Mike’s Blog
Strategies, Ideas and Insights for Teachers and Leaders
Tag: language development
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Everything you need to think about when supporting EAL learners in your classroom, including the simple, three-point checklist that can guide your work every day
When working with EAL learners it is worth remembering these three words: They provide a simple way to think about the experience of EAL learners in your classroom. By keeping…
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Skip past the challenges of decoding a new language and give your EAL learners instant clues they can use to make sense of new words and phrases
‘Pictures for Meaning’ EAL Strategy: Explanation and Rationale If you’re familiar with the content of an image, you can decode it. You can start make sense of what it means,…
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Two easy ways you can get your EAL learners focussing on the connections that underpin English language learning, no matter what you are teaching
‘Matching and Grid Activities’ EAL Strategy: Explanation and Rationale Language is built on connections. When learning a new word, we must learn its meaning. The connection between physical sound and…
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The number one strategy you can call on to help your EAL learners feel more confident using new keywords and vocabulary
‘Pre-teach Vocabulary’ EAL Strategy: Explanation and Rationale You need to know what something is before you can use it. When working with something for the first time, we often begin…
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Understand the crucial steps any teacher can take to support their EAL learners and create a successful, inclusive classroom
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…
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Easily construct meaning for your EAL learners by tapping into what they already know and using it to fix new information in their minds
‘Using Analogies to Make Meaning’ EAL Strategy: Explanation and Rationale Analogies are a means of reasoning. They make claims through comparison, using this to demonstrate similarity. The inference is that…
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What not to say when you are teaching your EAL learners and why not to say it, especially if you want to avoid unnecessary confusion and ambiguity
‘Avoiding Idioms’ EAL Strategy: Explanation and Rationale Here are five idioms: And here are literal translations of these: It’s best to avoid idioms when working with EAL learners. (This becomes…
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Build the confidence of your EAL learners at the same time as you help them improve the quality and accuracy of their spoken language
‘Recasting’ EAL Strategy: Explanation and Rationale There is a fine line between giving learners guidance that helps them to improve and providing a critique that leads to a loss of…
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Magically increase your EAL learners’ ability to think, understand and manipulate the written word with one of the simplest strategies around
‘Dictionaries’ EAL Strategy: Explanation and Rationale As humans our working memory is limited. This is widely viewed as seven pieces of information, plus or minus two. Long-term memory is far…
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Neutralise one of the most common barriers that stops EAL learners from writing and taking part confidently in the tasks you set them
‘Sentence Starters’ EAL Strategy: Explanation and Rationale When trying to write, getting started can be the hardest thing. The blank page stares up from the desk offering no help and…