Every Teacher is a Language Teacher
Our 30th Annual Conference
Saturday November 19th 2022, 9am-5pm
Online Conference (via Zoom)
NALDIC 30 | EAL Conference 2022 | #naldic30
50% discount for members!
At NALDIC’s 30th annual conference, we celebrated three decades of working collaboratively with practitioners, academics and policy makers to support multilingualism and raise the achievement of EAL learners. At the heart of this 30th-anniversary conference, we engaged in discussions around how language is at the centre of every classroom interaction, and that supporting multilingualism is not just for EAL specialists: every teacher is a language teacher. What does this look like? What do practitioners in the field have to tell us? What does research tell us?
We thank those who joined the debate and listened to our great lineup of speakers and contributors.
Conference format
What were the formats for our third online conference?
Posters: These are designed to provide opportunities to present a brief overview of classroom practice/research. Like a face-to-face conference, the online posters were available to view throughout the day.
Papers: These presentations are designed to provide time and space to report on classroom practice/research findings related to the conference theme. Like a face-to-face conference, these sessions were delivered ‘live’ (25 minutes including Q&A).
Workshops: These are designed to be more interactive spaces to explore classroom practice/research. Like a face-to-face conference, these involved small group discussions, tasks and activities and delivered ‘live’ (55 minutes).
Keynote Panel
Reflecting on 30 years of NALDIC
NALDIC’s Constant Leung, Frank Monaghan and Manny Vasquez, chaired by Yvonne Foley reflected upon this year’s conference theme of ‘Every teacher is a language teacher’ and how NALDIC’s work in EAL has evolved over the last 30 years. We also looked to the future of the EAL field and what challenges the next three decades might bring for EAL researchers, practitioners, students and families to tackle together.
Keynote Speaker: Carolyn McKinney
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University of Cape Town
Carolyn is an Associate Professor at the University of Cape Town and conducts research on language and literacy teaching and learning in multilingual contexts. Her research is framed by a view of language and literacy as social practices. She researches the relationships between language, literacy and power in educational contexts of deep social inequality. Carolyn has published on language ideologies in schooling and language in education policy; relationships between ‘race’ and language; classroom discourse and power relations; critical literacy; identity, subjectivity and learning and translanguaging for learning.
All teachers are language teachers – what does this mean in a context of coloniality and deep social inequality?
This presentation explored what it means to be a teacher of language, and of English as Additional Language in particular, in a context of deep inequality in education, both locally and globally. Carolyn argued that as teachers of bi/multilingual children and teachers of English, we have a dual responsibility. On the one hand we need to provide access to particular dominant language and literacy practices that are privileged, while on the other we need to challenge English monolingualism, or Anglonormativity, and the often racialized deficit positioning of bilingual learners. Engaging all teachers as language teachers provides significant opportunities for teachers and learners to develop critical awareness of the specific language and literacy demands of their disciplines as well as of the relationships between language and power that sustain inequality.
Carolyn proposed that the latter is as important as the former if we are to position all children as capable, enabling them to take up identities of capable bilingual learners. Working with the notion of ‘coloniality of language’, Carolyn began by exploring some of the dominant language ideologies and myths that underpin what it means to teach and learn English as an additional language as well as what constitutes ‘good’ language teaching. Carolyn argued for working translingually to enable languaging-for-learning and illustrated this with one or two language across the curriculum interventions she is currently involved in: Zenex L4L with Mathematics, Science and English high school teachers and iSayensi Yethu grade 4 bilingual science materials.
Keynote Speaker: Khawla Badwan
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Manchester Metropolitan University
Khawla Badwan is Senior Lecturer in TESOL and Applied Linguistics at Manchester Metropolitan University. She is the author of Language in a Globalised World: Social Justice Perspectives on Mobility and Contact (2021), published by Palgrave. Her work includes researching language education, social justice, sociolinguistics of mobility, language policy, literacy debates, English language teacher education, and new materialist approaches to language and intercultural communication.
Pushed and Pulled in Multiple Directions: EAL Provision between tensions, myths, needs, aspirations, and hope
This keynote responded to the conference theme ‘every teacher is a language teacher’ while extending this statement by adding ‘and every language teacher is more than just a language teacher’. The talk started by foregrounding some ontological and professional tensions associated with the word ‘language’: what is language? for whom? under which circumstances?, and most importantly, who benefits from the current conceptualisations of language in education? This discussion lead to presenting some of the myths and challenges that surround the EAL provision. After that, the talk discussed some of the needs and aspirations for the provision, making the case that we need to move beyond inclusion by embracing fostership that allows children to be themselves and at peace with their multifaceted identities. Through examples from research and practice, the talk concluded with a hopeful note on the transformative power of an education built on the practice of attention and the enactment of care for the children and for language itself.
Presentations – Papers 1-4
Paper 1
Joanne Hynie
University of Dundee
j.hynie@dundee.ac.uk
Individual needs or an inclusive environment: dilemmas of practice in the inclusion of young people with English as an additional language
Inclusion practice in mainstream education for young people with English as an additional language presents a dilemma. Do we respond to individual needs, which highlights difference, or do we provide an inclusive environment, which seeks to remove difference? Both are essential elements of inclusion.
To examine the dilemma, a hermeneutic analysis of teachers’ opinions, attitudes and beliefs was conducted along with a critical discourse analysis of key policy texts. These two approaches can be considered incompatible, with the first from a contextually interpretivist position within the hermeneutic tradition, and the second from a critical realist position within the Frankfurt tradition of critical theory. On the other hand, as both recognise the need for critique and for context, their differing emphases can be used to explore both sides of the inclusion dilemma.
