Home languages in the literacy hour

Using home languages to support the literacy hour

English as an Additional Language (EAL) learners who already know the sound system of another language and the principles of phonology and spelling can bring that awareness to bear when learning to read and write in English … Managed carefully, talking about literacy in languages other than English can help EAL pupils to identify points of similarity and difference between languages at word, sentence and text level.’

(DfEE 1998, p. 107)

Early literacy

Children’s home language can be used to:

  • teach a love of books, stories and poetry through the stronger language
  • provide pre-teaching before the class literacy hour (talking through shared reading and shared writing)
  • revisit texts used for shared and guided reading
  • prompt and praise during shared and guided work
  • encourage discussion and personal response during shared and guided work
  • increase participation and ownership during independent work
  • compare scripts and phonic correspondences
  • develop fine motor control in sharing known scripts
  • teach phonological awareness, using puppets and drama
  • compare phonic cues
  • construct meaningful sentences for early writing, based on children’s own interests and experiences
  • maintain and develop children’s literacy skills already developed in the home language.

Key Stage 1 example

Before the literacy hour, a bilingual teaching assistant and children talk through the pictures and summarise the story of a big book in the home language.

During shared reading with the whole class, the class teacher and teaching assistant work collaboratively, with the teaching assistant prompting, encouraging participation, explaining, translating and responding to pupils’ comments in home language. Due to joint planning and a clear shared understanding of the objectives, the input enhances learning rather than detracting from the teacher’s input.

During guided reading, the bilingual assistant prompts for cueing strategies in home language, but accepts whichever language the children wish to use in participating, translating as necessary for other children in the group who do not share the language.

On another day during shared writing, children use partner talk in shared home languages for oral composition and contribute to whole-class discussion in preferred language. In the graphic area, children are encouraged to examine and practise writing letters in a home language, developing fine motor control using a range of different materials.

In a later lesson, comparing alphabets will help them understand further how spoken language is represented in symbols.

‘Billy’s language background included Thai, his mother’s language, and English, spoken by his father … His mother was making efforts to teach him the alphabet in Thai – using a booklet with brightly coloured pictures – as well as English. But she was concerned that, at the age of four, he was not keen on writing at home. Billy did not often choose to write in the nursery either … However, Billy’s mother told us that he became enthusiastic at home when she wrote letters to the family in Thai. He would … write symbols on his own sheet of paper. So Billy’s mother sat in the nursery one morning, writing several lines addressed to Billy’s grandmother in Thai. Billy sat alongside her with his own airletter form, which he filled with symbols and lines in several colours. … Later that morning [unusually] Billy spent about fifteen minutes in the nursery’s writing area, at the table where the airletter event had taken place … He produced a number of symbols including some which were quite complex and resembled his mother’s Thai writing’ (Kenner, 2001). Following this episode, Billy became a more enthusiastic writer, both at home and in the nursery.'

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