Teacher guidance blog
Sign up for the free EAL Teaching newsletter:
7th January 2020
Author: Yzanne Mackay New Year is a time to take stock – and often to think about making changes. One of the most common New Year’s […]
10th December 2019
Author: Dr. Anne Margaret Smith There are many similarities between music and language, in the way they are organised, processed and produced. Music therefore has enormous […]
19th November 2019
Author: Sarah Jones In September 2015, Lea Forest Academy took on an additional class of 16 Year 2 newly arrived EAL children. Eight of these children […]
25th September 2019
Author: Yzanne Mackay “Parental involvement is invaluable for any new arrival in transition. The learner’s family may be the only group of people who truly understand […]
3rd September 2019
Authors: Caroline Scott, Yzanne Mackay “Scaffolding is the process a teacher uses to model or demonstrate how to solve a problem (in the case of language […]
4th July 2019
Author: Anita Bamberger When considering the Chinese language, the Chinese proverb ‘a picture paints a thousand words’ is apposite. Chinese is a complex language of symbols, […]
5th June 2019
Author: Sarah Jones, EAL Co-ordinator Picking up where we left off! The Sentence Analyser was piloted by the children and staff in the EAL Hub […]
13th May 2019
Author: Yasmin Malik, Senior Education Consultant Maths is often a subject that is not given the same priority as others when it comes to the teaching […]
21st March 2019
Author: Stuart Scott This ‘Introduce Me’ activity is a fun and rewarding way to introduce a new topic, while developing language skills. It’s ideally suited to […]
28th February 2019
Author: Caroline Scott In cases where you have an absolute beginner to English, an induction-to-English is supportive. Yes, we need to be differentiating for the curriculum content […]
22nd January 2019
Author: Sarah Jones Introduction Lea Forest, my school in Birmingham, has been using the Learning Village for over three years. It has proved a highly effective learning […]
12th December 2018
Authors: Caroline Scott, Heather Day, Ragini Patel Three years ago, Heather Day, an EAL consultant, contacted us about piloting the Learning Village in an inner London […]
27th November 2018
Author: Caroline Scott The National Learning and Work Institute (2018) completed a randomised controlled trial of a Community-Based English Language intervention aimed at people with very […]
3rd October 2018
Author: Sarah Jones, EAL Coordinator How do I pilot a new resource? There is a plethora of things to consider when piloting a new learning resource or […]
5th September 2018
Author: Gemma Fanning, Head of EAL How can you take your EAL department forward to play a part in a whole school development strategy? Over the years, […]
13th July 2018
Download resource Author: Emma Mijailovic, EAL Teacher Many researchers agree that note-taking is an important skill, as it facilitates learning from text (Kobayashi 2006, Rahmani and […]
19th June 2018
Author: Gemma Fanning EAL Specialist Teacher Marking and feedback is a crucial part of any teacher’s workload, and is essential for EAL learners. The importance of […]
19th May 2018
Author: Sarah Jones, EALcoordinator Studies have found that learning a skill yourself, and then applying it, not only brings immense personal-satisfaction (among other valuable benefits), but also […]
15th April 2018
Author: Anita Bamberger The popularity of bilingual schools is increasing. This can be seen, for example, in the growing number of French schools in London, where […]
6th March 2018
Author: Gemma Fanning, EAL Specialist The term 21st Century skills is becoming significantly part of the classroom learning environment, but what exactly does that mean? There […]
3rd January 2018
Author: Sarah Jones, EAL Coordinator, Lea Forest Academy “One look is worth a thousand words.” Barnard (1921), Chinese proverb. Images are powerful as they can usually […]
7th December 2017
Dr Anne Margaret Smith Truly inclusive practice extends beyond adapting materials or managing the classroom so that everybody can access the course content. It is about […]
2nd November 2017
Author: Emma Mijailovic, EAL Teacher In my experience, teachers often have quite strong feelings about the use of a pupil’s L1 (first language) in the classroom […]
9th October 2017
Author: Gemma Fanning, EAL Specialist While it can be argued that EAL learners have an entitlement to experience a full and varied curriculum through complete class […]
7th September 2017
EAL: Excluded by inclusion By Kamil Trzebiatowski Here’s an extract: “Have you ever seen a child cry because they couldn’t understand a language? Crying their eyes out […]
6th September 2017
Author: Emma Mijailovic, EAL Teacher When we attempt to facilitate effective communication or collaborative learning between pairs or groups, we must acknowledge that our pupils are not […]
28th July 2017
For those of you that aren’t familiar with the Collaborative Learning site, it’s full of excellent resources that are completely free. Last month, Gemma Fanning, talked […]
7th July 2017
Author: Emma Mijailovic, EAL Teacher Although Inclusion is a central theme of UK policy, there are limited directives on EAL provision in mainstream classes (Costley 2014) This […]
21st June 2017
Author: Gemma Fanning, EAL Specialist Learners are often faced with the challenge of carrying out research for their class project work, and often schools invest heavily into […]
