Sharing ideas and practices during the General Council Day in May
The Edinburgh skies were blue, and the sun was out in all its splendour on Saturday 18th May for the annual NALDIC General Council Day. The purpose of the General Council Day is for the NALDIC Executive and Members to come together for a day of collaborative learning and forward planning.
After a welcome from NALDIC Chair, Yvonne Foley, the Edinburgh EAL Service ran a hands-on workshop on their mentoring work with local Scottish schools. Annabel MacWilliam, Olivia Carpenter and Kim Almond outlined how they build responsive literacy teaching at the classroom level, as well as working towards a whole-school approach. The session included many practical, hands-on activities and case-study examples.
Just before lunch, Yvonne Foley and Christina Richardson (NALDIC Vice-Chair) introduced an exciting new initiative, the Coalition for Language Education, which is looking to create synergies in the language areas of EAL, MFL, ESOL, EAP, EFL, HHCLs, BSL, as well as across primary, secondary and tertiary sectors. The Coalition is committed to developing the communicative capacities of individuals, groups and institutions and the range of languages and linguistic communicative styles they can draw on. Read the Founding Statement here.
A picnic lunch was enjoyed in the sun in the courtyard – yes, it was still shining!
A fascinating panel discussion with a group of Edinburgh University’s newly qualified teachers, all of whom had taken a module in EAL as part of their teacher training this year. With thanks to Amanda Sunthonlap, Daisy Douglas, Andreea Oprea, Craig Methven, Natacha Guillaumin and Samantha Kryworuczka for providing us with fresh insights into how our classrooms can be spaces where all languages are tools for learning. Some of the students shared how they would be using their own personal language and cultural experiences to understand their multilingual pupils better.
In the final slot of the day, NALDIC Exec Members, Leandro Paladino (on Zoom from Argentina), Susan Stewart and Christina Richardson outlined an exciting new NALDIC initiative, Learning Capsules, which will aim to produce short, bite-sized videos for our members. The Learning Capsules will cover different aspects of language learning, from phonology to pragmatics. Keep a lookout on our website for this new page!
After a day of new and renewed connections, we all dispersed into a (yes, still!) sunny Edinburgh. We look forward to seeing the EAL community again for the NALDIC 32 Conference in Oxford on November 30th. The theme of our 2024 conference is Creating linguistically inclusive classrooms: through activism, research and practice and the call for papers is now open (deadline 31st August 2024).
Do you have a story to share?
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