The data show that most practitioners struggle to include EAL pupils, that is, pupils who have not yet reached academic competence in English, and many define inclusion of EAL pupils as their lowest priority. Teachers do not think they have the tools, resources, skills or knowledge to include EAL pupils, but they do think they have a duty to do so, and that this is best done in the mainstream. This mismatch between capacity and duty induces frustration, resignation and, at worst, disengagement.
The study shows that envisaging inclusion as a democratically established value system together with a robust critique based on parity of participation can respond to both sides of the inclusion dilemma. However, it also shows that this can only be achieved where the elements of participatory parity, namely redistribution, recognition and representation, apply to practitioners themselves. It offers a way of responding to the dilemma that can benefit not only EAL pupils but all pupils.
Paper 2
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Madeleine Pilcher
Open University
madeleine.pilcher@talk21.com
Translanguaging within an Early Years setting in England: the use of languages by young Polish bilingual learners
My research study investigates how three four-year-old Polish bilingual learners use translanguaging whilst acquiring English during their first year of schooling. It is argued that every teacher is a language teacher and if practitioners support translanguaging in the classroom then children’s bilingualism is seen to be valued (Cheatham, Jiminez-Siva and Park, 2015). There are, however, only a small number of research studies that have investigated how translanguaging is used in an Early Years setting to scaffold language learning (Kirsch, 2018; Kirsch and Seele, 2020; Lewis, Jones and Baker, 2012) and little research of this kind has been carried out in England to date. My research seeks in part to address this gap.
I conducted the classroom-based research during one academic year in an Early Years setting within a primary school in England. Data were collected through interviews, audio-recordings and field notes of the three children participating in a variety of activities. As a teacher-researcher I was actively involved in their language learning which became part of the rich research data. A case study approach was adopted and thematic analysis used to categorise the data according to recurring themes arising during the research.
Findings indicate that the children respond appropriately in either English or Polish to meet the contextual need and communicate through translanguaging. Findings also show how the children’s translanguaging practices over the year act as a scaffold for both of their languages and thus for language learning, enabling the children to communicate confidently in both English and Polish with peers and adults.
Recommendations for Early Years teachers are presented to suggest practical ways in making use of first languages to scaffold children’s language learning and to recognise the potential advantages that bilingual children bring to the classroom. Finally, implications are discussed for Early Years policy and implementations.
Paper 3
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Giulia Tornar
University of Glasgow
giuliapof@gmail.com
Scottish PSAs as language teachers for EAL learners in a primary school in Edinburgh – a case study on reading supports
Although EAL teachers’ practices and experiences in primary schools in the UK have received increasing research attention in the last decade (Anderson et al., 2016), there is little empirical research on the role of teaching assistants supporting EAL learners. Furthermore, very little attention has been paid to how they assist EAL learners throughout individual reading interventions during the COVID-19 pandemic in Scotland.
This talk will explain my recent practitioner enquiry and qualitative case study on how Pupil Support Assistants (PSAs), Scottish teaching assistants, support reading for bilingual learners and whether their interventions have been affected by the pandemic. Classroom observations and semi-structured interviews were used to collect data from three PSAs and two classroom teachers from a primary school in Edinburgh.
Results presented will show that both teachers and PSAs often feel frustrated and overwhelmed supporting reading for EAL learners due to multiple factors, such as lack of time, resources and EAL specific training possibilities. Furthermore, data shows that PSAs’ teaching practices were influenced by the same feelings and responsibilities as the main teachers, suggesting that their pedagogical role is often undervalued and under researched.
However, despite the challenges that PSAs face whilst supporting EAL learners, this talk will provide potential recommendations on how PSAs might better provide for EAL learners during intensive reading programs. The discussion will particularly debate the use of children’s literature versus graded readers books, and different approaches to reading instruction, such as personal and reader’s response theories, based on my observations and interviews. Overall, the findings examined contribute to EAL practices in Scotland and PSAs’ role towards bilingual learners’ education and might carry several implications for Scottish educational policies and reforms on EAL learners. Finally, the talk aims to demonstrate that PSAs are not only teachers, but language teachers for EAL elementary learners.
Paper 4
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Karen Forbes
University of Cambridge
kf289@cam.ac.uk | @karen_forbes
Mapping school-level language policies across multilingual secondary schools in England
Language plays a crucial role in education; it is the means through which students access content knowledge across the entire curriculum and the medium through which they express themselves, negotiate understanding and are assessed in most subjects studied. Yet, while issues of language are undoubtedly relevant to all teachers, school-level language policies, which aim to provide explicit guidance underpinned by a clear set of principles, are too often conspicuous by their absence in the context of England. Where such policies do exist, they are frequently fragmented and underpinned by monolingual ideologies which do not reflect the linguistic diversity of schools today.
This presentation, therefore, draws on data from a British Academy funded study which explored the provision of school-level language policies from a representative sample of secondary schools across England (n=998). Where such policies existed, a systematic analysis was conducted to identify the particular practices and underlying monolingual and/or multilingual ideologies reflected in and promoted by these policies. This focused on references to English (both as a curriculum subject and as an additional language), modern languages in the curriculum (i.e. as timetabled subjects) and other languages represented in the school such as community / heritage languages. Examples of whole-school policy documents containing relevant data include those relating to special educational needs, equality and inclusion, English as an additional language and curriculum.
