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Iva is an EAL Specialist who has taught EAL to international pupils from different countries and educational backgrounds for over 18 years. In addition to that, she has also led and managed the EAL provision in a number of schools as Head of EAL and EAL Coordinator. Iva has a PG Dip in Educational Leadership and Management and a Master's in Applied Linguistics. Iva is passionate about multilingualism, valuing diversity and the importance of maintaining children's home languages.

Articles from this author

multilingual books

Using multilingual books and stories in the EAL classroom

Author: Iva Miteva, EAL Specialist
Created: Mon 12th May 2025

What happens when a child never hears their own language or they can never identify with any of the characters in the stories they read at school?

'thank you' in different languages

Translanguaging in teaching

Author: Iva Miteva, EAL Specialist
Created: Mon 10th Feb 2025

Attending a recent woodwind ensemble concert made me think about language use in the classroom - quite an unusual connection, right? ‘How so?’ you might ask. Perhaps it was because the musicians each had a different heritage, played a different instrument, and spoke another language. Yet, they all tuned their instruments together at the start and communicated in English before creating something beautifully fluid for the audience to immerse themselves in.

open book with colourful graphics

5 key reasons to assess learners’ English language proficiency in schools

Author: Iva Miteva, EAL Specialist
Created: Wed 6th Nov 2024

Importance of English language proficiency in school settings

Have you ever considered to what extent a learner’s English language proficiency level affects their academic success in English-medium school?

English language proficiency is usually measured by learners’ ability to use English effectively in different contexts, i.e. how well they can speak, listen, understand, read and write in English. 

students arriving at a school

Welcoming newly arrived EAL learners

Author: Iva Miteva, EAL Specialist
Created: Tue 13th Aug 2024

August is the time to take that well-deserved break from school, colleagues, and learners, and to rest, have fun, and hopefully enjoy some much-needed sunshine. Without a doubt, summer is when many teachers around the world recharge their batteries before the craziness and delight of the new academic year start all over again.

Illustration of a book with multiple subjects

Cross-curricular teaching: Best practice for EAL learners

Author: Iva Miteva, EAL Specialist
Created: Mon 20th May 2024

What does ‘cross-curricular teaching’ mean?

Beckmann (2009) defines the term ‘cross-curricular teaching’ as ‘instruction within a field in which subject boundaries are crossed and other subjects are integrated into the teaching (how and for whatever purpose or objective)’.

Similarly, see here for guidance on CLIL (content and language integrated learning) teaching.

parent workshop

Empowering families through parent workshops

Author: Iva Miteva, EAL Specialist
Created: Wed 7th Feb 2024

What could be more powerful for parents than being provided with information, skills, resources and tools to support them as a family unit and educators for their children?

EAL learners writing on a whiteboard

Using a multimodal approach in the classroom

Author: Iva Miteva, EAL specialist
Created: Wed 10th Jan 2024

There is no denying that in the 21st century, teachers have gone from strength to strength in using technology in the classroom and this has changed the classroom landscape significantly. The digital age has introduced new avenues to explore for learning and teaching beyond the traditional classroom methods.

illustration of arms holding up multilingual phrases

One school, many languages: Making languages matter

Author: Iva Miteva, EAL specialist
Created: Wed 25th Oct 2023

你好 Привіт Merhaba Здравей Buna ziua ہیلو Cześć

How often do you hear these in the school playground? And actually, not just in the playground… Do you know which language they are from? Have a guess!

(Here is the answer: Mandarin, Ukrainian, Turkish, Bulgarian, Romanian, Urdu, Polish)

An EAL teacher holding up letter cards to a learner

What makes a great EAL teacher?

Author: Iva Miteva, EAL Specialist
Created: Wed 31st May 2023

What is the role of an EAL teacher?

An EAL teacher is a professional specialising in working with learners for whom English is an additional language, such as refugees, asylum seekers or children of migrant families.