There are few classrooms in Britain without one or more learners using EAL at varying levels of English language proficiency. A new academic year is beginning and your new learner cohorts are more than likely to include EAL learners. The data from the latest school census (2024) showed that there were 22.8% of EAL learners in primary schools. EAL learners are those who, according to the DfE, have been exposed to a language at home that is known or believed to be other than English.
Here we share 10 different ways of supporting and engaging EAL learners in primary classrooms.
1. Use comprehensible English
Use classroom language that is accessible to English language learners as much as possible.
- Give clear instructions by avoiding using unnecessary language, e.g., instead of saying, “What I’d like you to do now is to look at the picture on the board.”, simply say, “Look at the picture on the board.”
- Use actions and gestures to contextualise your messages for your learners.
- Speak slower, avoid using idioms (“it’s a piece of cake”) and phrasal verbs (“to put up with the situation”) and where possible avoid words with multiple meanings (e.g., “lead”, “row” and “table”).
2. Encourage translanguaging
Allow and encourage learners to use their entire linguistic repertoire, i.e., their home language(s), not only English. Encouraging translanguaging involves fostering positive attitudes towards multilingualism and encouraging EAL learners to be proud of all their language skills.
- Encourage learners to speak, write and translate between English and their language(s) to support curriculum learning; for younger learners, consider role plays and games in different languages.
- Provide learners with bilingual dictionaries, including digital ones. Older learners could compile their own bilingual glossary of terms.
- Mix up the use of English and your learners’ first language(s), e.g., learners can write the first draft of their work in their first language and only later translate to English (this will be more relevant to KS2 learners) or they could label a poster in English but write definitions on it in their first language.
- See if you can find translations of books you read in class in other languages: can you find The Gruffalo in French?
3. Use visuals
Use visuals, lots of visuals! Photos, pictures, videos and realia. Visuals provide context for EAL learners making it easier for them to understand what is taught in the lessons.
- Sequence a series of photographs (and teach the language of sequencing whilst at it), use flashcards for picture-to-word matching games or create bingo games using images.
- Take advantage of key visuals such as charts, Venn diagrams, mind maps and others to demonstrate connections between ideas and elements in a non-verbal manner.
4. Implement substitution tables
These are highly effective for providing learners with model sentences with a range of choices; done well, they can help your new to English learners produce dozens of sentences in week one!
- Create substitution tables as a grid where the learner moves from left to right, choosing one option from each column to construct sentences.
- Substitution tables enable learners to understand the English language sentence word order and grammatical structures and will help build up a range of vocabulary. The tables can be made up of single words, words and phrases, images and a mixture of all of them.
Using the tables, you can accommodate a learner’s particular proficiency in English: for instance, pictures with captions can make the table more accessible to a new to English learner while more sophisticated vocabulary (for instance adverbs or passive voice) could be produced for learners who are more proficient in English.
5. Build vocabulary
Without a good range of vocabulary, learners cannot succeed in school. Learners will need multiple opportunities to experience new words: they will need to hear, say, read and write them.
- Ensure you introduce vocabulary in advance of your lessons.
- Provide a translated glossary of keywords and involve families, encouraging them to discuss the topic and the vocabulary in their preferred language.
- Use colourful word mats or word walls.
- Make sure that your words appear in collocations (e.g., “make an effort” rather than just “effort” or “do homework” rather than only “homework”).
- Play games and sing songs, particularly ones where new vocabulary items are repeated and thus rehearsed; for instance, a game involving a number of learners where each next participant needs to repeat all the previous items and add one of their own.
- Adapt snap where in order to win a learner has to say a sentence with the word, produce its antonym, synonym or change a verb into a noun.
6. Promote collaborative activities
Where EAL learners are involved in pair work or group work activities, they’re encouraged to engage in meaningful communication.
- Use listening triangles (e.g., three different learners take different roles of a speaker, a questioner and a note-taker).
- Have learners work on shared tasks such as matching, categorising or ranking items.
- Arrange for barrier games activities where two different learners sit with a barrier between them and have to exchange information about a topic by conveying it orally to each other.
Don’t forget you can use translanguaging for collaboration: learners who speak the same language could work together, e.g., brainstorm ideas or write a text together in the same language.
7. Gap-fill tasks with a difference
You may have used gap-fill activities before to check your learners’ understanding, but most typically the gaps are key terms in a lesson or a topic. EAL learners’ barrier to learning is the English language itself, so take language-specific words out of your text to create gaps rather than content words.
- Focus on one area of language; for example, remove all the past tense verbs, adjectives, prepositions or articles.
- Add a word box at the bottom of the page that your learners could select from for the gaps.
8. Model language
Provide an oral or written example to your learners of the language you want them to produce.
For example, if you want your learners to write a ghost story, write a short story of your own for your learners in real time, commenting on how you make your language choices (getting your learners to notice the language used) and annotating the text as you go.
9. Recast EAL learners’ language
If your learner makes a language error in answering your question, acknowledge their message and gently guide them to correct their grammar or other language structure.
For instance, if your learner says, “Yesterday, I goed to the park with my brother.”, acknowledge the content of their sentence while encouraging them to produce correct grammar by saying, for instance, “I see, you went to the park with your brother… what did you do in the park?”
10. Set English language targets
Review the lessons and resources you will use with your learners with language in mind. For instance:
- Teaching a History lesson? – it might be best to focus your EAL support on the past simple tense.
- Teaching an English lesson describing characters in Handa’s Surprise? – focus on adjectives coming before nouns in the English language.
- Teaching a Maths lesson? – focus on the different words for adding, subtracting and other mathematical operations.
More EAL strategies and resources from The Bell Foundation
The Bell Foundation is a charity that aims to overcome exclusion through language education. They offer a range of guidance, resources and training, including free EAL teaching resources available on Teachit.
For more strategies, head to The Bell Foundation’s Great Ideas page or explore their website for expert guidance and suggestions for teaching and supporting EAL learners. A good place to start is Effective Teaching of EAL Learners, with links to pages on many aspects of working with this group of pupils.
EAL resources for primary
You'll find a selection of helpful, creative and engaging EAL resources created by The Bell Foundation on Teachit. Explore the collection or try one of these recommended resources:
- Dear Zoo (English/Literacy for KS1) - A visual and colourful free resource by The Bell Foundation to develop vocabulary based on the story Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell. This resource includes substitution tables and flashcards, which can be used for collaborative learning purposes.
- Brazil (Geography for KS2) – This interactive resource for a Geography lesson about Brazil, its most famous city and geographical features, makes use of flashcards, true/false activity and bilingual dictionaries.
- Area and perimeter (Maths for KS2) – This two-part resource helps learners using EAL improve their understanding of the area and perimeter of different shapes. The materials include a wealth of different EAL strategies: a bingo activity, a barrier game, flashcards and a domino game!