The findings presented will provide insights into the prevalence and focus of existing school-level language policies and will shed light on the often fragmented (and at times contradictory) way in which languages are conceptualised within policies. This evidence constitutes a vital first step in creating research-informed guidance for schools on how to develop a cohesive, contextually-appropriate language policy to support students’ language development and learning across the curriculum.
Presentations – Papers 5-8
Paper 5
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Catherine Paradine & Matthew Coleman
Wellington College International Hangzhou
catherine.paradine@wellingtoncollege.cn || matthew.coleman@wellingtoncollege.cn | @8colemanm8
Unlocking English language barriers to help children flourish: How triangulating data helped teachers identify the potential of EAL learners in our school in order to accelerate academic progress and improve wellbeing
The presentation will explore how our school used GL Cognitive Abilities Test Fourth Edition (CAT 4) assessment data to identify EAL who had high verbal deficits (those learners with a difference of negative 20 or more between their verbal and non-verbal CAT4 data, with a bias towards high non-verbal), along with the Bell Foundation’s Assessment Framework to plan curriculum adaptations and, therefore, help accelerate the progress of this unique cohort of language learners.
The high percentage of pupils with EAL in our school (95%) meant that it was important for our community to understand that progress for this significant group was the responsibility of all staff but, at the same time, for teachers and TAs to feel empowered to drive change, develop their own strategies and lead the development of good practice.
Using a ‘case study’ approach, teachers and TAs were asked to evaluate the impact that EAL strategies had on a child or group of children in their class who had ‘high verbal deficits’. Throughout the year, regular opportunities were provided for staff to share their practice and reflections (with events such as ‘teach meets’ and ‘speed dating’ held, as well as open classrooms and peer observations) while parents were invited into school for workshops which explored and shared the school’s approach to EAL and assessment.
At the end of the project, staff were asked to measure the impact of their chosen strategy, triangulating their pupil’s work, progress and attainment data, and classroom observations to draw conclusions, with teachers suggesting how to refine or improve strategies for future reference.
Paper 6
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Anna Czebiolko
Harrogate Ladies College
annauser1@hotmail.com | @anna_annauser1
The role of EAL coordinator
Being responsible for the EAL provision in a large city secondary school is a challenging task. Providing support for families, students and the school staff requires effective organisational skills, subject knowledge and immensely honest commitment towards the job.
Having been recognised by OFSTED inspectors, who named our school EAL practice as ‘strong’ in the latest report, it is the right time to pose a question about the meaning behind the acknowledgement.
Initially starting with an EAL unit a number of years back and finally building the whole-school positive approach and EAL culture across the school, where every teacher is honourably an EAL teacher, will be the main theme of this presentation. Ultimately, the reflection about developing such provision will be presented.
What methods worked well? And what mistakes had been made before establishing the practical and more productive systems? How to motivate subject teachers to personalise for their EAL students? How to make EAL an integral part of every sphere of school life? How to support your work colleagues in advancing their EAL knowledge and their teaching methods? How to promote bilingualism and translanguaging? How to share the best practice? These are only a few questions, which will be answered in this paper.
Even though the role of an EAL school leader can be demanding, with constructive working structures it can be extremely rewarding and bring many benefits towards the whole-school community.
Paper 7
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James Spencer
University of Essex
james.d.spenc@gmail.com
Working together: why language policies of international schools must evolve to incorporate collaborative strategies between EAL and the mainstream
This paper aims to develop a better understanding of how essential collaborative relationships are between English as an Additional Language and mainstream subject teachers at an international secondary school in Ukraine. The research focuses on how EAL teachers support EAL learners in the mainstream classroom through collaborative practices. The paper draws on qualitative data from interviews and field notes with Language & Literature, Science and EAL teachers. The interviews investigated how EAL and mainstream collaboration help support EAL learners in the mainstream classroom, which co-planning strategies most effectively encourage collaboration, and EAL and mainstream teachers’ opinions and experiences about co-planning and working collaboratively. As a result of these data, the discussion focuses on the disconnect between collaboration in theory and in practice.
The paper concludes that although effective collaborative strategies often exist, school language policies need to include scheduled collaborative planning time between EAL and the mainstream, and that professional development for mainstream teachers should be led by EAL teachers to foster more balanced content and language classroom teaching.
Paper 8
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Silvana De Camilli
Freelance
silvanadeca@hotmail.com
When a language teacher isn’t a teacher
Uruguay established an educational policy to become a plurilingual country by 2030: “Uruguay Plurilingüe 2030”. To this aim, all students who graduate from high school in mainstream secondary education must reach a B2 level in English. To achieve this, mainstream primary school teachers start teaching English in Year 4. In rural areas there are increased difficulties to achieve this, including a lack of English-speaking primary school teachers. Suddenly, primary school teachers are teaching a language they don’t speak. How can they do this? As well as being provided with teaching and learning materials and strategies, rural primary teachers are assigned a ‘Godparent’.
Godparents are Uruguayans abroad, recruited because of their relatively fluent English and because they believe in the aims of the project. Godparents are not necessarily qualified or experienced teachers. They share a dream and the attitude to make it real. Godparents volunteer their free time to encourage and motivate students to learn English and support a rural primary school teacher in their journey teaching, and often also learning, English. So, what happens when an architect or an engineer becomes a Godparent? How does a designer living in the UK help a student living on a farm in rural Uruguay?
