STL35 Support bilingual/multilingual pupils

Knowledge and understanding

K1 The school’s policy and procedures for supporting bilingual/multilingual pupils

• To give all pupils full access to the curriculum.
• To develop fully all the children's capacities for learning by promoting self confidence and
self esteem with regard to their cultural or religious background.
• Children who arrive with no English at all are targeted for regular out of class support in
the first instance. This gives them faster acquisition of basic vocabulary that will, in turn,
help them in the classroom. They are also identified and supported in class.
• Other children learning English as a second language are identified by EAL staff and class
teacher. Children are observed in the classroom to assess their access to the curriculum.
Their needs are prioritised for regular support in the classroom.
• Children are paired with others who speak their language to enable support and to gain
respite from English, spoken to them all day.
• EAL levels are monitored at the end of the Autumn, Spring, and Summer terms using the
EAL profile. Children with levels significantly below expected are identified and targeted
for in class support.
• The EAL co-ordinator will advise staff on appropriate teaching strategies to meet the
needs of all minority ethnic groups.
• Run a homework club for children whose parents speak little or no English.
• Use ICT to support learning.
• Prepare visual aids to support learning and aid access to the curriculum.

K2 The school’s policies and practices for inclusion, equality of opportunity,

multiculturalism and anti-racism
• We believe that a commitment to providing equality of opportunity to all members of the
school community regardless of their ethnic origin, gender or creed will raise self esteem
and achievement in the entire community.
• We believe that to reflect a society at large within our school is a strength and provides
our children with the opportunity to develop a positive self image as well as an
understanding of the world around them.
• We believe our children will flourish in a community that does not tolerate racist
behaviour and does everything it can to prevent it.
• We believe that all members of our community have the right to a high quality of
education that builds upon the rich cultural heritage that exists in our school.
K3 The process and stages of language acquisition and the factors that promote or hinder
language development
The Process and Stages of Language Acquisition:
Stage I: Pre-production
• This is the silent period. English language learners may have up to 500 words in their receptive
vocabulary but they are not yet speaking.
• Some children will, however, repeat every thing you say. They are not really producing language
but are parroting.
• English language learners at this stage will need much repetition of English. They will benefit
from a “buddy” who speaks their language.

Stage II: Early production

• This stage may last up to six months and children will develop a receptive and active vocabulary
of about 1000 words.

• During this stage, children can usually speak in one- or two-word phrases.
• They can use short language chunks that have been memorized although these chunks may not
always be used correctly.

Stage III: Speech emergence

• Children have developed a vocabulary of about 3,000 words and can communicate with simple
phrases and sentences.

• They will ask simple questions, that may or may not be grammatically correct, such as “ May I
go to bathroom? “

• They will also be able to do some content work with support.

Stage IV: Intermediate fluency

• English language learners at the intermediate fluency stage have a vocabulary of 6000 active
words.

• They are beginning to use more complex sentences when speaking and writing and are willing to
express opinions and share their thoughts.

• They will ask questions to clarify what they are learning in class.

Stage V: Advanced Fluency

• It takes children from 4-10 years to achieve cognitive academic language proficiency in a
second language.

• Children at this stage will be near-native in their ability to perform in content area learning.
• They will need continued support from classroom teachers especially in content areas such as
writing.

Factors that Promote or Hinder Language Development:

• Role models
• Home support
• Learning styles
• Motivation
• Age
K4 How to obtain and interpret information about a pupil’s language and educational
background, capabilities and skills and language support needs
• From previous nursery/school report
• Talking to parents (possibly through an interpretor)
• Baseline Assessments
• Observations
• Liaising with other members of staff (including SENco where necessary)
• From regularly working with the child.

K5 Strategies suitable for supporting pupils in developing their speaking/talking,reading and

writing skills in the target language and how these relate to specific learning activities
across the curriculum
Support Strategies relating to all areas of the curriculum:
• clarifying the learning task and helping pupils understand the content of the task
• helping pupils to draw on their previous learning and experiences to encourage their active
involvement in the learning activity
• explaining words and phrases use by the teacher using actions, pictures and visuals
• selecting and using appropriate resources e.g. pictorial visuals, flashcards etc
• adapting or differentiating learning materials
• use of targeted prompts and feedback to support the pupil’s use of relevant knowledge
and skills
• explaining and reinforcing the relevant language, vocabulary and concepts.
• helping pupils to interpret and follow oral and written instructions
• prompting shy or reticent pupils to contribute to conversations and discussions and to
respond to questions
• encouraging pupils to engage in talk, discussion and oral rehearsal before completing
reading and writing tasks
• Specific reading or writing support e.g. sentence structure, using letter sounds
• Modeling good language when speaking to the children.
• Making learning new vocabulary a fun experience, eg by playing games ,doing some drama
work, or using ICT.

