EAL Student Integration:Proven Strategies from an ESOL College

Strategies to help EAL students and Non- EAL students make friends

When I started teaching EAL students a year ago, I noticed they didn’t interact with the other (primarily British) students. My students were a mixture of young migrants and asylum seekers enrolled on the 16-18 EAL course at West Suffolk College.

A main feature of the course was to support them to transition smoothly into the British workforce. As teachers, we knew we were meeting the needs of EAL students educationally. They attended three days a week for 1-2 years, depending on their level of English. When they have acquired enough language and cultural awareness, it’s time for them to take their next steps. This might be on a vocational course, an apprenticeship, or they may seek employment after they turn 18.

They were actively learning English, Mathematics, and Cultural Enrichment Lessons, but it was clear they needed a little more support with interactions. Soon, they would be working closely with native-English speaking mentors and employers. How could they prepare for this if they weren’t even engaging with their peers?

This year, after being promoted to Programme Lead, I decided to prioritise cross-college integration. My aims were support all students to mix, engage with each other, and perhaps make some friends too.

EAL students need a range of authentic interactions

The only British people the students were talking to were teachers.

This isn’t a problem inherently, but the truth is, teachers don’t talk like normal people.

Any EAL teacher will know what I mean. We speak with graded language, expressive hand gestures, and theatrical facial expressions. We speak in a way to specifically help our students understand us, but this is not how native- English speakers speak. Many EAL students learn English with simple sentences like: ‘Spot is a dog. He likes football. Spot and Polly played football in the garden.’. Real-life English sounds very different. Imagine how bizarre it must be to hear this: ‘If you don’t mind, I’m just going to pop round to next door and nip to the loo- back in a jiffy! Catch you in a bit!’.

In my new role, I wanted to help my students acclimate to ungraded language, colloquialisms, and cultural nuances. But, there were more than language barriers in my way.

Some of my EAL students reported they felt nervous and insecure when interacting with British students. This is particularly a challenge for those who are Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children (UASC) and refugees. A main concern my students shared was they were worried the British students would laugh at them. I was somewhat concerned as well, not just about the British students’ reactions to mistakes in pronunciation. I didn’t want my students’ confidence to be shaken by a few unkind comments.

Additionally, while I have not encountered much racial intolerance in my five years of teaching, I knew that could potentially occur. It was important that I carefully planned the student interaction to support the EAL learners to feel capable and successful.

Create structured opportunities for EAL integration

I realised the EAL students need structured opportunities to integrate. Their understandable shyness meant they were unlikely to initiate interaction on their own.

While I knew the activities I planned had to be engaging, I also had to find the right students to match the EAL students with.

I was blessed with the support of Linzi Stivey, Course Director for Journalism at WSC. Her cohort of students were the perfect community to mix with EAL students. As well as being aspiring interviewers, they also needed practice speaking with people from diverse backgrounds.

Her students were friendly, curious, and respectful, making them ideal participants. To avoid any awkwardness or tension, I designed the integration activities to be fun and playful. My aim was to make the interactions feel natural, not forced, and to avoid burdening the students with a sense of obligation to “be inclusive.”

I believe that young people are naturally inclusive. They simply want to enjoy themselves without pressure. Given the chance, they will connect with others regardless of nationality or culture, as long as they are having fun.

I decided I would draw attention away from their differences by getting them to play games and have competitions. While I knew there were lots of potential risks, I had prepared for success. The well-chosen students, the genial atmosphere, and the relaxed activities, I hoped, would elicit positive communication and integration.

Fun and playful activities to help students engage with each other

At the start of the session, everyone was nervous. The EAL students were shy. So were the journalism students, many of whom had never spoken to anyone from Sudan, Afghanistan, Egypt, Turkey, or Thailand before.

They sat in a big circle. The students naturally segregated themselves and stared at each other. It felt like a scene from West Side Story.

However, once I introduced the activities, things changed. The students were up and moving and mixing. I had to gently encourage some of the most uncertain students a few times, but the more time they spent in the room, the more at ease they became.

 

The activities I chose were:

The ‘All About Me T- shirt’ activity:

I posed some questions to the students about their likes, dislikes, and key facts about them. Once they were prepared with subjects to talk about, the students shared the answers to the questions with each other. I kept the questions deliberately simple so everyone in the room could engage, and natural conversation could flow.

‘20 Question Quiz’:

In mixed groups, the students competed to answer the most correct answers in a quiz. This fostered a sense of teamwork and collaboration, as well as encouraging everyone to speak up when they had an answer to a question. It was intentionally light-hearted, and the questions were all accessible so everyone could join in and have fun

‘Talk for 30 seconds’ board game:

At this stage the students could interact with no, or little, support from me. In mixed groups they independently played the board game and lots of natural, friendly interaction unfolded. Throughout the session, smiles appeared, followed by laughter, and then exchanges of questions. It became clear that my students deeply desired opportunities to connect with others and to feel a sense of belonging within the college community.

Through these activities, students discovered shared interests, particularly in football and music. Each of the cohort of EAL students visibly gained speaking confidence and became more comfortable engaging with their British peers. Similarly, the journalism students, who initially lacked confidence in speaking with EAL students, realised how easy it was to find common ground with someone. I was incredibly pleased to notice the students began chatting with each other around campus in the weeks that followed.

Next steps in supporting EAL students to feel confident with their peers

If you are planning to take steps to integrate EAL students with the wider student body, it’s certainly a good idea to proceed carefully. But, by choosing a sensitive or receptive group of students and selecting collaborative activities, there is every chance for success. In my experience, games or competitions with shared goals are essential to bring them together and foster mutual understanding.

I would also add that a level of consistency and repetition is necessary for long term integration. As time as passed, I have noticed the students gradually returning to their original segregated groups. This indicates the need for ongoing integration initiatives throughout the year.

I plan to implement additional integration projects, including sports teams, cultural festivals, and theatre productions, to continue building bridges between EAL and non-EAL students.

Keen to know more about supporting EAL students? We’ve got you

Heddle members have access to resources, courses, and an active community of EAL teachers. Join here for free.

Share your experience with the Heddle community

All Member Contribution Blogs are written by EAL teachers for EAL teachers. We’d love to hear from you if you’d like to write your own EAL blog. The dedicated Heddle team will support you with the writing process, and our community will benefit from your knowledge and experience.