In this paper I would like to share my experience as a Godparent and show you how Godparents synchronously and asynchronously work with the primary school teachers and students they support; how we learn from each other and how we are supported by the (educational policies) team. This project will be replicated in other South-American countries. Come and find out about the trials, the tribulations and the joy of being a Godparent.
Presentations – Papers 9-12
Paper 9
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Felicity Parry
Bangor University
elpd38@bangor.ac.uk | @FelicityParry
Teachers’ identification and referral of bilingual children with language disorders
Children with English as an Additional Language (EAL) tend to be less likely to be classified as having speech, language, and communication needs compared to their monolingual English peers (see DfE, 2021, 2022). Teachers are practised referrers of monolingual English children (Broomfield & Dodd, 2004), but have no clear guidelines on how to proceed with bilingual pupils of concern (Law et al., 2000). Teachers may therefore hesitate to make decisions, for fear of incorrectly defining these children (Schmaus, 2021). Few studies have investigated teachers’ role in the speech and language therapy (SLT) referral process for bilingual pupils.
This study employed Ajzen’s (1991) Theory of Planned Behaviour to investigate whether a) teachers’ perspectives towards their language disorder identification role, and b) teachers’ ability to identify bilingual children showing signs of language disorders, predict teachers’ actions in the referral of bilingual children to SLT.
45 England-based mainstream primary school teachers completed an online questionnaire, measuring how far teachers’ reported attitudes, opinions of relevant others, and perceived behavioural control (confidence, responsibility, resources) influenced the referral of bilingual children of concern. Teachers’ identification abilities and referral decisions were also recorded through their responses to vignettes describing bilingual children with and without signs of language disorders.
Analysis found that whilst attitudes, opinions of others, and perceived behavioural control all positively correlated with teachers’ intentions to refer, intentions had no statistical relationship with referral decision. However, as teachers’ language disorder identification accuracy in bilingual children increased, and their perceived behavioural control increased, teachers took a more active role in the referral process. This suggests that teachers’ perceptions of their own capabilities have a strong direct impact on referral actions.
This research will have practical implications for school policies and procedures, with particular reference to informing relevant training for teachers.
Paper 10
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Naomi Flynn & Aniqa Leena
University of Reading Institute of Education
n.flynn@reading.ac.uk | @naomiflynn61 || @aniqaleena
The Talk-Rich Teaching Project: Professional learning for teachers in multilingual classrooms
It is widely acknowledged that, in the UK, funding for professional development to support our super-diverse population of multilingual school children is limited, and lack of reference to multilingualism in policy exacerbates this. Thus, professional learning for teaching multilingual learners must offer sustainable school-led change in a resource-poor context. US research using The Enduring Principles of Learning (EPL) (Teemant, 2014) has had promising outcomes in raising attainment for multilingual learners as part of a school-driven approach. The EPL are framed as an array of research-informed, critically engaged, culturally sustaining, language-rich, intentionally dialogic practices.
In our paper we present findings from our six-month mixed-methods research-to-practice study using The EPL with teachers in linguistically diverse primary schools in England. Staff in three experimental schools took part in a sequence of professional learning meetings focussed on how to make their practice more talk-rich. Four focus teachers in the same schools (2 x Year 1, 2 x Year 4) had monthly classroom observations with follow-up coaching conversations using a tested EPL rubric for scoring practice and recording fieldnotes. Bespoke tests, administered to pupils in the focus teachers’ classes pre- and post-coaching cycle, were developed using WIDA’s US assessment framework for assessing multilingual learners’ English proficiency. Their purpose was to see if changes in the teachers’ practice led to raised pupil outcomes in English language and literacy. Teachers and pupils in a control school were observed and tested for comparison.
Reflecting on our data we will draw a practical portrait of how teachers responded to this professional learning opportunity and whether their changes in practice led to changes in learning for their pupils. We discuss implications for the design of teaching and assessment approaches for multilingual learners which can support schools’ ambitions to make every teacher a language teacher.
Paper 11
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Declan Flanagan
Health and Social Care Trust – Belfast/NATECLA (Island of Ireland)
flanagandeclan6@gmail.com | @flanagandeclan6
The Evaluation of a CLIL course for 16+ Refugee and Asylum Seekers in Northern Ireland
Both EAL and ESOL provisions in Northern Ireland are in their infancy, mainly due to a long history of violent conflict, i.e., ‘the Troubles’, resulting in little inward migration. Nevertheless, NI migration and ESOL/EAL landscapes have changed considerably, with a significant increase in refugees/newcomers resettled under various resettlement schemes. However, such provision has lacked professional and learner consultancy and has been reactionary and piecemeal rather than planned, resulting in a neglected cohort of 16–19-year-olds from refugee and asylum seeker communities, including unaccompanied minors. These young people are in an indeterminate educational state due to their age, interrupted or little formal education, English language proficiency or have not achieved within the secondary education system in Northern Ireland and therefore cannot access formal secondary, further and or higher education.
