Sharing Good Practice find that withdrawn or quiet learners are now more willing to volunteer , contribute to class discussions and / or take risks within their learning . You may find that loud and troublesome learners settle down and relax . They become more comfortable with the classroom environment and can better self-regulate their behaviour and emotions . When learners feel seen and understood by their teachers and peers , they no longer need to communicate their frustrations by ‘ acting out in a variety of ways . The environment within their mind settles , and they can find the space and time to focus on their learning . This leads the way for the educator to implement the best strategies that will support their language acquisition as they navigate their way through the curriculum .
Supporting Language Acquisition for All
What is excellent about the tips I am about to share with you is that they are helpful not only for learners with SEND or EAL but also for all learners within your classroom . By doing one or more of the below , you make learning accessible to all pupils within your classroom . You increase the opportunity for deeper , more meaningful understanding over shallow , rote learning .
1 ) Encourage children to communicate in their mother tongue .
If your learners do not speak English as their first language , encourage them to continue learning and speaking their first language . By becoming fluent in their first language , they can transfer the phonological awareness they have acquired over to English . It is also easier for them when they have a familiar reference point in their language when trying to understand a new word they are learning in English .
2 ) Use a variety of resources .
model and scaffold concepts when teaching .
3 ) Allow for collaboration amongst students .
Students must have the opportunity to speak peer-to-peer for extended periods during lessons . Use mixed ability pairings and pair up a learner struggling with their language acquisition with a proficient and competent speaker . This allows opportunities for learners to use one another as a resource .
4 ) Use language structures
Language structures are an important part of the classroom as it helps students frame their thinking in clear and precise ways . Once confident with the structures presented , the sentences become a part of the learners ’ language bank and reduce the cognitive load they experience when trying to agree , disagree , build on or explain an answer .
5 ) Pre-teach material
By pre-teaching new material , you can teach the learners with the topic ’ s key vocabulary ensuring they have a solid understanding of the terms on which you will build . Pre-teaching also allows adding some context and background knowledge to the learner so that they can go deeper in their learning throughout the topic .
6 ) Learn and integrate some of their cultures into your planning
Building some of your learners ’ culture into your planning is an easy way to increase their engagement and selfesteem in your lessons . The learner will feel valued and seen , the topic becomes something that the learner can instantly relate to , and the whole class enjoys learning a little bit more about one or more of their members .
7 ) Colourful semantics
Colourful semantics is a structured way of teaching children the grammatically correct way of constructing a sentence . By utilising pictures , at the most basic level , learners can combine nouns and verbs to form a sentence . As proficiency increases , so can the complexity of the sentence your learner makes , and they can add in noun and adverbial phrases , adjectives , and prepositions .
8 ) Play , play , play
Encourage your learners to play games that utilise language , i . e ., clapping games that are accompanied by rhymes and songs . They could write raps and poems or role-play during the lesson or playtime . You should also promote opportunities for your learners to take part in team sports during after school or lunchtime clubs . This allows them to exercise and strengthen their social language .
Use resources such as Widgets ( symbol-based language ) to give instructions , utilise bilingual resources ( including books and dictionaries ), label commonly used items around the classroom and school , and heavily
Abigail Alexis-Olubuyide holds a Masters ( with distinction ) in Educational Leadership and Management , an Honours Bachelor ' s degree in Psychology and a PGCE in Primary Education . She is the Primary Headteacher at GEMS Wesgreen International School in the UAE . Abigail Alexis-Olubuyide , originally from the United Kingdom , has lived and worked in the United Arab Emirates for seven years and is passionate about creating success for all students .
Class Time Term 3 Apr - Jun 2022 35