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25th February 2025
When surrounded by nature, one experiences many positive changes, such as emotional well-being, self esteem, resilience, and health-related quality of life (Tillmann, Tobin, Avison, 2018). It […]
12th February 2025
Attending a recent woodwind ensemble concert made me think about language use in the classroom – quite an unusual connection, right? ‘How so?’ you might ask. […]
12th February 2025
March is Women’s History Month, an opportunity to study the often overlooked contributions of women throughout history. However, Women’s History Month should be about more than […]
12th February 2025
Immersion in the new language and regular practice are fundamental aspects of fluency development in second language acquisition and instruction. However, there is much discussion on […]
20th December 2024
AI technology can offer adult learners of English or multilingual families a supportive, fun and engaging environment in which to learn and practise their English. Schools […]
12th December 2024
We’ve covered the theory, we’re enthusiastic and ready to get stuck in! However, as an early-stage teacher, we might also feel overwhelmed by the task and […]
4th December 2024
Using AI (Artificial Intelligence) for creating EAL lesson plans With EAL learners making up a diverse group with varying English proficiency levels and needs, differentiating class […]
4th December 2024
Fostering each learner’s cultural identity, what can you suggest to parents? There is more awareness now than ever before on fostering an understanding of migration, refugees, […]
6th November 2024
Author: Iva Miteva, EAL Specialist Importance of English language proficiency in school settings Have you ever considered to what extent a learner’s English language proficiency level […]
10th October 2024
Author: Sally Hay, EAL Specialist It is difficult enough to teach a classroom of new students as a substitute teacher (or relief teacher as we call […]
28th August 2024
Author: Miranda Howell, EAL Specialist We all know that there is often resistance to writing in the classroom. To break this barrier, we need to consider […]
13th August 2024
Author: Iva Miteva, EAL Specialist August is the time to take that well-deserved break from school, colleagues, and learners, and to rest, have fun, and hopefully […]
9th July 2024
Author: Iva Miteva, EAL Specialist Summer 2024 is not by any means short of worldwide sporting events. In fact, it is packed with something for every […]
11th June 2024
Author: Miranda Howell English is a language which has developed over 15 hundred years and has adopted words from over 350 languages. As a result, English […]
20th May 2024
Author: Iva Miteva, EAL Specialist What does ‘cross-curricular teaching’ mean? Beckmann (2009) defines the term ‘cross-curricular teaching’ as ‘instruction within a field in which subject boundaries […]
10th April 2024
Author: Breda Matthews, EAL Specialist Linguists including Derewianka (2001), Droga and Humphrey (2003), Knapp and Watkins (2005), and Gibbons (2009) suggest that scaffolding writing is critical […]
13th March 2024
Author: Miranda Howell, EAL Specialist You might be an experienced teacher, new to teaching, or support staff, but you have never taught any EAL learners before. […]
7th February 2024
Author: Miranda Howell, EAL specialist I will never forget the ‘feelings’ I experienced during my EAL teacher training, when I sat in a class with a […]
10th January 2024
Author: Iva Miteva, EAL Specialist There is no denying that in the 21st century, teachers have gone from strength to strength in using technology in the […]
27th November 2023
Author: Caroline Scott, Author and Director with Learning Village by Across Cultures Small group teaching is an approach in which learners are divided into small groups […]
25th October 2023
Author: Iva Miteva, EAL specialist 你好 Привіт Merhaba Здравей Buna ziua ہیلو Cześć How often do you hear these in the school playground? And actually, not […]
4th October 2023
Author: Miranda Howell, EAL Specialist The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is a human rights treaty that encompasses specific children’s rights […]
30th August 2023
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
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
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 […]
25th April 2023
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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 […]
21st May 2022
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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 […]
26th April 2021
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 […]
17th March 2021
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
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. […]