6th September 2023

We’ve been shortlisted for the TeachCo Primary and Secondary awards!

We are excited to announce we have been shortlisted for the SEN category on BOTH Teach Primary and Teach Secondary! Follow this link to find out […]
30th August 2023

The effects of EAL learner wellbeing on their academic performance

Author: Shalu Aara, EAL Specialist A learner’s wellbeing is vital to their achievement and overall success. Nevertheless, an EAL (English as an Additional Language) learner’s wellbeing […]
28th June 2023

What to consider when supporting EAL learners in the classroom

Author: Martha Giannakaki, EAL Specialist Our EAL learners are by no means a homogeneous group of learners and their needs in our classroom will vary to […]
30th May 2023

What makes a great EAL teacher?

Author: Iva Miteva, EAL Specialist What is the role of an EAL teacher? An EAL teacher is a professional specialising in working with learners for whom […]
26th April 2023

Across Cultures discuss the importance of research and evidence to support Edtech development

It was a privilege for Caroline Scott (Director, Author and Creator of the Learning Village by Across Cultures), to have been invited to participate as one […]
25th April 2023

Vocabulary: What should we teach, and how?

Author: Miranda Howell, EAL Specialist What should we teach? Many of us have been in a situation where we want to communicate with someone who does […]
22nd March 2023

Listen up! A ‘What’ and ‘Why’ EAL Checklist for Nurturing Great Listeners

Author: Eli Briasco, EAL Specialist Despite legitimate claims that EAL students devote over half of their time to listening when functioning in English (Nunan, 1998), this […]
28th February 2023

How to encourage EAL parents to become involved in their children’s education

Author: Linda Boland-Quigley, Home School Community Liaison Parental involvement in children’s education can take many forms and can be experienced differently by each parent. The benefits […]
24th January 2023

In Celebration of Mother Tongue

Author: Mary Langford, EAL Specialist (Mother Tongue & International Education) A growing number of international schools are demonstrating the importance and value of their students’ and teachers’ […]
9th December 2022

Tips for mainstream teachers to support English as an additional language (EAL) learners

Author: Miranda Howell, EAL Specialist How often does a classroom teacher approach an EAL teacher with the words, “I don’t know how to help this learner! […]
7th November 2022

EAL Learners: Combating Bullying

Author: Christine Hanley, EAL Specialist When I was teaching early literacy to adults some years ago, I had two teenage students from a refugee background join […]
22nd September 2022

Written corrective feedback: Investigating beliefs and practices

Author: Eli Briasco, EAL Specialist Chances are, if you’ve been teaching English for a while, you’ve provided plenty of feedback to your learners on the accuracy […]
29th August 2022

Supporting students with basic literacy skills

Author: Breda Matthews, EAL Specialist Schools often have a number of students who are not yet literate in English. Whilst this includes English-speaking children who are […]
4th August 2022

Why use a graphic organiser?

We all know that there can be resistance to writing in the EAL classroom. To break this barrier, we need to consider the reasons for this, […]
4th August 2022

The importance of enjoying a good read

A wide reading programme is promoted as a key vehicle for learners of English as an additional language (EAL) in order for them to improve their […]
3rd August 2022

Steps for a Successful Transition for New Arrivals

It’s the beginning of a new academic year – you come in for your inset day, and find out that you have two new starters in […]
15th June 2022

New case study: engagement and progress in a large group of schools

Our new case study looks at the use of the Learning Village programme by a group of 55 schools. The Across Cultures team collected data on […]
21st May 2022

Transitioning from Primary to Secondary

The big day has arrived, the new uniform is looking smart, and now our ‘senior’ Primary school learners are about to become important ‘junior’ Secondary school […]
27th April 2022

Early Career Framework and EAL

The Early Career Framework was made compulsory in the UK in September 2021. It replaces the year-long NQT period. It is a two-year programme of support […]
27th March 2022

Using language skills for mathematics

Author: Christine Hanley, EAL Specialist   Studying mathematics in an English-medium school presents learners of English as an Additional Language (EAL) with a double cognitive whammy as […]
23rd February 2022

Four ways to hook in your EAL learners at the start of a writing lesson

Author: Miranda Howell, EAL Specialist   The traditional way to start a lesson with Secondary school learners is with a ‘do now!’ activity. It works. You get […]
23rd January 2022

The voices that don’t get heard: Why a child’s mother tongue matters in the classroom

Author: Yzanne Mackay   If Katerina spoke in Russian again in the classroom, the teacher warned her, her name would be put on the board and she […]
27th November 2021

Online safety for EAL learners

Author: Yzanne Mackay   Everyone recognises the importance of staying safe online – but it’s not always straightforward. For many of us, computing – including social media, […]
26th September 2021

A holistic approach to recovering lost learning

Author: Isabelle Bridger-Eames, EAL Specialist   Barry and Matthew Carpenter’s ‘Recovery Curriculum’ has many applications for EAL pupils. Their ‘Recovery Curriculum’ was created during the 2021-21 pandemic, […]
16th August 2021

What is EAL? – Talking to other teachers about EAL

Author: Yzanne Mackay   You’re the EAL lead in your school – or a teacher with responsibility for EAL. You’re a class teacher who’s been asked to […]
10th July 2021

