Clarity, accuracy and precision are crucial when you are communicating in the classroom. Particularly for your EAL learners.

You can go back to these three things again and again, using them as tools to make life easier for your EAL learners.

And for you.

Clarity of language aids understanding.

Simplicity in your communication can be hugely beneficial for EAL learners.

If you do not say or write what it is you mean to say or write, you are giving your learners more work to do.

This doesn’t necessarily mean using as few words as possible.

What it does mean is using the amount of words necessary, no more and no less.

This is not a figure we can arrive at mathematically. It is a judgement on your part.

Ask yourself whether what you are saying to learners is sufficiently clear. If it is not, you may need to alter what you are saying, or how you are saying it.

Take account of where you EAL learners are at, and what they are currently able to do when it comes to decoding speech and the written word.

Minimising Ambiguity

Minimising ambiguity is central to good teaching. (Apart from those occasions when you are using ambiguity to create high challenge.)

This includes teaching EAL learners.

The teacher is on the wrong side of the numbers game in the classroom. They are on their own with perhaps 20-30 pupils in front of them.

Each one needs to know what they are supposed to be doing. Each one is looking and listening separately.

You, meanwhile, are alone; single and unitary.

The worst possible situation is to have 20 to 30 voices crying out at the same time:

• ‘What do I do?’
• ‘I don’t understand what we are supposed to be doing.’
• ‘Is this what you mean?’

To avoid such situations and to aid your EAL learners, think carefully before you speak.

Spend time paring down the language on your resources.

When giving instructions, do not begin until you know what you are going to say.

It sounds obvious, yet it is a rule easily ignored.

Many people have a notion of what they wish to say but then find themselves lost, indulging in repetition, or saying something different to that which they intended.

You can avoid this by taking a couple of seconds to flesh out in your head the specifics of what you want to communicate.

You may even rehearse sentences prior to speaking them.

By doing the synthesis before, your speech becomes clearer. More precise.

There will be times when it feels like you and your learners are on different wavelengths.

Remember, however, that the only control you have is over yourself.

Get things right here and the rest will follow. Focussing on clarity will make you a better teacher in general, as well as with EAL learners specifically.

Accuracy and Precision

Accuracy and precision are two of the key elements that go to make up clarity.

Think of accuracy as correctness and precision as exactness.

The former requires you to ensure similarity between what you are thinking and what your language conveys to learners.

If you fail to specify the format in which you want something done and then complain when you receive posters instead of essays, the fault can be traced back to a lack of accuracy on your part.

If you tell learners to answer a question in whatever format they feel most comfortable with and this accords with your intentions, you are being accurate.

Accuracy helps create a better relationship between teacher and learners because it minimises misunderstandings and helps pupils to understand the expectations you have of them.

Such an atmosphere also gives you more time to work with learners you have identified as needing your support, including EAL learners.

By being accurate you are more in control of how you use your time during a lesson. You can therefore be more efficient.

Precision concerns your choice of words and the way in which you articulate them.

You could accurately convey your meaning but do so in a long and unwieldy speech.

Being precise means communicating your thoughts exactly as you intend them – and this means as you intend them to be understood.

Excess language is the bane of good communication.

It leads the listener astray and diminishes the impact of what you have said.

You may still be able to communicate your meaning, but it will be less powerful and less persuasive because of your lack of precision.

Being precise means editing your speech and selecting the words that hold the exact meaning you intend them to hold.

It means not repeating yourself unless it seems necessary and you consciously decide to do so.

It may be that with certain groups of learners you will need to repeat yourself. This should be at your behest. Unconscious repetition is a sign that you are not fully clear on what you are trying to say and have not considered what language will give the precise meaning you intend.

Do your EAL learners know what you mean?

Being precise is key of we want to minimise ambiguity.

This is important for all learners, but especially for EAL learners.

They do not have the same means for filling in gaps or making assumptions about what you might be asking them to do.

Look at the word ‘might’ in that last sentence. If your language leaves possibilities open that you have not intended, then you are making life harder for your learners.

An EAL learner is developing their understanding of English.

The more precise and accurate the language they see and hear in the classroom, the easier you are making it for them.

Clarity, precision and accuracy: three words that should stay with you while you are teaching and creating resources.

All your learners will benefit, particularly those who are learning English as an additional language.

You may find that it helps to minimise behaviour issues and increases motivation as well.

There is a lot to be said for knowing where you stand and precisely what is being asked of you. It also makes it easier to pull pupils up if they are not doing what you asked.

One Final Note on Clarity and EAL Learners

Our premises are as follows:

1. EAL learners are more likely to be positioned toward the ‘newly encountering English’ end of the language-learning continuum.
2. Their knowledge and understanding of English is likely to be at an earlier stage of development than that of their peers.
3. Their skills in the four elements of English language learning – speaking, writing, reading and listening – will reflect point (ii).

Therefore, we can assist them by:

• Making sure our language is clear and that it coveys exactly what we mean it to convey.
• Modelling accurate and precise use of language to help learners learn what is correct.
• Minimising ambiguity to lower learners’ workloads. This lets them concentrate on developing their understanding of what is being said and written (rather than guessing at what is not being said and written). It also helps them to achieve success because the task of decoding is simpler. And success invariably aids motivation.

To round things off, here’s a useful checklist to bear in mind when working with your EAL learners:

• EAL learners are, in many ways, just the same as the rest of your learners.
• All learners respond to genuine praise.
• Making it clear why praise has been given aids learning.
• Genuine empathy helps build rapport.
• Expect that you and your EAL learners will feel frustrated at times.
• All learners are individuals.
• All learners are at a different stage of language development.
• EAL learners are, generally, at an earlier stage of language development. They will therefore need extra, or different, support.
• Language consists of reading, writing, speaking and listening.
• These four elements have similarities.
• They also differ in significant ways.
• Writing is a technology that has given rise to reading.
• Clarity, precision and accuracy should be your watchwords in the classroom.
• Minimising ambiguity helps everyone.
• At all times your written and spoken language is a model for your learners.