Author: Dr Anne Margaret Smith   While learning new languages, a lot of information simply needs to be remembered, and we often have to combine new […]

Author: Miranda Howell, EAL Specialist   As school teachers faced with EAL learners in our classrooms, we often push the teaching of phonics down the list, especially […]

Author: Isabelle Bridger-Eames, EAL Specialist   What is a cloze procedure? Cloze procedures are tasks where learners fill in the blanks in a text from which entire […]

Author: Sarah Jones, EAL Coordinator, Lea Forest Academy   In January 2021, we commenced another lockdown in the UK and put our recovery curriculum on hold. […]

Author: Catherine Brennan, Director, Better Bilingual CIC   To mute or to unmute? To reply to one or everyone? To use gallery or speaker view? Like […]

Author: Breda Matthews, EAL Specialist   Teaching in a way that is responsive to the diversity in our classrooms has a huge impact on the learning […]

Author: Miranda Howell, EAL Specialist   For those of us who are EAL teachers in school, selecting our language learning outcomes is only one consideration in […]

Author: Eli Briasco, EAL Specialist   Think about the last lesson you taught to English language learners. I’m sure you did some form of planning beforehand. I […]

Author: Breda Matthews, EAL Specialist   Assessment in an EAL context takes many forms. It can be formal (e.g. tests and examinations), informal (e.g. teacher observations) […]

Author: Isabelle Bridger, EAL Specialist   As educators, we are naturally reflective creatures, habitually revisiting lessons in our minds to see if we could somehow improve. […]

Author: Caroline Scott, author and director   Transitioning successfully between extended home and school learning has been the struggle of every affected school, across the globe, […]

Author: Isabelle Bridger-Eames, EAL Specialist   Effective assessment for learning (AfL) is ‘informed feedback to pupils about their work’ (Shaw, 1998). As Broadfoot et al (1999) […]

Author: Catherine Brennan, Better Bilingual   As I write this, it is Mental Health Awareness Week 2020 (18-24 May) in the UK, hosted by the Mental […]

Author: Caroline Scott, author and director   If you have the opportunity to use a bilingual support partner to help families who have learners working from […]

Author: Caroline Scott, author and director   We are all faced with very different learning situations at the moment and home learning has become the current […]

Author: Lois Francis, Ethnic Minority Achievement Adviser, Integra Schools, South Gloucestershire Council   It is often easier for learners who are new to English to cope […]

Author: Sarah Jones, EAL Coordinator   International Mother Language Day (IMLD) is a worldwide observance celebrated annually on 21st February. It promotes awareness of cultural and […]

Author: Yzanne Mackay   New Year is a time to take stock – and often to think about making changes. One of the most common New […]

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 […]

Author: Sarah Jones, EAL Coordinator, Lea Forest Academy   In September 2015, Lea Forest Academy took on an additional class of 16 Year 2 newly arrived […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Author: Sarah Jones, EAL Co-ordinator   The Sentence Analyser was piloted by the children and staff in the EAL Hub at Lea Forest Academy in the […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Author: Caroline Scott, author and director   The National Learning and Work Institute (2018) completed a randomised controlled trial of a Community-Based English Language intervention aimed […]

Author: Sarah Jones, EAL Coordinator   There is a plethora of things to consider when piloting a new learning resource or scheme of work, so having a […]

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 […]

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 Sadeghi […]

Author: Gemma Fanning, EAL Specialist   Marking and feedback is a crucial part of any teacher’s workload, and is essential for EAL learners. The importance of […]

Author: Sarah Jones, EAL Coordinator   Studies have found that learning a skill yourself, and then applying it, not only brings immense personal satisfaction (among other valuable […]

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, […]

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? […]

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 […]

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 […]

In my experience, teachers often have quite strong feelings about the use of a pupil’s L1 (first language) in the classroom – it is either encouraged […]

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 […]

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 […]

When we attempt to facilitate effective communication or collaborative learning between pairs or groups, we must acknowledge that our pupils are not only exchanging information; they […]

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Collaborative Learning site, it’s full of excellent resources that are completely free. Last month, Gemma Fanning talked […]

Author: Emma Mijailovic, EAL Teacher ‘Mainstreaming’ (teaching second language learners in the mainstream class, as opposed to withdrawing pupils for EAL lessons) has been a favoured approach […]

Author: Gemma Fanning, EAL Specialist Learners in classrooms are often faced with the challenge of carrying out research for class project work. Often, schools invest heavily in […]

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 explains that playing […]

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. […]

Gemma Fanning, EAL Specialist In Science, EAL learners need to understand scientific language, both written and oral, as well as being able to work with command […]