K6 The interactive use of speaking/talking, listening, reading and writing to promote

language development in pupils
• Listening to correctly modeled language to improve their own spoken language and to learn new
vocabulary.
• Speaking gives the child a chance to become more confident in using English and to improve
their pronounciation where necessary.
• Reading helps a child to learn about the letter sounds that are fundamental to the English
language, they learn about sounding out and reading words, they learn the meaning of words and
sentences. This in turn helps them learn new sight vocabulary and improves their spelling.
• Writing gives the children a chance to use a more formal kind of language. They learn about
sentence structure, capital letters and full stops.
• All of these skills are interlinked with each other and children become more confident in each
area with the more practical experience they have of them.
K7 How to plan and evaluate learning activities to support development of the target
language
• Make EAL planning topic relevant to reinforce the learning in the classroom.
• Make the planned activities age, stage and ability related.
• Be specific about what support EAL children need.
• Prepare resources to support EAL learners.
• Prepare differentiated resources.
• Evaluate by observing how well the children understood the activity and whether they
have achieved the learning objective.
• Write notes on the planning sheets to give feedback on the lesson.
• Produce a detailed written report evaluating the lesson.
• Discuss any observations made with the class teacher at an appropriate moment.

K8 (Detailed answer available)

K9 How to use praise and constructive feedback to promote pupils’ learning and language
development
• Verbal praise “What a lovely sentence”
• Positive body language eg smile
• Marking their work in a positive way
• Giving EAL children language targets and feedback when they have achieved them.
• Displaying their work lets the children know it is valued.
• Giving children stickers for trying hard.
• High fives, round of applause, pat on the back gestures.

K10 (Detailed answer available)

K11 (Detailed answer available)

K12 The curriculum plans and learning programmes developed by the teachers with whom you
work when supporting bilingual/multilingual pupils
• Specific EAL support (from EAL teaching assistant) included in the short term plans
• English Language group to support “high priority” EAL learners throughout the school.
These are taken out in year groups to take part in specially planned activites throughout
the day, every Wednesday.
• The Sounds~Write phonics programme is used throughout the school, but it is very useful
when trying to teach basic letter sounds and CVC words to any age EAL child.
• The use of ICT to consolidate learning.

K13 How to provide appropriate support for bilingual/multilingual pupils according to their
age, emotional needs, abilities and learning needs
• Develop positive relationships with the children.
• Get to know the children so that you are aware of the level of support they need and what
areas they need support in.
• Model good English language when speaking.
• Use visuals, pictures and actions when explaining new vocabulary to EAL learners.
• Use simple, clear English when speaking to new or younger EAL children.
• Give the EAL child enough time to respond to a question as it takes them longer to formulate
an answer.
• Use postive praise to show that you value their efforts.
K14 How to identify and develop culturally and linguistically appropriate teaching and
learning materials
• Bilingual story books
• Books and stories that show different cultures in a positive light
• Value the EAL child's first language – have important words on display throughout the
school.
• Develop displays to increase cultural and linguistic awareness.
• Display multicultural posters.
• Learn about different religious practices and special occasions
• Listen to music, stories and poems from different cultures.

K15 (Detailed answer available)

K16 How to monitor, assess and feed back information on pupils’ participation and progress
across the curriculum to pupils and relevant people within the school
• Detailed feedback produced after every supported session which is shared with the
teachers involved.
• Regular liaisons with Line Manager about individual EAL language targets and whether or
not they have been achieved, then giving the relevant children new language targets.
Information shared with teachers.
• All children are given numeracy and literacy targets and their work can be monitored to
see if they have achieved them.
• Using detailed observation to produce feedback on how much progress an individual is
making.
• Using assessments to monitor progress.
• Some EAL children are also being assessed as part of APP and this assessment is ongoing
throughout the school year in a written format.