Walking into a new secondary school is a daunting experience for any learner. Now imagine doing it in a country you have only recently arrived in, surrounded by unfamiliar routines, new classmates, and a language you do not yet fully understand.
For newly arrived multilingual learners, those first few weeks can shape not only their academic progress but also their confidence and wellbeing.
Start with belonging
Before learners can fully engage with lessons, they need to feel that they belong.
Simple gestures matter. Learning how to pronounce a learner’s name correctly, introducing them to a friendly peer buddy, providing a visual map of the school, or displaying signs in different languages all send a powerful message: You are welcome here.
Just as importantly, make space for learners' home languages. Encouraging learners to draw on the languages they already know does not slow down English learning, it actually strengthens it. Cummins (2001) highlights that recognising learners' linguistic identities helps build confidence, participation, and achievement.
Show before you tell
When learners do not yet have the English to follow lengthy explanations, visuals become one of the most powerful teaching tools available.
Concrete images, diagrams, graphic organisers, demonstrations, and real objects help learners grasp meaning without relying solely on translation. They reduce anxiety, make lessons more accessible, and allow students to participate alongside their peers from the very beginning.
This principle sits at the heart of Learning Village, where concrete images help learners develop understanding directly, whatever their home language or starting point in English.
Build language step by step
New arrivals should not have to wait until they are fluent before they can learn subjects such as Science, History, or Geography. Instead, language and subject knowledge should grow together.
Teachers can make this easier by introducing key vocabulary before a lesson, modelling sentence structures, providing speaking prompts, and offering writing frames that are gradually removed as confidence develops.
As Gibbons (2015) explains, scaffolding is not about making learning easier. It is about giving learners the support they need today so that they can work independently tomorrow.
Create plenty of opportunities to use English
Learners make the greatest progress when English is something they actively use, not simply something they study. Structured pair work, collaborative activities, and purposeful classroom talk give learners regular opportunities to listen, practise, and communicate in meaningful contexts.
Krashen (1985) suggests that language develops most successfully when learners are exposed to English they can understand, with enough support to make the new language meaningful. Visual learning, clear modelling, and carefully planned classroom interactions all help create this kind of rich, immersive environment where confidence grows naturally.
Starting points
Every newly arrived learner brings a different story. Some have strong literacy skills in their home language, while others may have experienced interrupted schooling or little formal education.
Understanding learners' starting points helps schools provide the right support and track the progress that follows. Regular assessment also gives teachers valuable evidence to inform next steps and celebrate the often remarkable progress multilingual learners make.
Key takeaway
When all staff use support strategies and approaches that are backed by evidence, they can create classrooms where learners with a wide range of language backgrounds and literacy levels can understand, participate, and achieve from day one. Every teacher can play their part in this. Many schools choose programmes that reflect these principles to support their multilingual learners, helping teachers provide visual support, structured language development, meaningful opportunities to use English, and ongoing assessment. This evidence-informed approach is reflected within Learning Village and supports schools to build inclusive practice that benefits newly-arrived multilingual learners.
References
Cummins, J. (2001) Language, Power and Pedagogy: Bilingual Children in the Crossfire. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Gibbons, P. (2015) Scaffolding Language, Scaffolding Learning: Teaching English Language Learners in the Mainstream Classroom. 2nd edn. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Krashen, S.D. (1985) The Input Hypothesis: Issues and Implications. London: Longman.
