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Starting the year well

30TH SEPTEMBER 2024

How to make the most of the first term.

In this post we’re going to look at three strategies that have been getting a lot of attention in our community this month.

Strategies to support EAL pupils

If you could only do three things this term, here’s what we’d recommend: vocabulary, oracy, and taking a pause.

“What really resonated with me were your three quick ways to differentiate in class (vocabulary, oracy, and pause). I have some reluctant teachers on my team but I hope that I can get management on board to push these three things into every classroom. Small changes can have a major impact!”
Heddle member, UK

Vocabulary vocabulary vocabulary

Pupils can’t do much in the lesson if they don’t have the words. The first strategy is to focus on teaching fewer words and teaching them better.

By ‘fewer’, we mean something like 3-5 key terms in each lesson. These are the words that they absolutely need to know, the core subject terms that unlock the content of the lesson.

Why so few? The research is pretty clear that effective vocabulary learning depends on having many chances to ‘encounter’ a word, and fewer words allows more encounters with each. There’s a caveat, of course. Each encounter – each time a pupil hears, reads or uses a word – needs to be meaningful.
Words are learned more quickly, and more lastingly, when pupils are trying to do something with them. Focusing on a few highly useful words means that they are likely to be used much more often, promoting deeper learning.

Strategies for teaching EAL vocabulary

A few simple strategies will make all the difference.

First, it’s important that pupils notice the vocabulary, so writing the 3-5 words at the top of the page, or highlighting them in the text, can be really effective. A little drilling (repetitive activities designed to help pupils memorise) can be very effective too … but only as a starting point, because deeper learning requires meaningful use of the words.

The next level up is to use substitution tables, sentence starters and darts. These encourage pupils to make choices about the words they use, which is a great way to make meaningful use of the vocabulary. It also means that the vocabulary is used in context: pupils don’t just need the key terms; they also need the words and phrases that they are used with (which can often be much less technical).

Oracy in every lesson

It’s hard to imagine a bad time for oracy. It’s important for all pupils because it gives them time to organise their ideas. It’s especially important for bilingual pupils, because it gives them time to organise their language and their ideas.

What does oracy mean for EAL pupils? It can be as simple as pausing and asking pupils to explain a word to the person next to them, or giving a few minutes discussion time before they start an activity.

Teaching oracy with EAL pupils

Oracy is probably the best value you can get for EAL pupils: the basic strategies are so simple (just take a moment to explain your idea to a partner) and it has such a positive impact. It is especially effective when used frequently and in a range of languages.

You could treat oracy as a sliding scale. Early activities might focus on generating ideas in the pupils’ first language, generating notes in that language and in English. Later stages might be mainly in English, with the bilingual notes for backup. In this way you can separate subject knowledge from language proficiency, ensuring that pupils have maximum chance to follow the lesson.

“Disengagement is cumulative. If pupils spend several lessons not following the subject, it will be harder for them to re-engage when they do have the English.”
Bathsheba Wells Dion, Heddle presenter

And …. pause

The final strategy is to pause. When you are new to a language, it can seem like an unending stream of speech. As teachers we might focus on reinforcing key vocabulary, but for new pupils it’s hard to know even where each word starts and stops. Pausing gives them time to catch up on processing it all.

Pause until it feels uncomfortable. Pause a little longer. Pause a second more and then continue. That’s roughly how long pupils need to catch up on what you were saying.

You can make that stream of speech easier to process by using visuals, referring often to a small range of key terms, and giving pupils frequent opportunities to check their understanding with a peer. In other words – prioritising vocabulary, oracy and good pacing.

Want more strategies for teaching EAL?

You’ll find a full discussion of these strategies in the Heddle EAL course on ‘Finding and Adapting Resources’. It comes with a full workbook with ideas and strategies to help you put them into practice.

Become a member at www.heddle-eal.com.