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New to English can be supported in many different ways. Here's one school's approach:
Assessment
All learning is based on assessment. Children arrive and sit a baseline assessment. After analysis of result children are provided with appropriate provision. Interim progress reports on progression in EAL, phonics and writing are reviewed every half term.
Beginners
Beginner EAL Learning Intervention (EAL Intervention)
They follow ‘Teaching English an An Additional Language 5-11: A Whole School Resource’ which offers survival language intervention for the early days. This replaces the in class Literacy lesson for a short period until children are able to access the next two steps. Progression in English for beginners is reassessed every half term to check on progress.
Intermediates
Intermediate new arrivals curriculum language support (out of class)
This support provides additional vocabulary and language structure support for those children attending differentiated Literacy in class.
EAL differentiated curriculum support (in class)
Working closely with an EAL teacher to provide language learning differentiation for intermediate learners.
Phonics
All new arrivals are assessed for phonics and provided with differentiated out of class lessons. Reading (with phonic based readers) is part of this. Progression in phonics is reassessed every half term to check on progress.
One to one support:
Where specific EAL needs are identified (for example, after a big write) the EAL teacher will work one to one with children to support their progress with these needs.
Staff Training
Staff training is provided for all staff in integrating language learning objectives alongside curriculum objectives to support all levels of EAL learner in class.
This ‘Introduce Me’ activity is a fun and rewarding way to introduce a new topic, while developing language skills.
It’s ideally suited to learners of English, allowing them to hear knowledge presented in different ways, by more than one source, in a non-threatening environment. There’s plenty of opportunity for repetition and rephrasing. This is an adaptable activity to suit any topic where you need to introduce content. This particular example is based on trading goods (see References), but a blank template is provided for you to create your own resource.
Last week I saw a film called 'Shadow in Baghdad', it was a film that pulled my heart strings. I was brought up in Manchester, both my parents spoke Arabic at home, both were from Baghdad. What struck me the most after I watched the film was how much I missed hearing that particular dialect of Arabic, the familiarity and warmth of the Middle Eastern people, the sense of security that came with it as well as a sense of longing and regret for a disappearing culture.
Lea Forest, my school in Birmingham, has been using the Learning Village for over three years. It has proved a highly effective learning and teaching resource, with the children making strong progress. The Learning Village asked us to pilot its newest feature: the Sentence Analyser!
We were seeking a resource that would help us teach the average 75,000 words needed for the children’s language to flourish and to deepen their morphology skills. We thought the Sentence Analyser may be a useful resource.