A pilot 16+ Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) course was developed, delivered, and evaluated within community education settings in Belfast (September 2021/June 2022). It provided 16 hours of structured education over 24 weeks for 12 young people. The curriculum included ESOL, basic Maths, essential ICT, basic Science and bespoke PHSE provision. The evaluation showed significant improvement in learners’ productive (speaking), receptive skills (listening), range of vocabulary, and grammar accuracy. More significantly, learners’ personal/social development and welfare improved, resulting in greater motivation to continue learning to achieve a level of English that can enable them to access mainstream provisions. However, the course highlights the need for extensive trauma-informed ESOL training for practitioners. Moreover, concerns for future 16+ CLIL programmes delivered within Further Education (FE) settings will not be effective due to its human rather than social capital ethos, evident within community educational settings.
Paper 12
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Colin Isham & Alina Alupoaei
Isham Education and Community Ltd; Regina Maria Dorohoi High School, Romania
cisham@ishamedu.com
Multi-media storytelling to open up the languages of the classroom – experiences from across Europe
DIVERSE was an Erasmus+ project across five EU countries, which supported teachers to develop practice in storytelling through drama, fairy tales and digital technologies. The project ran from 2019 to 2022. The focus of the call was the taking to scale of good practices in inclusive learning, intended to support newly arrived migrants.
The paper presents the data from the external evaluation, with a focus on practice which promoted use and learning of bilingual pupils’ L1. This is followed by a case study presented by Alina Alupoaei, a teacher at the Regina Maria High School in Dorohoi, Romania, who developed her practice through DIVERSE, and describes here the benefits for her bilingual students.
At project level, pre- and post-survey data were collected from 214 pupils, of which 50 were of refugee, migrant or minority (RMM) background. Survey measures provide an indication of changes in pupils’ dispositions to learning, social competences, and cultural awareness and expression, as well as RMM pupils’ sense of belonging.
Teachers also provided detail of their practice and outcomes for pupils through logs and surveys. Pre- and post-survey measures provide evidence of changes in teacher confidence in storytelling practices and promoting inclusion. Qualitative data from pupils and teachers were analysed to inform case studies of practice which supported different learning outcomes. Pupil measures were based on earlier research on the Drama in Education Interventions (DICE) project, and teacher measures on the Teacher Sociocultural Diversity framework.
The evaluation design itself is adapted for a multilingual context, ensuring data were captured in any language pupils and teachers felt they could best express themselves in, and qualitative data analysed in English after translation.
The content and results of the DIVERSE project are available at: www.diverse-education.eu
Presentations – Papers 13-15
Paper 13
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Jacob Huckle
Dulwich College Suzhou
jacob.huckle@dulwich.org
Routines for Translanguaging and Multilingual Thinking: Enabling Pedagogical Translanguaging in all Classrooms
If every teacher is a language teacher, every teacher needs to be well equipped to scaffold and extend students’ language learning as well as leverage the linguistic diversity in their classrooms as a resource for learning through pedagogical translanguaging. However, research suggests there are significant barriers to implementation of such a vision. Teachers might resist translanguaging pedagogies because of persistent ‘language usage separation ideologies’ (Cenoz & Santos, 2020, p.3), or misconceptions about language development (Yip & García, 2015), or a feeling of discomfort at not knowing what students are discussing (Ticheloven, Blom, Leseman, & S., 2021, p.500).
For some teachers, ‘the organizational stress and risk of losing control’ is viewed ‘as more significant than the principle of linguistic inclusion’ (Ticheloven et al., 2021: 500). Given these challenges, it seems that to realise translanguaging pedagogies in all classrooms, more intentional approaches are required to support teachers in their implementation. I will argue that part of the solution to this is the development of instructional routines, which I refer to as Routines for Translanguaging and Multilingual Thinking. Instructional or thinking routines are an effective way of building shared understanding of pedagogical approaches that can ‘become part of the fabric of the classroom through their repeated use’ (Ritchardt, Church & Morrison, 2011: 48). I will report on the early stages of this project and share some example routines for translanguaging and multilingual thinking that could be used to overcome some of the aforementioned barriers and support teachers in implementing translanguaging in classrooms throughout the whole school.
Paper 14
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Debra Page
University of Reading
debra.page@pgr.reading.ac.uk | @debrakpage
The Young Interpreter Scheme – Empathy in YI children
In this paper, I will talk about my research evaluating the Hampshire Young Interpreter Scheme, with a specific focus on empathy in children. The award-winning Young Interpreter Scheme is a school-friendly programme that supports English as an Additional Language learners through the use of trained ‘buddies’.
The focus of this talk will be on the quantitative data from the children for the empathy aspect of my PhD. Becoming a Young Interpreter means being an empathic friend who can welcome and help new pupils. Each training session involves activities that draw on different aspects of empathy and a discussion of feelings. This talk will provide a theoretical background to empathy development, how empathy can be developed from the role of adults, education, interventions, and peers, and how to measure empathy. I will report the results of the Young Interpreters’ empathy scores over the duration of my research; before and immediately after the YI training, and at a longitudinal follow-up. These will be compared with a group of non-YIs. Empathy was measured using The Empathy Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents (EmQue-CA) (Overgaauw et al., 2017). This is the first study to use this measurement instrument in this age group and so reports on its suitability for this age group will be revealed.
This talk will be describing a low-cost, pupil-led, sustainable way of supporting EAL learners’ language and literacy development. It will provide evidence of how the Young Interpreter Scheme contributes to the development of empathy in children, and how the YI training can be viewed as an intervention to foster empathy for children who are new to England and English.
