‘Plan in First Language’ EAL Strategy: Explanation and Rationale

When we set learners the task of producing a piece of writing, whatever that piece of writing is, we are making a series of demands of them, two of which are of central importance.

First, we are asking them to conceive of a response to whatever it is that we have set – answering a question, responding to a stimulus, completing an assignment.

This involves them thinking about the task.

They will have to consider various ways by which they might respond and how these different approaches might play out in terms of an end result.

Second, we are asking learners to put their ideas into words.

The key skill, one might say, is to bridge the gap between the conception and the execution.

The closer the written work is to what the learner intended, the more accurately they are conveying their thoughts.

Looked at in this way, we can see how important a mastery of writing is if you want others to understand what you think.

Achieving mastery is difficult.

This is exacerbated for EAL learners because many are at an earlier stage of language development than their peers.

Therefore, the process of turning thoughts into writing is harder for them.

Learners must attend closely to language as a thing in itself, as well as a tool through which to make plain that which is in their minds.

Encouraging learners to plan in their first language mitigates this problem (sometimes to a surprisingly large extent).

Learners can fix and formalise their thoughts in their first language and then use this as a guide.

They can translate or recreate what they have written, not having to pay as much attention to the pairing up of words and thoughts.

This allows them to concentrate on using English correctly and writing accurately.

‘Plan in First Language’ Example One

Give your EAL learners a rough book.

Tell them they should use this to plan their written work in their first language before going on to write in English.

Explain the reasoning behind this and emphasise the fact that they have skill and mastery in their first language which they can put to good use.

You might develop this technique by asking learners to talk you through some of the planning they do in their rough book.

This will help build rapport – you are showing an interest in the learner’s own language even though you may struggle to understand it – and encourage your learners to think and talk about the processes they have used to translate their thoughts into writing.

‘Plan in First Language’ Example Two

Give your EAL learners a mini-whiteboard, a marker pen and a board wipe.

Ask them to use this before writing in English.

Tell them to start off by organising their ideas in their first language.

Explain they could plan a sentence at a time, go paragraph-by-paragraph, or they could plan their whole piece before starting.

Make sure they know the choice is theirs.

The mini-whiteboard is a thinking space for learners – an extension of their working memory.

It can do the job of holding meaning and structure while learners concentrate on getting the correct English words and putting them together in the right order.

‘Plan in First Language’ Example Three

Give learners a piece of A4 paper with a line drawn down the middle.

Explain that one half of the paper is for writing in English and the other half is for writing in their first language.

Ask learners to begin by responding to your task in their first language before they write anything in English.

Indicate that by separating their points or paragraphs they will be making a series of entries that they can then marry up with English-language counterparts.

Their finished sheet will look a little like an entry in a translation book.

Working in this way helps EAL learners to split up the processes involved in writing in English.

This makes their job easier, as they must only deal with one process at a time.