Description

In Scotland, since the inception of EAL support, provision has been made at a local level using block grant funding from central government. There has been nothing like Section 11, or EMAG, funding in Scotland. In this sense EAL support has been for a long time mainstreamed within local authority general education provision. However, the service has been isolated, and, therefore, frequently marginalised. Other support provision has come under the heading of special educational needs or learning support and has developed within integrated support for learning teams. EAL has in some authorities become part of, rather than integrated into, these teams and in other authorities has remained outside. There were good reasons for this since EAL support teachers have not wanted their work to be identified with cognitive, sensory or behavioural difficulties. However, it has meant that bilingual learners with other learning difficulties have become subject to ‘turf wars’ between different support services and different discourses of support. This situation has also been reflected at government level, where policy on EAL provision has fallen between several civil servants’ desks.

Contents

Biliteracy Development among Chinese children in Central Scotland (page 3)
Andy Hancock

Supporting literacy development with young bilingual learners (page 6)
Sue Watson

Parents as teachers: encouraging home language use among parents of young bilingual learners (page 8)
Tessa Humby

EAL support for new arrivals from Eastern Europe – a Highland response (page 10)
Irene Wishart

Refugees into Teaching in Scotland (RITeS) (page 12)
RiteS Research Group

Tackling the issue of the teacher’s response to linguistic diversity in initial teacher education (ITE) – the potential of Problem-Based Learning (PBL) (page 15)
John Landon

Reviews (page 17)