Maggie Webster - Creative Activities and Ideas for Pupils With English As an Additional Language (Classroom Gems)

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on p. 10 from Baker, C., Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism , 3 (Multilingual Matters Ltd, 2001), both courtesy of Channel View Publications/Multilingual Matters.

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As a visitor to many schools, it always surprises me to see how they have altered over the past fifteen to twenty years. This has been due to the many changes in government legislation and, since the early 1990s, the inclusion of the internet and innovative technology. Teachers have had to re-evaluate their role and adapt their style of teaching to accommodate change, often without training or support. Yet, arguably, one of the most challenging changes has been the ethnographic make-up of a class of pupils.

The UK has always been a multi-cultural society that welcomes migrant workers. Indeed, Londons Whitechapel was home to many French and Dutch silk weavers who contributed to the economy in the seventeenth century (Rule, 2008). However, it seems that in the twenty-first century immigration isnt solely the responsibility of inner cities. Since the UK became part of the European Union, there appears to be a more obvious increase in the various cultures and languages found in our rural communities and consequently in our schools.

Currently there are estimated to be over 7000 pupils who are recorded as having a mother tongue other than English in our schools ( www.teachernet.gov.uk ) and there are over 300 languages spoken in the homes of children who attend English schools ( www.multiverse.ac.uk ). Many schools in England have identified newly arrived pupils who speak little or no English and schools have turned to their local authorities for help, finding that there is little funding to support the growing need.

Although the previous Labour government identified 206.6 million of funding for an Ethnic Minority Achievement Grant, proving that bilingual education was high on the educational agenda, the Coalition government has been cutting public services and so such future funding is likely to be at risk. This means that teachers will again have to find their own way to support such pupils, often with little or no training in English as an Additional Language (EAL) pedagogy from the Initial Teacher Training Institutions in which they qualified ( www.naldic.org.uk ).

It is a fundamental right for a child to have an education and, as identified in the National Strategies, support for pupils who have English as an Additional Language (EAL) is an entitlement and not a need. We therefore need to know the best way to support a pupil who is newly arrived and has little or no English, as well as to understand how to develop the capabilities of those students who may have English as their second, third or fourth language and are almost fluent.