You are an English Language Expert

In every lesson you teach, you are the most skilled user of English.

We usually take this position of unparalleled proficiency for granted.

Everything we do around language and communication aids learners’ development. We are a constant model, demonstrating effective language use.

This is a powerful, and useful, position to be in.

If we know that we are modelling language-use for our learners, we can think critically about some of the things we are modelling.

• What types of language are we using?
• Are we listening actively to what our learners say?
• Do we ask questions of clarification?
• Do we adjust our language to ensure we make ourselves understood?
• How carefully do we consider what we say, before we say it?

The Teacher as Role Model for EAL Learners

The most common means by which a teacher is aware of their role as a model is when we show learners what we want them to do.

This ‘modelling’ is fundamental to good teaching.

It diminishes ambiguity by providing a visual display of what we want, and what we have asked for through speech or writing.

An example that sticks in my mind comes from when I was at school.

Each Christmas, PE lessons were given over for a few weeks to ballroom dancing.

At the start of the sessions, one of our teachers would grab hold of a partner and perform an exaggerated version of the steps we were supposed to be learning.

This contextualised the spoken explanation he had previously given, providing a visual reference through which each of us could know for certain what it was he meant.

It avoided ambiguity and was no doubt performed with the intention of getting us all off and going; the teenage psyche being less than obliging in such a setting.

Using your body to model what it is you want learners to do is helpful.

Gestures can also reinforce praise and disapproval or magnify your reactions to make it clear to learners you are taking what they say seriously.

The classroom is a theatrical space – think about how drama can be whipped up by things that elsewhere would be innocuous.

Finding ways to use this theatricality can help you to critically consider your role as teacher in relation to language and communication.

Modelling Speaking and Listening for Your EAL Learners

Speaking and listening are integral to our everyday lives. This is as true for our learners as it is for us.

There is a clear distinction between the purpose of speaking and listening in the classroom and the purpose they hold elsewhere.

It can be difficult to convey this to learners, not least because of the amount of speaking and listening they do outside of school.

That which takes place in the classroom is the anomaly, not the other way round.

Modelling the kind of speaking and listening you expect of learners is one of the most effective ways to ensure you get what you want.

Demonstrating how you want your learners to listen to one another and how you want them to speak to one another, through the speaking and listening you do with them, is a clear way of making your expectations known.

It diminishes ambiguity regarding what those expectations ought to look like in practice and provides you with a contrast to use if a learner is not doing what you have asked.

You may wish to draw attention to exactly what it is you do when you listen to learners or when you speak to them.

For example, you may talk about what your body and face are doing, how you are attending to what has been said, or the processes you are going through prior to speaking.

This ‘making explicit’ can give learners specific practices to grab hold of and integrate into their own speaking and listening.

For EAL learners, this can be a particularly powerful way of scaffolding speaking and listening for them.

By giving them distinct techniques or practices they can use, you can help them simplify the process of learning English at the same time as speaking it and listening to it.

For example, you might explain how when you listen to a learner, you watch their lips as well as listen to their words, and that this helps you clarify what you have heard.

An EAL learner could then adopt this approach, making it easier for them to decode what is being said when they are listening to a partner.

The alternative is to leave things implicit.

Opting for this method, you will be expecting learners to fall into step with the ways of acting you repeatedly demonstrate.

The advantage is that such a method can feel more natural and can encounter less resistance.

The implied message is: ‘This is how we are doing things and I expect you to do the same.’

On the downside, it may be that certain learners will not necessarily pick up on this message.

There is often an advantage to be had from making things more explicit for your EAL learners.

This removes uncertainty and gives them a better chance of understanding what it is you want them to do with their speaking and listening.

Over time, as their English language skill develops, there may be more scope for leaving things implicit, and encouraging learners to simply copy what they see and hear, without them needing the additional support of explicit explanations and modelling.

Remaining Flexible When Supporting EAL Learners

This leads us on to a consideration of flexibility.

It is an asset in teaching in general and is especially beneficial when teaching EAL learners.

Language development is an uneven process.

It does not progress smoothly and nor do its constituents (reading, writing, speaking and listening) develop at the same rate.

Working with EAL learners, you will need to regularly assess their overall language development, as well as the relative level of development they display in each of the four areas.

You can use this information to adapt the tasks and activities you plan, so they are accessible for your learners

In many cases, teachers find themselves teaching a class in which a small number of learners have English as an additional language.

Some weeks may see significant progress. Other weeks may be slow going.

Either way, the learners’ ability level will not remain static.

Being flexible in how you teach and the activities you use is thus of utmost importance.

If learners have a level of skill that is roughly, but not precisely, known then you ought to plan with this in mind.

Think in advance about how you might differentiate tasks to accommodate the changing skill levels of your EAL learners.

You can use the strategies in my knowledge base to do this, along with those in my EAL Toolkit resource.

Dedicated EAL Staff Are Hugely Helpful

If you are lucky enough to have staff in your school whose job it is to work with EAL learners full-time then you are in a good position.

Search out these colleagues and talk to them about your EAL learners.

They will know a great deal about their characters, background and the progress they have made since starting at your school.

As well as finding out more about your EAL learners, you will be able to discover more about language development too.

The insights you gain from conversations on the topic will further help in your quest to do the best for your EAL learners.

It may be that you find out more activities or strategies to use, or that you gain a better understanding of what language development looks like on a day-to-day basis.

If you have the time, ask to go in and observe the teaching that goes on.

Not only will this help you get a sense of what the learners are doing when they’re with the dedicated EAL staff, but it will also suggest to those learners that you are interested in them and the lives they lead outside of your classroom.

This is a good way to build rapport and create a sense of belonging. Both of which are crucial for motivation.

Talk to Your EAL Learners If You Can

Another group who you should talk to about teaching your EAL learners is the learners themselves.

This will be dependent, to some extent, on their current stage of language development.

Clearly it will be difficult to speak about teaching and learning if your learners are at the earliest stages of learning English.

A situation like this is not insurmountable though.

If you can get hold of an interpreter, a bilingual peer, or if you can use Google Translate effectively, you’ll have a route for trying to find out what is working and what is not working in your lessons for your EAL learners.

Whichever way you come to it, talking to your EAL learners about your lessons can provide valuable information that is otherwise difficult to get hold of.

Learners can give you feedback on what you have been doing and tell you whether they feel it is working.

They can also pick out specific areas where they are having difficulties, indicate what they are finding easy, and tell you what help they would like.

Knowing this will allow you to better plan how to support them.

It will also make it easier to take advantage of their strengths and interest as well.

All of which is a great aid to motivation.