Language made fun: supporting EAL students in primary education (original) (raw)
Related papers
Applied Linguistics and Primary School Teaching
Cambridge , 2011
Modern primary teachers must adapt literacy programmes and ensure efficient learning for all. They must also support children with language and literacy difficulties, children learning English as an additional language and possibly teach a modern foreign language. To do this effectively, they need to understand the applied linguistics research that underpins so many different areas of the language and literacy curriculum. This book illustrates the impact of applied linguistics on curriculum frameworks and pedagogy. It captures the range of applied linguistics knowledge that teachers need, and illustrates how this is framed and is used by policy makers, researchers, teacher educators and the other professions who work with teachers in schools. It considers how to effect professional development that works. It is essential reading for primary teachers but also for speech and language therapists, educational psychologists, learning support teachers and all those doing language or literacy research in the primary classroom.
2018
Children learning English as an Additional Language (EAL) are a growing but understudied population of learners in English primary schools. As EAL learners vary in their amount of exposure to English, they often begin formal education with relatively lower levels of English language proficiency than their monolingual peers. Little is known about the English language and literacy developmental trajectories of EAL learners in England, and particularly, the extent to which the two groups of learners converge or diverge over time. Additionally, no studies to date have assessed the efficacy of explicit, targeted vocabulary instruction in this group of learners in the run up to the end of primary school. The present study comprised a longitudinal cohort study of 48 EAL learners and 33 monolingual peers who were assessed at three time points between Year 4 (age 8-9) and Year 5 (age 9-10) on a battery of English language and literacy measures. All EAL learners had received English-medium ed...
Irish Educational Studies, 2019
Underpinning all literacy skills in English is a clear, and explicit, Knowledge about Language (KAL), including grammar and genre. This paper promotes a language-focused perspective of teaching, looking at one, distinct area of KAL within Irish schooling. This paper details an explicit English language intervention with young pupils (aged 6-7) in a disadvantaged Primary School in Ireland. Pupils were provided with a clear, systematic knowledge about language and genre. Drawing from the theoretical framework of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), pupils were taught elements of functional grammar. Terms such as processes, participants, circumstances and genre (defined as, … any staged, goal orientated social process involving language) (Martin, [2000]. "Analysing genre: functional parameters." In Genre and Institutions Social Processes in the Workplace and School, edited by F. Christie and J. R. Martin, 60-89. New York: Continuum, p. 13) were introduced to the pupils. The data presented suggests pupils are capable of learning and internalising and more explicit KAL, if taught to them in a structured and meaningful manner.
Vocabulary and Grammar Development in Young Learners of English as an Additional Language
Handbook of Early Language Education, 2020
Internationally, an increasing number of children learn English as an additional language (EAL). Children with EAL grow up in an environment where English is the majority language but are exposed to a different, minority language at home. Despite the increase in the number of EAL learners around the world, comparatively little is known about the development of their vocabulary and grammar at preschool age. Furthermore, the use of different methods in EAL studies can make research evidence difficult to summarize. The aim of this chapter is to
2016
The central research question in the project was: How can children’s everyday language practices be mapped onto the curriculum to enhance learning outcomes for all children? The project aimed to: 1. Map the everyday language practices of students in complex multilingual, culturally diverse classrooms 2. Develop pedagogies based on students’ everyday language practices – as recorded in the maps –to address English curriculum outcomes 3. Evaluate the impact of the processes of the mapping and pedagogical developments on student learning across the curriculum in complex linguistically and culturally diverse classrooms
Britain International of Linguistics Arts and Education (BIoLAE) Journal
It is widely accepted that the needs of EAL learners are as diverse as the population as a whole, reflecting a wide range of educational and linguistic needs. The quest of EAL learners to attain proficiency in English has been a phenomenon that needs to be explored, particularly in relation to changes in UK national educational policy and funding that has defused the needs of EAL learners within a more general emphasis on inclusion and raising the achievement of ethnic minority children. Qualitative methods are used to allow thirteen children from Libya (newcomers) along with their parents and teachers to talk about their experiences of classroom support available for EAL learners within UK mainstream schools. Data are analysed using thematic analysis. The results showed that there is a lack of provision to enable teachers meet the specific language needs of EAL children. In fact, Libyan children found themselves immersed in a new classroom without EAL support or clear instructions ...
English as an additional language: a survey of effective practice in Key Stages 1–3
English as an additional language: a survey of effective practice in Key Stages 1-3 Graham Frater Foreword Many children, young people and adults face real challenges in learning to understand and communicate in English because English is not their first language or the language of their home. Some are isolated in areas of England and Wales where few others from their language community live; others live in areas of the country where their first language is often used more frequently in daily life than English. As Graham Frater reveals, all need more than to 'get by' in English.
The Education of English Language Learners: Research to Practice
2010
and the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. An expert in language and the development of communication skills, Dr. Shatz has used both naturalistic and experimental methods to carry out research on the interrelations among social, cognitive, and language development in young children. Much of her work addresses cultural issues, examining whether and how particular languages influence cognitive processing or how particular cultural practices affect language use and even the language in children's books. Among the languages represented in her writings are Spanish, Italian, Korean, and Turkish. Dr. Shatz has published more than 70 chapters and articles and a book, A Toddler's Life; coedited the recent Blackwell Handbook of Language Development and has served as an editor and editorial board member of numerous journals, including First Language and Mind and Language. In her current research, she investigates how young children acquire abstract vocabulary.