trying one or two word phrases
5. Speech grammatically incomplete
6. Extending sentences with support
7. Coping with a range of listeners
8. Showing grammatical complexity
9. Extending range of ideas and meaning
10.Engaging in social and academic dialogue
11.Speaking clearly and using growing vocabulary
12.Competent and independent
13.Using language appropriately across the curriculum
and in a variety of social contexts
Strategies to support children new to
English (1)
 Use visuals, actions and real objects to support
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meaning
Use active tasks
Use practical tasks with opportunities from
speaking and listening
Vary the activities within a lesson
Identify key vocabulary and teach it explicitly
Anticipate language demands that might create
difficulties
Provide models of the language the child will be
expected to use
Strategies to support children new to
English (2)
 Plan speaking and listening activities
 Use a bilingual dictionary, where
appropriate
 Use home language where possible
 Use assessment for learning processes
 Ensure success by creating a
manageable task
Access to the curriculum:
making contexts supportive for children learning EAL
Building on
previous experience
Activating
prior
knowledge
Scaffolding language
and learning
Using
bilingual
strategies
Modelling
Planned opportunities for
speaking and listening
Use of ICT
Creating
shared
experiences
Ensuring contexts are
culturally familiar
Frames
and
prompts
Graphic organisers
and other visuals
The print
environment
Paired talk
Exploratory
talk
Collaborative
activities
Extended talk
between adults
and children
Communicative activities such as
barrier games and experiential
learning
Promoting access to the curriculum
A Year 3 teacher discusses strategies she uses to support
EAL pupils.
How long does it take?
 1 – 2 years for BICS (basic interpersonal
communication skills)
 5-7 years for CALPS (cognitive academic
language proficiency)
Ref: Jim Cummins (1984) Clevedon: Multilingual Matters
Different forms of bilingualism
1.Sequential Bilingualism - is when a
child begins the process of second language
(L2) acquisition after the first language (L1)
is established
2.Simultaneous Bilingualism - is when a
child grows up learning two languages (L1
& L2) - or more! - at the same time
Specific issues for EAL learners
 Getting to grips with English as well as with the
Curriculum
 Vocabulary development
 Developing cognitive and academic language
 Distinguishing meanings, e.g. everyday meanings
from different curriculum areas – ‘table’‘point’
 Developing knowledge of culturally-based language
idioms, e.g. a bit under the weather; or metaphors e.g.
raining cats and dogs
When learning new words, EAL
pupils need to…
 See them
 Hear them
 Use them in sentences
 Rehearse them
 Read them
 Write them
 Revise them
 Use them in different contexts
Support strategies - word level
 Use labeled diagrams to highlight key vocabulary
 Use picture dictionaries
 Produce bilingual word lists
 Provide lists of key words to look up in a bilingual
dictionary
 Highlight key words in the text for pupil to look
up in bilingual dictionary
 Send key word lists home prior to lessons for
parents to translate and explain
 Pre-teach key words prior to lessons using games
e.g. use flashcards to play pairs game, make picture
bingo cards
Support strategies - sentence level
 Highlight key part of sentence
structure
 Provide model sentences for pupils to
refer to
 Provide gap fill sentences for pupils
to complete with key vocabulary
 Practice sentences orally before
writing
 Scaffold writing using writing frames
Support strategies - text level
 Highlight key areas of text or cut the text to
leave key information
 Use writing frames to support the organisation
of text
 Provide a model piece of writing to illustrate
what is required and model writing regularly
when working with pupils
 Allow pupil to write in their first language and
translate what they have written either orally or
in writing
 Allow pupil to complete the task orally while
somebody else writes down their ideas
 Provide jumbled sentences that need to be
sorted to produce a complete text
Language demands
 The main purpose for which the child
needs to use language in the lesson
 What the child has to do – comparing,
justifying, explaining, etc.
 What the child needs to say – phrases,
grammatical structures, etc.
 Vocabulary
Teaching sequence to support
EAL learners
1. Identify language needed
2. Plan how to model language
3. Plan opportunities for language use
by children new to English
4. Assess children’s use of targeted
language
5. Identify next steps
A Language in Common (QCA 2000)
 Extended scale for children new to English
 Relates to National Curriculum levels already being
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used
Enables schools to systematically track progress
Must be used when making applications for special
considerations for end of KS2 SATs.
Assessment based upon a broad range of evidence
Use step and level descriptors to make ‘best fit’
assessment judgements
Use ALIC exemplification to confirm assessment
levels
ALinC
Key points
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Quality-first teaching in an inclusive curriculum
provides the best support for EAL/MEB pupils
Children learn English best in the mainstream
classroom
EAL learners should be given opportunities to use their
first language for learning
The language learning context can be made more
supportive for children new to English through the use
of a range of scaffolding strategies
Planning needs to identify language demands, support
and opportunities
Children who are new to English need to be provided
with achievable tasks that provide appropriate agerelated cognitive demands
Planning and teaching of EAL learners should be based
on evidence gathered through a variety of assessment
approaches
Supporting Pupils Booklet
Useful Reading
 Haslam, L., Wilkin,Y. and Kellet, E. (2005) English as an
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additional language : meeting the challenge in the classroom
Graf, M. (2011) Including and supporting learners of English
as an additional language
Scott, C. (2009) Teaching children English as an additional
language : a programme for 7-11 year olds
Crosse, K. (2007) Introducing English as an additional
language to young children : a practical handbook
Washbourne, A. (2011) The EAL Pocketbook
Pim, C. (2012) 100 Ideas for Supporting Learners with EAL
Useful Reading
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
New Arrivals Excellence Programme Ref: 004262007
Aiming High – Understanding the educational
needs of minority ethnic pupils in mainly white
schools. Ref: DfES/0416/2004
Aiming High – raising the achievement of
African-Caribbean pupils Ref:DfES/0694/2003
Supporting pupils learning English as an
additional language. Ref:DfES0239/2002
A Language in Common – QCA Ref: QCA/00/584
Teaching strategies and learning
opportunities
Promoting access to the curriculum
A Year 3 teacher discusses strategies she uses to support
EAL pupils.