A sense of familiarity in unfamiliar times

Author: Louise Kearns, English Language Specialist Teacher   In March 2020 International Primary School Almere, along with all other schools here in the Netherlands, went into lockdown […]
5th June 2021

Memory strategies for language learners

Author: Dr Anne Margaret Smith   While learning new languages, a lot of information simply needs to be remembered, and we often have to combine new […]
17th May 2021

Teaching pronunciation in a whole language-based classroom

Author: Miranda Howell, EAL Specialist   As school teachers faced with EAL learners in our classrooms, we often push the teaching of phonics down the list, especially […]
6th May 2021

We’re finalists in the ERA Awards 2021

We’re thrilled to announce that we’ve been shortlisted for the Education Resource Awards 2021 – as a finalist in the Supplier of the Year category. The ERA awards […]
3rd May 2021

Across Cultures Partnership with ISP

We’re really excited to be partnering with the International Schools Partnership (ISP) to develop best practice in multilingual learning across their global community of schools. Across […]
26th April 2021

Cloze procedures – Do your EAL pupils need ‘closure’?

Author: Isabelle Bridger-Eames, EAL Specialist   What is a cloze procedure? Cloze procedures are tasks where learners fill in the blanks in a text from which entire […]
29th March 2021

The British School Rio de Janeiro Education Conference 2021

Caroline Scott, of Across Cultures, will be running workshops on all three days of the TBS Education Conference in Rio, on 29th, 30th and 31st March. […]
17th March 2021

EdTech: the Emergency Service for Education in 2020!

Author: Yzanne Mackay   It’s now almost exactly a year since the UK education system went into lockdown. The ruling that schools must close to almost all […]
3rd March 2021

Keeping your EAL learners engaged while learning remotely

Author: Sarah Jones, EAL Coordinator, Lea Forest Academy   In January 2021, we commenced another lockdown in the UK and put our recovery curriculum on hold. […]
3rd February 2021

How fluent are your pupils in the language of ‘online English’?

Author: Catherine Brennan, Director, Better Bilingual CIC   To mute or to unmute? To reply to one or everyone? To use gallery or speaker view? Like […]
25th January 2021

BETT Awards 2021: We’ve been shortlisted again

We’re delighted to announce that we’ve been shortlisted in the BETT Awards 2021 for our secondary learning resource – The Islands! The BETT Awards are an […]
4th January 2021

Text types: Helping English language learners to achieve the same learning outcomes

Author: Breda Matthews, EAL Specialist   Teaching in a way that is responsive to the diversity in our classrooms has a huge impact on the learning […]
13th December 2020

Integrating language and curriculum teaching: a personal perspective

Author: Miranda Howell, EAL Specialist   For those of us who are EAL teachers in school, selecting our language learning outcomes is only one consideration in […]
8th November 2020

Promoting effective student talk with dialogic teaching

Author: Eli Briasco, EAL Specialist   Think about the last lesson you taught to English language learners. I’m sure you did some form of planning beforehand. I […]
7th October 2020

An approach to EAL assessment

Author: Breda Matthews, EAL Specialist   Assessment in an EAL context takes many forms. It can be formal (e.g. tests and examinations), informal (e.g. teacher observations) […]
18th August 2020

EAL Learning – Achieving the right balance

Author: Isabelle Bridger, EAL Specialist   As educators, we are naturally reflective creatures, habitually revisiting lessons in our minds to see if we could somehow improve. […]
24th July 2020

The Learning Village makes the Teach Secondary 2020 shortlist

We’ve made it to the top again! The Learning Village secondary-level programme – The Islands – has been shortlisted in the Teach Secondary awards 2020. This […]
30th June 2020

Transitioning between home and school learning: some success stories

Author: Caroline Scott, author and director   Transitioning successfully between extended home and school learning has been the struggle of every affected school, across the globe, […]
4th June 2020

Assessment for learning: ‘Inside The Black Box’ for EAL learners

Author: Isabelle Bridger-Eames, EAL Specialist   Effective assessment for learning (AfL) is ‘informed feedback to pupils about their work’ (Shaw, 1998). As Broadfoot et al (1999) […]
3rd June 2020

Home learning during school closures: A minibeasts project for primary pupils

Author: Catherine Brennan, Better Bilingual   As I write this, it is Mental Health Awareness Week 2020 (18-24 May) in the UK, hosted by the Mental […]
12th May 2020

Calling home – working with a bilingual support partner

Author: Caroline Scott, author and director   If you have the opportunity to use a bilingual support partner to help families who have learners working from […]
21st April 2020

Discussing learning in the mother tongue

Author: Caroline Scott, author and director   We are all faced with very different learning situations at the moment and home learning has become the current […]
4th March 2020

Mathematics and English as an Additional Language (EAL)

Author: Lois Francis, Ethnic Minority Achievement Adviser, Integra Schools, South Gloucestershire Council   It is often easier for learners who are new to English to cope […]
3rd March 2020

We’re GESS Award winners!

At a Gala Dinner in Dubai, the Learning Village was announced SEN Inclusive Resource/Equipment Supplier of the Year 2020. The trophy was presented at the GESS Awards, […]
8th February 2020

Across Cultures launches ‘The Islands’

In March 2020, Across Cultures will launch the next phase of its highly successful EAL programme – ‘The Islands’. ‘The Islands’ is designed for learners aged […]