23rd May 2017
Author: Gemma Fanning, EAL Specialist Brewster, Ellis and Girard (2012) discuss the idea of playing Bingo or Dominoes as games for connecting various curriculum areas. Brewster (2012) […]
25th April 2017
Author: Gemma Fanning, EAL Specialist Play is a crucial part of language development and ideas for play and games are an essential part of any teacher’s toolkit. […]
14th March 2017
Gemma Fanning – EAL Specialist In Science, EAL learners need to understand scientific language, both written and oral, as well as to work with the command […]
9th February 2017
Author: Gemma Fanning, EAL Specialist ‘Stories and storytelling are fundamental to the human experience.’ Nunan (2012). Stories help our learners to understand their world and to […]
5th January 2017
Author: Gemma Fanning, EAL Specialist The language of Maths is often considered a language of its own, and this can sometimes be a difficulty for EAL students […]
11th December 2016
Author: Anita Bamberger, EAL Specialist Holidays and homework seem incongruous especially for the EAL students who need to concentrate extra hard in order to understand curriculum content. […]
2nd November 2016
Author: Gemma Fanning, EAL Co-ordinator An additional adult can be very effective in supporting teachers with EAL learners in the classroom. An additional adult may be a […]
27th October 2016
Parents are integral to schooling for any child, and one of the key opportunities to discuss how a child is developing is during parents evening (Macbeth, […]
29th August 2016
Sometimes our students who have English as an additional language seem to be having more difficulty than expected developing their language, and accessing the rest of […]
4th July 2016
Most schools with early stage learners of English will have some form of guided reading record. This record supports the learner, parents and the teacher in […]
16th June 2016
Author: Gemma Fanning, EAL Teacher, Dwight School London Writing essays and short stories at secondary level can be a daunting experience but when you are asked […]
11th May 2016
In the last edition, we considered the importance of not using a Whole Language approach in isolation as a primary method of literacy instruction, but rather […]
7th April 2016
Should I teach my EAL learners phonics? If so, how? As educational pedagogies continue to move cyclically, with new strategies moving in and out of favour, […]
5th April 2016
As well as interpreting for peers, young learners often find themselves interpreting for adults. This does give rise to a myriad of potential issues. There are […]
3rd April 2016
11 fantastic resources to promote elements of international mindedness… Culture shock for new EAL students is more or less extreme depending on the extent of the […]
3rd April 2016
Language learning strategies are tools to facilitate language learning that should be adapted to suit the needs of each individual. There aren’t a set of language […]
3rd March 2016
Often, for busy EAL teachers, the focus is on the child, however it is important to remember that for some parents, the transition period can be […]
3rd February 2016
Across Cultures début the Learning Village at GESS 2016 EAL/ESL specialist, Across Cultures, will be showing the Learning Village – an online English language-learning portal for […]
6th December 2015
NASSEA (Northern Association of Support Service for Equality and Achievement) have recently revised their EAL assessment framework with a few interesting differences. Designed to provide a, […]
6th December 2015
As the season ends and holidays are almost upon us (or in full swing in some cases!) we have provided you with some new Learning Village […]
25th September 2015
The lack of a common language between children can be frustrating so we often assign buddies who have a common language to help our learners. Someone […]
4th September 2012
I am delighted to announce that we have begun a partnership with EntraideUK. EntraideUK is a small charity based in the North of Solihull. Their aims […]
11th September 2012
Across Cultures will be traveling to International Primary Curriculum 5th Annual Southeast Asia Summer School in Malaysia to talk about EAL teaching with the Learning Village! Come […]
14th September 2012
14th-15th September 2012, London In September we were at the TES Resource Show in London, Islington. Caroline, Helena and James spent time talking about our main courses, […]
27th September 2012
12th-13th October 2012 Stand 31 – EAL/ESL Teaching Business Design Centre, Islington, London
3rd October 2012
17th October 2012
Come and talk to us at The Education Show from 14th-16th March 2013 at stand K54, Hall 4 near the Publishing Zone
14th December 2012
We joined the international schools community as members of the International Council for International Schools (ECIS). Founded in 1965, ECIS is a global membership organisation that provides professional […]
6th October 2013
Are you aiming for outstanding provision for your EAL learners? Send a senior member of staff to become an EAL Teacher Trainer with the tools, manuals […]
23rd November 2013
http://lifehacker.com/five-best-language-learning-tools-1448103513?utm_s…
23rd November 2013
http://boingboing.net/2013/11/14/animated-history-of-the-englis.html Video:
24th November 2013
http://boingboing.net/2013/11/21/the-noun-project-interview-wi.html