Call on the visual immediacy of the humble highlighter to help your EAL learners read with greater confidence and skill

‘Pre-Highlight’ EAL Strategy: Explanation and Rationale

When faced with an unfamiliar text, there are various strategies we can use.

We might decide to read everything through and then begin again, the idea being that the first run-through helps dispel unfamiliarity, giving us a better chance to work things out on our second reading.

Another option is to look for elements with which we are already familiar. These could be in the form of phrases, references or specific words.

Doing this means we can use prior knowledge to help us scaffold our understanding of what initially appears unfamiliar.

A third option is to look at the context surrounding the text:

Who wrote it?
Why did they write it?
When was it published?
Who is the intended audience?

This takes longer but is usually worthwhile.

For us, all these strategies are available.

We have lengthy experience of dealing with texts and have read a considerable amount through the course of our schooling and tertiary education.

In addition, and in all probability, we will also have read a great deal in our leisure time and for the purposes of work.

Most learners arrive at texts with far less information than we possess, and with less understanding (if any at all) of the strategies available to help make the unfamiliar a little more recognisable.

EAL learners are in a weaker position because they lack the context provided by earlier schooling and cultural experience (I am referring here to schooling in the English language and cultural experience in the English-speaking country in which they find themselves).

This is in addition to their being at an earlier stage of English language development than their peers.

Pre-highlighting is a method the teacher can use to support EAL learners when they are dealing with texts.

Here are some examples of the strategy in action.

‘Pre-Highlight’ Example One

If you are using photocopies of a text, make some extras for your EAL learners.

Prior to the lesson, use a highlighter to draw attention to specific elements of the writing.

These could be keywords, important paragraphs, or some other thing to which you would like your learners to pay close attention.

On handing out the sheets, indicate to your EAL learners that you would like them to concentrate on the parts you have highlighted.

Tell them to ignore the rest of the text for the moment.

This will help them focus their efforts on manageable chunks of writing.

It will also ensure they are attending to those parts you have identified as being of greatest use (or, perhaps, those parts that are most accessible for them).

‘Pre-Highlight’ Example Two

Ask a learner who is a skilled reader to go through a text you intend to use.

Tell them their job is to identify all the key points and, once they have done this, to go through it again and highlight these.

You can set this task as an extension for one or more of your more-able learners and then use the results with your EAL learners.

Your more-able learners get the benefit of being challenged to effectively analyse a text.

Your EAL learners get the benefit of a pre-highlighted text, where the highlighting shows them what they need to focus on.

‘Pre-Highlight’ Example Three

If you do not have material that can be photocopied and find yourself working with textbooks instead, try using sticky notes instead of highlighting.

The result will be the same.

Of particular use are the sticky notes in the shape of arrows you can buy at most stationers.

Due to their shape, you can use these to point at sections on a page you would like your EAL learners to focus on.

For example, a physics teacher might ask their learners to read and make notes on a two-page section of a textbook.

Once the class are up and running, the teacher can go to their EAL learners and use a set of arrow-shaped sticky notes to indicate a series of key paragraphs.

The teacher can then ask their EAL learners to focus first on reading and making sense of these paragraphs, before making notes on them.

This process has two benefits.

First, the teacher is showing their EAL learners what needs to be prioritised, simplifying the act of reading.

Second, the teacher is removing some of the synthesis work from the task.

Through the highlighting, the EAL learner has less information in total that they need to refine down into notes.

Thus, the task is made easier and more manageable for them.