Introduction
This piece comes from Iva Miteva, EAL specialist at Learning Village (Across Cultures). With 18 years of experience leading and managing EAL provision as Head of EAL, Iva brings a wealth of insight. She is passionate about multilingualism, inclusion, and the importance of maintaining children’s home languages.
In this blog, Iva reflects on the practical, real-world approaches that have helped her strengthen EAL support across multiple schools—insights you can immediately apply in your own setting.
When I first became an EAL Coordinator in a primary school many years ago, I thought my role would revolve mainly around assessments, interventions and creating resources. All of that turned out to be true, but what I did not fully realise at that time was just how much of our EAL learners’ language development would happen outside my small EAL room.
Over the years, I have learned that the strongest EAL provision is built not through one strategy, one EAL programme or one EAL teacher, but through a whole-school and community approach.
I am now using my knowledge as an EAL specialist at Learning Village to support schools which are using the Learning Village programme to build up capacity and consistency in their EAL provision along with boosting their EAL learners’ progress.
What I want to share here is simply what has worked for me in schools that I have worked in, with real EAL learners, families and staff, when language development becomes everyone’s responsibility.
Parents as partners in learning
One of the earliest challenges I faced was the gap between school and home. Many of our parents desperately wanted to support their children but felt unsure how, especially when English was not their strongest language. Homework often caused stress and some parents avoided school communication altogether because they felt overwhelmed.
The shift came when we stopped seeing parents as people to inform of what was happening in school and started seeing them as partners in learning. Before starting new topics, we shared key vocabulary with visuals and simple explanations, and whenever possible translated in the home language. Families could explore upcoming content together, even in their home language if they wanted to. Much much later, we also started encouraging our EAL learners to research topics in their home language first which helped build up their understanding better without having to translate everything at the same time.
Through parent sessions in the mornings or in the afternoons and showing parents how to play vocabulary games or offering them ESOL classes, parents suddenly became a powerful ally.
I still remember a parent quietly saying to me one day, “I always thought my English wasn’t good enough to help – now I know that my language helps too.” That moment stayed with me.
Parents felt connected to school and their children’s learning and home language became something to build on, not work around.
The hidden power of peer support
Another area that made a huge difference was peer support and mentoring. When learners arrive new to school, particularly in the later years, the language barrier can quickly turn into social isolation. At the same time, we all know that one-to-one adult support is not always available.
We found that buddy systems across year groups work really well. Older learners supported younger learners with reading in the first 20 minutes between arrival to school and the start of the lesson 3 days a week. Game buddies during lunch breaks helped social language. New arrivals were paired with buddies, who helped them navigate classroom routines and day-to-day school life.
But we didn’t just “pair them up and hope for the best”. We trained the buddies. We showed them how to model language instead of correcting every mistake; how to repeat naturally; how to use gestures and visuals; how to encourage and praise.
What we saw was beautiful. Newly arrived EAL learners settled faster. Reading became less intimidating. Older learners developed leadership, empathy and awareness of language in a way no worksheet could teach. And, language became a shared responsibility.
Training parent volunteers
We did not always have teaching assistants available for in-class EAL support, especially for those EAL learners at the early stages of English. So, we invited parents to the classrooms. We trained small groups of parent volunteers in simple classroom support strategies – how to reinforce instructions, how to use visuals, how to encourage independence without over-translating and how to understand the silent period.
These parents did not replace our teaching assistants. But they became invaluable. They supported routines, helped learners feel safe and reinforced language in quiet, positive ways.
Technology as a language bridge
As EAL learners move into secondary schools, the language demands increase sharply. The vocabulary load, the pace of lessons, the reading expectations – all of these can become real barriers to learning.
The use of translation and accessibility tools is shifting from being a “special adjustment” to becoming a normal part of everyday classroom practice. A few examples:
- Translation apps for instant support
- Scanning pens for independent reading
- Dual-language slides
- Subtitled videos
- Translated vocabulary lists and texts
- Online programmes for learning English independently and creating resources such as Learning Village
For older learners, AI tools can be used to support adaptive teaching and learning, e.g. simplifying texts according to age and English proficiency level; generating scaffolded resources like spelling lists, flashcards and definitions; creating scaffolded writing resources like scramble exercises, split dictations and ‘fill in the missing punctuation’.
Programmes like Learning Village, which are already using AI, can really help with creating customisable resources for the classroom regardless of the learners’ English proficiency levels.
These tools restore access to learning and EAL learners can learn to become more independent. Frustration reduces and engagement increases. And perhaps most importantly, EAL learners might start feeling like they are “catching up”.
When there is no time for interventions
One of the hardest realities of school life is that not every learner who needs EAL support can access formal intervention. Timetables are full and teachers are stretched. The need is always greater than the capacity.
That reality can force a shift in thinking. If not every EAL learner can be withdrawn for EAL support, then every classroom must become a language-supportive space. This means creating opportunities for structured talk in every lesson, clear modelling, repetition without embarrassment, visuals as the standard way of learning, pre-teaching key vocabulary, sentence scaffolding across subjects and trained buddies supporting language in real time.
Over time, I have noticed that the EAL support has stopped being something that happened in one room with one EAL teacher. It becomes embedded in everyday teaching.
If there is one thing my journey as an EAL Coordinator has taught me, it is this:
Language learning grows best where it is shared.
The most effective EAL provision does not rely on one strategy or one EAL specialist. It relies on parents feeling valued, teachers feeling supported, and EAL learners feeling safe enough to try.
When we genuinely work together – across classrooms, homes, clubs and communities – language stops being a barrier and starts becoming a bridge. And in those spaces, EAL learners can feel that they do not just learn English and in English; they learn that they belong.
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