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If you have EAL new arrivals in your school with limited English, you need a scheme of work in English that supports learners with language learning alongside the curriculum content you are delivering. This is to ensure young learners are understanding the basics of language needed for success.
Learning can be split into two parts:
The downloadable scheme of work for providing learners with the survival language they need for later success with academic language. They are split into sessions. Often, it takes a huge amount of time to prepare resources to support learners with the survival language alongside the academic language they need to access the demands of the curriculum.
We’ve covered the theory, we’re enthusiastic and ready to get stuck in! However, as an early-stage teacher, we might also feel overwhelmed by the task and intimidated by the expectations. So where do we start? Initially, the question is: What do I teach? This article answers some of the questions related to language teaching.
Language is a key part of one’s identity and our level of fluency in a language can truly affect the way we view ourselves (Patterson, 2021). It is often incredibly difficult for monolingual individuals, who are highly proficient in their language, to imagine the extent to which language ability in any language, be it a home language or an additional language, is linked to one’s self confidence and perception of themselves. What happens when your level of language proficiency becomes a barrier to communication, learning, and the world around you?
I will never forget the ‘feelings’ I experienced during my EAL teacher training, when I sat in a class with a tutor who entered the room with a basket of goodies and greeted us in Swedish. My immediate reaction was one of confusion, which then led to frustration and finally a sense of hopelessness, before I even realised that I was actually expected to experience learning some Swedish without a single word of English allowed in the classroom.