A drive to raise literacy standards in the UK during the past 20 years has led to a proliferation of synthetic phonics schemes. Although most teachers would agree that learning to sound out words is only one practice in a range of skills necessary for children to read...

According to the research of Lucas T. Villegas, A-M. & Freedson-Gonzalez, M. (2008)* 5 principles will help EAL pupils in our classes: Talk Children needs lots of opportunities to talk with other pupils – not just out in the playground, where they will pick up...

Bilingualism Matters, based at University of Edinburgh, recently ran a webinar that focused on teaching languages during lockdown. Teachers working in schools and for Scottish local authorities shared their experiences of adapting to new ways of presenting material to...

Staycation - a word used in the media to describe people staying at home for a vacation, rather than travelling abroad. It’s an example of a portmanteau word, which blends two words together to make a new meaning. It’s also a good example of how the English language...

You don’t have to have lots of money or expensive toys to teach children some basic life skills. Here are a few simple suggestions to make the most of being at home with your children. Learning while you walk  Going for walks and talking about the things you can see...

As teachers we have enormous power to influence pupils’ lives and behaviours, but we can only do this if our own behaviours, values and beliefs work to empower the pupils we are lucky enough to teach. How can teachers empower, rather than dis-empower, their pupils?...

Dear Parents and Carers, Welcome to REAL Learners. If you want to help your child understand Covid-19 a bit more, here is a useful website: https://www.mindheart.co/descargables . It has simple information, written in 25 different languages, that explains how the...

Do you ever have tomatoes on your eyes? Or do you drink water while diving? Although these questions sound ludicrous, the answer to them is probably yes, at one time or another. A German teacher would understand the reference to tomatoes and realise that it means...

Working with pre-school children is enormously rewarding. They are full of enthusiasm and energy, soaking up the world around them like little sponges. Children who come to pre-school or nursery speaking a language other than English are in a great position to become...

We asked schools using our Guided Language activities a few questions... Q1. What are the benefits of the programme for your school? One Head Teacher summarised the materials perfectly, saying they are, “Very clear, very easy to follow and easy to pick up with only...

At Naldic’s Conference 27, Dr Anne-Margaret Smith gave an excellent presentation on how schools can assess and support EAL learners with possible SEND, swiftly and efficiently. Here is a summary of the main points for you. General observations relating to EAL and SEND...

Many schools in the UK are lucky enough to have culturally and linguistically diverse pupils coming through their gates every day. Yet UK classrooms are often largely mono-lingual spaces. So how do pupils learning EAL, some of them in the early stages of acquiring...

Joining a new school is always tricky even when you speak the same language as your teacher and classmates. Joining as a child from a different country, or even continent, and speaking one or several languages that no one else understands must be like stepping onto a...

Picture the scene. Two children eating burgers across the table from their mum and grandma. The children chat to each other, eagerly sizing up the steak knives on the table with their serrated edges. When one of them starts singing and the other protests loudly at the...

Long summer holidays are great. But some teachers with children in the early stages of learning English express concern. They know that some pupils who speak EAL will go through the holidays without many opportunities to practice English. The consequences of this are...

Training to be a teacher is hard but rewarding work. Completing a successful teaching practice demands intelligence, determination and skills not dissimilar to those of a street entertainer, plate spinning being one of the most obvious. Alternatively, you could try...

Children who are graded C (using the government’s A-E language assessment levels) are often ‘invisible’ learners.

How do you improve EAL pupils’ reading performance by the end of KS2? Mark Smith, Leader of Wolverhampton’s Citizenship, Language and Learning Team, has some answers. At Naldic’s West Midlands’ meeting on 2nd March 2019, Mark Smith reported successes in reading...

MABEL is an anagram for the Multi-language Assessment Battery of Early Literacy. Quite a mouthful, but a potentially useful resource for schools. Why? Because it can assess pupils’ early literacy skills in a small, but growing, range of languages. MABEL looks at...

Learning to fit into a new class, in a new community, in a new town, in a new country, must be a very scary experience. Add learning a new language to the mix, and the whole concept of ‘fitting in’ can turn into a living nightmare for many newly arrived children. What can schools do to help pupils do more than just survive the school day?

All newly arrived pupils want to belong; it’s a fundamental need. Students don’t want to be different from everyone else. They don’t want to receive special attention or be singled out for speaking an incomprehensible language or having an unpronounceable name. Their...