Paper 15
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Wagdi Abdallah
University of Warwick
wajdi_jabr@hotmail.com
The Stories of Four Sudanese English as Additional Language Children: An Ethnographic Home-based Study
Based on an ethnographic and activity-based methodology, this home-based study examines the school experiences and the language use of four English as additional language Sudanese children aged 5–8 years old. The study provides insights into these young children’s use of their first language and English, so gives a fuller and richer picture of bilingual children’s learning.
The study reveals some of the ways young children experience in their early years as they begin to learn the language required for formal schooling. It highlights how the researcher has become able to see the tension between the children masking their linguistic identity at certain points, and not opening up/resisting questioning about this, and the complexity of their actual identities. It also shows the complexity of family situations with regard to linguistic diversity and identity. Moreover, it demonstrates the reciprocity of the relationship between the children and the researcher, and between the researcher and the families. The researcher was labelled as a teacher, support worker, and adult family friend due to the richness of the data collected for a whole year.
The picture that emerges fills in the detail missing from the current over-generalised view of bilingual children in the early years and provides important new perspectives to a growing body of literature on young bilinguals. English as an additional language (EAL) research has targeted e.g., teachers, classrooms, policy, and assessment; however, little research has tried to elicit views from children themselves. Thus, the study’s findings are of relevance to all teachers, early childhood practitioners and early years policymakers operating in multilingual environments.
Workshops
Workshop 1
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Susan Stewart
International School of London
sustseize@gmail.com
Multilingual messaging: working with parents
When schools, teachers and parents work together with a common understanding of the processes of language acquisition and multilingualism, it is the child who benefits. With 15 years’ experience in running regular parent workshops on bilingualism in international, state and community language schools, Susan Stewart will share her four key understandings which underpin and guide conversations around ensuring that children develop all of their languages, within the school and home environments. These workshops are now attended by parents and teachers together so that everyone is ‘singing from the same hymn sheet’. Working sensitively and positively with parents, as well as recognising the unique context of every child, guides this process. Participants in this workshop will be given time to reflect on their own and their students’ language portraits, reflecting on how these fit into their particular school and larger community. The workshop will develop some technical vocabulary around multilingualism, including acquisition, cross-lingual transfer, metalinguistic awareness, and biliteracy. We will consider ways in which we can measure literacy in all of the languages a child uses, and how this can be used to enhance their learning. Using Ruiz’ framework, we will reflect on how we talk about the different languages in a school environment: as a problem, a right, or a resource.
Workshop 2
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Joanna Kolota
Trinity Academy Leeds
joanna.kolota1@gmail.com | @JKolota
How to teach language explicitly in secondary schools?
Trinity Academy Leeds (TAL) is situated in and serves one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse communities in England. 60% of TAL’s Year 7 and Y8 cohort are EAL (English as an Additional Language) students who have been exposed to language(s) other than English either at home or in their wider community. This is significantly higher than the national average of around 19% in secondary schools but in line with the linguistic diversity represented in TAL’s locality of Burmantofts (Department for Education, 2021). At TAL, in each year group fewer than 5 students have been identified at A-B levels (English Language Proficiency Levels), around 20 at C stage, and the majority of learners are competent or functionally bilingual. We ensure that all students have access to mainstream lessons where the comprehensible input is achieved by a series of strategies which are tailored to the students’ linguistic needs and include, but are not limited to: language scaffolds, visual aids, sentence starters, speaking and writing frames, explicit vocabulary teaching with focus on Tier 2 and Tier 3 words, enhancing oracy skills. The session will offer practical solutions and examples of how language and content are taught simultaneously with a particular focus on explicitly teaching tier 2 vocabulary (5 step model used by all teachers), modelling and use of full sentences, controlled and independent practice of writing in a particular genre. The presented strategies are applicable to all subjects and present a consistent and language-aware approach to supporting multilingual learners in secondary mainstream lessons.
Workshop 3
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Soofia Amin
Kensington Primary School
soofia.amin@kensington.ttlt.academy
A whole school approach to multilingualism
I have been leading on EAL at Kensington Primary in Newham for nine years now. My work involves supporting and training teachers at my school, our Academy trust, Tapscott Learning Trust, and also schools around London. EAL strategies have always been a solution for those pupils with little or no English: methods with which teachers can support pupils and ensure children with English as an additional language are being catered for in the classroom. However, schools often also see children who do not speak English as having something missing: The Department for Education (DfE) records a pupil as using EAL if ‘they are exposed to a language at home that is known or believed to be other than English.’ This means that if a pupil is identified as using EAL when they start school at 3–5 years old, they will continue to be recorded as an EAL user throughout their education and their life. This includes children who have grown up speaking English primarily in the home and whose second language is the weaker language. Sounds simple – however, schools are increasingly taking in pupils from abroad who have little or no English and who may speak two other languages outside of school. Add in the mix of children with no previous education and no formal literacy in their first language (L1) and the picture gets more complicated. Working in Newham, an East London borough with one of the highest proportion of pupils (75%) that speak languages other than (or in addition to) English at home (NALDIC, 2015), it is an area where the mobility rate is exceptionally high (20% per year in certain areas).
At Kensington we have developed our own curriculum, which meant a whole-school approach to multilingualism was the way forward. A shift in approach led to a far greater shift in mindset. Celebrating and promoting first languages was now our focus, which made promoting multilingualism all that more seamless. Our language, therefore, shifted from using EAL to Multilingualism. Referring to pupils as ‘multilingual’ gave all languages an equitable status and focused on languages being a valuable resource. As part of this way forward we wanted first languages visible in books and on displays, the use of translanguaging in classes, and after school clubs in first languages to support this approach. Staff were inspired! Having multilingualism as an approach opened up a whole realm of opportunities in the classroom and focused on the linguistic repertoire these children have, giving us an asset-based approach. Armed with a mindset that focuses on languages as a resource, staff became empowered. Lessons were drawing upon the linguistic repertoire of the classes and teachers were discovering a new level of engagement with multilingual children. In this workshop I will share how we changed mindsets and teaching to incorporate multilingualism at Kensington.
