TY - JOUR

T1 - Supporting teachers in EAL classrooms

T2 - working towards the centralised provision of subject-specific, EAL-tailored resources for primary classrooms

AU - Afitska, Oksana

AU - Clegg, John

PY - 2016/5/1

Y1 - 2016/5/1

N2 - Over the last year the density of learners who speak English as their second or even third language has increased by 1% in all state funded schools in England (NALDIC, 2014). Many of these learn-ers have to acquire English alongside their learning of the National Curriculum. Specific practices have to be put in place to allow EAL learners achieve their best potential in the British educational system. One way of helping these learners and their teachers is to provide them with resources that would support the acquisition of English language on the one hand, and the learning of the subject content on the other. This practice is very well observed in contemporary secondary schools; in primary schools, however, there is still a substantial lack of subject-specific-EAL-tailored materials that could be used effectively both by teachers and learners. What is largely used to date, are either materials developed or adapted by teachers especially for their EAL learners, or completely non-EAL, mainstream subject-specific materials. This article discusses the limitations of the use of teacher-developed and teacher-adapted EAL materials, highlights the need for provision of EAL-specific materials for primary schools at the national level, and suggests ways in which these mate-rials could be developed, drawing on the most recent research in the field of ESL/EAL materials’ development.

AB - Over the last year the density of learners who speak English as their second or even third language has increased by 1% in all state funded schools in England (NALDIC, 2014). Many of these learn-ers have to acquire English alongside their learning of the National Curriculum. Specific practices have to be put in place to allow EAL learners achieve their best potential in the British educational system. One way of helping these learners and their teachers is to provide them with resources that would support the acquisition of English language on the one hand, and the learning of the subject content on the other. This practice is very well observed in contemporary secondary schools; in primary schools, however, there is still a substantial lack of subject-specific-EAL-tailored materials that could be used effectively both by teachers and learners. What is largely used to date, are either materials developed or adapted by teachers especially for their EAL learners, or completely non-EAL, mainstream subject-specific materials. This article discusses the limitations of the use of teacher-developed and teacher-adapted EAL materials, highlights the need for provision of EAL-specific materials for primary schools at the national level, and suggests ways in which these mate-rials could be developed, drawing on the most recent research in the field of ESL/EAL materials’ development.

M3 - Journal article

VL - 5

SP - 95

EP - 108

JO - The European Journal of Applied Linguistics and TEFL

JF - The European Journal of Applied Linguistics and TEFL

IS - 1

ER -