Hampton Wick Infant & Nursery School

ENGLISH AS AN ADDITIONAL LANGUAGE

This policy was adopted/updated: February 2015

This policy will be reviewed: February 2016

Statutory policy? : Yes

Source: School

Introduction

Hampton Wick Infant and Nursery School is a multilingual school where, at the time of writing 15% of children in the school population speak English as an additional language.The term ‘EAL’ means ‘English as an additional language’ and includes those children for whom English is not the first language spoken at home and children who are bilingual. There are at least 38 languages spoken within the school community this year. There is not one large group of children speaking one specific community language.

Our Main Aims

  • To create a welcoming and supportive environment which encourages children speaking EAL to participate fully in all areas of school life.
  • To value and respect the cultural and linguistic identities of EAL children and use these to enrich the learning of all pupils.
  • To develop the oral and literacy skills of EAL children so they can understand and use English confidently and competently across the curriculum and maximise their potential in all areas of school life.
  • To integrate new EAL children and their families into the school community in order to ensure that they gain access to the curriculum and promote both their learning and well -being.
  • To encourage and enable parental support in improving children’s achievement.

Equal Opportunities

EAL children are entitled to experience all aspects of the curriculum appropriate to their key stage. We value and respect the cultural identities and experiences of all children and aim to celebrate the diversity of our school community through both class based and whole school activities. We recognise that the use and development of each child’s home language is an essential part of their linguistic development.

Admissions

On admission, information is requested about each child’s linguistic background. Class teachers carry out regular assessments to establish the stage of English acquisition children have achieved. Where necessary, advice can be sought for children who are new arrivals.There are four stages of language acquisition in the assessment framework, ranging from Stage One (beginners) to Stage Four (fully competent in English).

The Role of the Inclusion Officer

The role of the Inclusion Officer is:

  • To maintain the EAL register.
  • To act as a contact point and source of information for school staff.
  • To attend relevant training and arrange appropriate training for staff.
  • To be responsible for resources which can enhance the learning of children with EAL.
  • To liaise with parents and other agencies and assist with communication between home and school.

The Role of the Teaching Staff:

Teaching and Learning

  • There are three main strands to the English Curriculum: reading (including phonics), writing and speaking and listening. EAL learners will receive teaching in all three areas. Work is inter-related between these three areas so that one area supports development in another. In addition, children will be using English across the curriculum and throughout the school day. We acknowledge that even the more advanced learners of English need continuing support in order to reach their potential and we recognise that all children benefit from praise and positive correction.
  • To provide additional language teaching through activities specific to the individual child’s needs. Teaching will usually take place within the classroom although some children will be withdrawn for group activities.
  • To develop the social skills of EAL children through group work and use of good role models.

Resources

The teaching staff are the fundamental resource for raising the achievement of EAL learners. Multicultural and language resources are found in all classrooms across the school. Further school made resources are available – please ask.

Planning, Assessment and Record keeping.

Classroom activities are differentiated by task, outcome, resources and adult support. Assessment of EAL children will be in accordance with the School’s assessment.

EAL children will be required to sit the Year Two SATS assessments but will be given extra adult support and time to complete tasks if needed.

This Policy was updated February 2015

EAL Stages – a simplified overview

Below is a simplified list of the developmental EAL stages through which a pupil will pass on the path to fluency in English when it is not their home/first language. There are also some suggestions and practical activities which generally help pupils to access work in class.

So what does an EAL learner look like in the different stages? (These are guidelines only, the stages blend into one another and different children will show different strengths and weaknesses). This is an overview and not all statements of ability will apply to younger children as they are general and may not be ‘age appropriate’.

EAL Stage / EAL abilities / Suggestions/Practical activities
1 / •EAL stage one includes those pupils who have very limited English, who refuse to speak or have no literacy skills
•Able to produce one word answers.
•Can produce a simple response to a visual clue.
•Can understand simple classroom commands or 1-to-1 simple instructions.
•Ability to read in English may be limited to letter recognition or a few sight words.
•Can make some attempt at writing/copying known words or phrases. / •Pair the pupil with a ‘buddy’ to help around the school and in class.
•Give instructions in a variety of forms: gestures, demonstrations, clear visuals, repetition, simple worksheets.
•Picture books, translation dictionaries, dual-language books where appropriate or available.
•DVDs, CDs, Whiteboard, Headphones.
•Use repetitive language forms and actions.
•Concentrate on specific language strategies where possible and identify opportunities during planning (eg. key words, nouns, verbs, adjectives and simple sentence structures)
EAL Stage / EAL abilities / Suggestions/Practical activities
2 / •May initiate peer group conversations and attempt to form questions.
•May experiment with tenses.
•Can produce (orally) a sequence of simple sentences.
•Understands complex classroom commands and more complex instructions in context when there are visual prompts.
•Can follow age appropriate text with visual prompts.
•Can read (age appropriate) simple sentences and attempt new words.
•Attempts to write (age appropriate) simple sentences/phrases and to construct a simple text using visual or oral prompts. / As above but also…
•Collaborative learning situations.
•Cloze activities.
•Make full use of a variety of games.
•Repeat and highlight new vocabulary.
•Use gestures, demonstrations, examples and visual stimuli as often as possible, e.g. for recording information, using charts, tables, diagrams etc.
•Labelling classroom objects, equipment, pictures, diagrams etc.
•Compile a picture/word glossary.
•Sorting and matching pictures and texts into sets.
•Writing from a model.
•Use simple writing frames/information gap/ multiple choice activities.
•Sequencing pictures/sentences.
•Pair-/Group-work – re-drafting activities.
3 / •Confident and able to ask questions.
•Uses a variety of tenses and complex sentences but with significant errors.
•Can understand most classroom instructions unaided.
•Can follow a simple text/ story (age appropriate) without prompts.
•May still need individual support for new vocabulary and concepts.
•Can read age/ability appropriate texts with comprehension and refer back for meaning or information.
•Can write in a (age appropriate) variety of styles using complex structures but still a significant number of spelling, grammatical or syntactical errors. / As above, but also…
•Allow adequate discussion time prior to written activities.
•Sequencing pictures, sentences, paragraphs.
•A variety of comprehension activities: multiple choice, true/false etc.
•Collaborative writing activities.
•Re-drafting activities with a partner.
•Carry out questionnaires and surveys.
•Punctuation and paragraph activities (age appropriate).
•Sorting and matching pictures and (age appropriate) texts.
•Compiling glossaries for project/topic/other class work.


EAL Stage / EAL abilities / Suggestions/Practical activities
4 / •May appear totally fluent in conversation and with familiar content or closed question activities – written work may be ‘unexpectedly’ disappointing.
•May have difficulty understanding the underlying concept or task despite knowing the vocabulary.
•Possible problems with open-ended questions and research based activities.
•Idiomatic expressions or low frequency grammatical structures may not be understood.
•Confusion with well-known vocabulary used in an unfamiliar context. / As above but also…
•Provide props and frameworks to support writing.
•Ensure the purpose of the task is understood.
•Analyse writing or reading errors for the type of mistakes being made.
•Provide positive models and examples of good practice.
•Look at speaking and writing genres.
•Look at the understanding of concept/content, not just written responses.
Be aware that academic language fluency can take 10 years to develop.

In some situations, you may hear of EAL stage 5. This is used to refer to those pupils who may or may not have been born in the UK but are totally fluent in English as their additional language (bilingual).