Workshop 4
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Jonathan Brentnall
Independent Consultant
jonbrentnall@btinternet.com
Explaining why all teachers are language teachers – a Synceptual view of EAL
In this workshop, Jonathan will use a series of practical activities to illustrate why all teachers are language teachers. The meanings represented in individual words and phrases are complex, and they differ between languages. The selection and teaching of educational content varies from country to country. The choices of words and the orders we put them in reflect variations in the topics of learning, the activities used and the interpersonal components of each educational situation. And curriculum knowledge is cumulative, so EAL learners require explicit support to understand the ways English represents conceptual knowledge in different contexts by having meanings modelled, broken down, and built up, appropriate to their prior learning experiences. In this workshop, following an introduction, Jonathan will use a number of short tasks to explore some of the linguistic components, language patterns, clines of variation and alternative representations of conceptual relations that contribute to the accumulation of meanings in curriculum learning. A Synceptual perspective regards the processes of knowledge and language construction holistically, as parts of an integrated ecosystem in which the body, brain and mind interact in natural and social environments. As such, the structure of language derives from both our sensory experiences of the external world and from our internal neural networks. It emerges as a synthesis and synchronisation of multiple components. This view unites both social semiotic and cognitive theories of linguistics. Attendees will need to have a pen and paper or other writing medium handy for some of the tasks.
Posters
Poster 1
Anne-Sophie Cocault
Full Service Community Network at St Mary’s Teacher Training College
annesophiecocault@gmail.com
Storytelling for language development in the multilingual classroom
Storytelling is at the heart of our culture, our teaching profession, and our multilingual schools! “The sights, sounds and stories of every country are now part of our communities.” (Sharples, 2021, p.1). But how can teachers use storytelling as a resource for language development in the multilingual classroom? In this poster presentation I will examine what oral and written storytelling can bring into our classrooms in terms of language development and cultural awareness, and will discuss what criteria to consider when selecting teaching resources. I will also look at how picture books and silent books can be used to develop multimodal literacy (visual, geographical, cultural) and critical thinking skills. Silent books offer equality of access – whether you are a new to English or a fluent speaker of the language, you can ‘read’ a silent book!
I will share practical classroom activities to harness the potential of storytelling with multilingual learners and look at how storytelling can be used to develop multilingual learners’ language skills as well as the four skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking. I will consider how classroom activities can be differentiated to suit students with various degrees of language proficiency in primary and secondary classrooms. I will also speak about the role that home languages play in storytelling and how they help foster a sense of belonging for multilingual students. I will share practical classroom projects and activities that promote the use of home languages to the benefit of all learners in our classroom.
Poster 2
Iva Miteva
Across Cultures and Learning Village
iva@axcultures.com
Outcomes and Impact of a Partnership to Improve EAL and Multilingualism Offering in Participating Schools
This poster will present an overview of the outcomes and impact of an effective partnership and project between Across Cultures and a large group of international schools aimed at improving the quality of EAL and multilingualism offering within and across those participating schools and their staff. An important part of this project was to create a gradual approach to facilitate a long-lasting effect on EAL provision as well as to further develop and improve participants’ and EAL leads’ knowledge, skills and understanding of best practices in EAL teaching and multilingualism. Various additional support was also incorporated by the pilot programme organisers including a research day to gather data and evidence on existing practices regarding delivery of EAL teaching and learning as well as EAL training, collaborative activities and talks and scaffolded framework support in order for EAL leads and participants to create their own tailored EAL action plan to implement in their schools.
Poster 3
Cristina Queiroz Taylor
The Bulwell Academy
cristina@ealtraining.com
The Power of First Language
We all know that our first language is a big part of who we are. Therefore, when we value a student’s first language, we are valuing the student as a person. Likewise, failing to value a student’s first language and culture is failing to value the student (Cummins, 2011).
The benefits of valuing the learners’ first language go beyond the classroom walls, it improves students’ confidence and self-esteem, it is essential for the maintenance of their cognitive development (not only to allow EAL learners to use their first language, but also to provide them with opportunities to do so), it brings EAL families closer to school and it makes the school a more inclusive and less threatening environment.
In this poster presentation, I will talk about how secondary school teachers can make the most of their students’ plurilingual repertoires by using their learners’ first language as a learning tool to improve their English language skills alongside their subject specific knowledge. This does not necessarily imply extra planning for teachers. There are simple, straightforward, age-appropriate strategies and techniques that can be used even with new-to-English students which would require little or no preparation at all and would allow students to work independently and, most importantly, to access the curriculum while developing a “I can do” attitude towards learning in an English-speaking school.
It is through celebrating EAL students’ plurilingual repertoires and empowering students, parents and teachers that we will be able to bridge the gap. And there is no doubt that valuing students’ first language is an excellent starting point.
