The Key Stage 3 Framework for languages guidance: Inclusion

English as an additional language (EAL) learners

EAL learners have diverse needs in terms of support for settling into the schooling system and for English language learning. They may also need support with those parts of language lessons which deal with comparisons between the target language and English. At the same time, their awareness of other languages and cultures may enable them to make valuable contributions to languages lessons, where their learning may be at the same level or ahead of that of other pupils. It is sometimes said that withdrawing newly arrived EAL learners from language lessons is sensible, because they cannot speak English; this should be resisted as it is a subject at which many EAL learners can excel.

Inclusive teaching

EAL learners can benefit at the earliest stage from:

• hearing well-structured target language
• explicit links between spoken and written language
• comparisons between target language, first language and English
• rich visual support
• demonstration, modelling and investigation of language structures and functions
• experimentation in small groups
• active reading activities where they can rework content and ideas in their own words
• using first language/English and target language/English dictionaries
• recording some work trilingually.

EAL learners and the Framework

Where teaching is well matched to their needs, EAL learners will benefit strongly from Framework-based teaching as it promotes:

• explicit attention to language learning
• frequent pupil–pupil and pupil–teacher talk
• the development of knowledge about language
• the use of helpful models of spoken language in real contexts.

Pupils who already understand principles of phonology, spelling and grammatical conventions in another language will be able to use that knowledge when working on relevant Framework objectives. The teacher will encourage them to draw on their first-language skills to aid new learning, for example, through explicit comparison of word order in the pupils' first language and in the target language.

When working on intercultural understanding, teachers may draw on a culture familiar to EAL learners, for example, as part of helping all pupils appreciate cultural diversity or recognise different ways of seeing the world.