EAL Made Easy – Page 2 – Advice, resources and pedagogy for everyone!

9 Strategies to Try with EAL Students Today

So, I promised EAL would be made easy…well…easier. EAL students have one big problem and it’s NOT learning English. It’s learning enough academic English, fast enough, to get through whatever exam is coming. Their problem is not actual language acquisition, it’s the speed of acquisition. So providing support to access the curriculum must be done in a way that allows the EAL student to put chunks of useful language to good use right away.

…their problem is not actual language acquisition, it’s the speed of acquisition…

And you’re writing a blog because…..

Oy vey! Where do I begin? I’m a born and bred New Yorker transplanted to small-town Essex. I became a teacher by accident. I stayed out of stubborn determination. I succeeded because I used my painful journey of being a foreigner to help kids who were or felt different.

Why Literacy is Different for EAL Pupils

Below is the descriptor for ‘Outstanding’ teaching under the 2013 Ofsted Framework. Educationalists conscientiously tend to focus on the first part of the statement—their subject knowledge, planning and task design—to the inadvertent exclusion of the second—their students’ prior skills, knowledge and understanding.

Are you leaving out your students’ prior knowledge and skills?