Poster 4
Sharon Freeman
Seymour Park Community Primary School and Stockport Ethnic Diversity Service
sharon.freeman@seymourpark.com
Mainstreaming EAL? Investigating the impact of mainstreaming children who are new to English on teacher confidence and pedagogy in primary schools and the emerging implications for EAL specialists
The immersion of children who are new-to-English in the mainstream primary classroom has been accepted, but contested, practice in the UK for the last 30 years. My poster presents my Master’s dissertation that focuses on how classroom practitioners respond to the challenge of this mainstreaming, in terms of their confidence and pedagogy, and contrasts this with the views and practice of EAL specialists, to identify any emerging implications situated in the realities of today’s busy classrooms. The research methods consisted of a literature review coupled with epistolary e-interviews conducted with class teachers and EAL specialists.
My research indicates that there are profound, detrimental implications resulting from this strategy in its current form, for both practitioners and children. It argues that this is, in part, due to the ideological acceptance of the practice limiting debate, combined with a reductive approach to the pedagogy of second language learning, a lack of explicit EAL policy and guidance, and an erosion and diffusion of EAL expertise. The study contends that a wider debate around the effectiveness of mainstreaming is needed, alongside further research and guidance to develop an explicit, appropriate pedagogy to effectively support new-to-English children and their teachers.
Poster 5
Tazreen Kassim-Lowe
University of Nottingham
tazreen.kassim-lowe@nottingham.ac.uk
Teachers of Maths = Teachers of Language
My current PhD thesis is themed around how teachers and pupils communicate multiplicatively in multilingual classrooms. In particular, I am critiquing the use of formal, set mathematical sentences with a fill in the gap structure to frame pupil communication. These precise sentences are known as language structures or stem sentences and are problematic for multiple reasons. Firstly, they are not research driven but were observed as effective practice in Chinese schools (Boylan et al, 2019; Coles and Helme, 2022). Secondly, they are highly political and diminish the authenticity of pupils’ mathematical voices. Lastly, research suggests that formal mathematical talk should co-exist with informal talk (such as incomplete phrases, colloquialism, etc) to support conceptual understanding and make mathematical structures less abstract and more transparent (Adler, 2002).
My poster briefly outlines the argument that every teacher of mathematics is also a teacher of language from a preliminary literature review since I am at the start of my PhD journey. In particular, I will draw on Ayalon et al. (2016) and their notion that when teaching children to reason mathematically, there should be a mixture of formal and informal utterances to form what they call ‘schooled’ reasoning. This form of communication is more authentic to the child’s own mathematical voice and identity and less superficial than insisting on formal mathematical discourse. I will outline the teacher’s role as a cultural mediator to validate multiple ways of communicating mathematically.
Sponsors
We were delighted and grateful to have the support of our sponsors for our 2022 NALDIC online conference, in making this important event happen under the challenging and ever changing conditions we are all affected by these past few years.
Gold Sponsor: The Bell Foundation
The Bell Foundation is a charity which aims to overcome disadvantage through language education by working with partners on innovation, research, training, and practical interventions.
The Foundation’s EAL Programme aims to improve the educational outcomes of disadvantaged children and young people in the UK who speak EAL, for the benefit of the individual child or young person, their families, communities, and society as a whole.
There are more than 1.6 million pupils in state-funded primary and secondary schools in England who use EAL, a figure which has more than doubled over the last ten years. In 2022, 21.2% of primary pupils and 17.5% of secondary school pupils use EAL.
All children, including those who use EAL, should have the opportunity to fully access the curriculum and fulfil their potential. However, despite research evidence that highlights the crucial importance of proficiency in English as a key predictor of educational outcomes, there is still no national agreement on how teachers can support pupils to develop proficiency in English alongside curriculum learning, and the EAL training for school staff is inconsistent.
Ensuring pupils’ full accessibility to a high-quality and ambitious curriculum means schools need to establish appropriate systems and structures to ensure any learners at risk of falling behind get the support they need. The Foundation’s EAL Programme is designed to provide schools with the assets they need to achieve this.
Gold Sponsor: FlashAcademy®
FlashAcademy® is an award-winning digital platform for schools and colleges to accelerate English as a second language for learners and employees. FlashAcademy was launched in 2016 after a need was identified for software that would help to improve pupils’ English language skills and ultimately open up their pathways later in life. FlashAcademy has over 47 home languages available for selection and is now the UK’s No.1 EAL platform for schools. FlashAcademy has launched a bespoke app for English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), which is aimed at those who are 16+ who will be attending a college or university and would like to learn English.
Gold Sponsor: Learning Village
The Learning Village is an award-winning, image-based EAL programme for schools. It follows a blended approach, with the comprehensive online programme supported by offline, teacher-directed learning. Suitable for learners of any language background, it is also ideal for learners who are not yet literate. The programme is divided into two parts: The Village, for learners aged 6-11 years, and The Islands, for learners aged 12-16 years.
The Learning Village teaches everyday survival language. It has a full phonics programme, covering the first 2,000 high frequency words. Additionally, it includes academic and technical language to support learners in accessing the curriculum.
The Learning Village includes:
- 20,000+ words and phrases, for speaking, listening, reading and writing, arranged over 2,000 lessons.
- image-based learning, to assist learners who are unable to read in their mother tongue.
- excellent support for SEN learners.
- techniques to help learners support themselves, and for self-study.
Gold Sponsor: Giglets Online Literacy
Giglets is an award winning online literacy platform providing interactive and accessible texts and supporting resources across 38 languages. Giglets texts are sourced from all around The World and share stories and experiences from a wide range of cultures.