Tag Archives: EAL
Developing answers
Do you find your students sometimes struggle to develop their responses to prompts for Speaking exams? I used the “My Place In The World” idea to help students to broaden their thinking. (This could also be used to develop ideas for essays.) First I asked them to consider this question: Why is education important? and […]
EAL Conversations
“The first rule of EAL is to talk about EAL” As Head of the EAL department, one of my responsibilities was to deliver a short session on teaching EAL pupils at a summer-time meeting of NQTs held annually at our school. Instead of standing at the front and lecturing people on something they definitely had […]
Features of Academic English: a poster.
As I see it, one of the most important aspects of my role is to teach academic English. Of course, all subject teachers are teachers of academic English too, but I’m aware that they are sometimes unsure about this part of their role. To make a neat little list of structural (pink) and lexical (blue) […]
Text type analysis
This activity could work for any course where students need to be able to identify and write a variety of text types. This year the IGCSE E2L got a bit more challenging: students had to be prepared to write two of the following text types: informal email/letter, formal letter, article, report, review, with the report […]
Modelling teacher-student communications
I often think that our students must so overwhelmed when they first start at school here. Not only is the language a different one, but the whole culture of the school is likely to be quite different from what they know. They are thrown into an entirely new environment, with new rules and expectations, far […]
UCAS Personal statement writing resources
In the autumn term, I offer Y13s help with writing their personal statements in an after-school session. It can be hard to sell yourself in your own language, let alone a second, so I put together this list of useful sites that students can use to find a suitable alternative to knowledge or an appropriate […]
Am I a subject teacher or a support teacher?
The role of an EAL teacher in independent schools can be confusing for both the teacher themselves and their colleagues throughout the school. Although it seems obvious now, it took me quite a while to figure out that actually my fellow EAL teachers and I have 3 distinct roles. a support teacher, helping those learning […]
Academic texts – “Explain” tasks
This lesson came about because a Y10 student had asked me how best to write their ideas for a 6-mark extended response question in Chemistry. This sort of task presents a challenge for EAL students who may know the content well, but can lose marks due to their language. Students should be aware that they […]
All teachers are teachers of Academic English
I was lucky enough to secure a slot during a teachers’ meeting last week. Unfortunately it was just before an announcement giving details of a radical change to our timetable, so I know there were some anxious minds in the room. The main points I made were as follows: We all speak two Englishes – […]
Learning how to ‘do’ EAL
How did you come into EAL? How did you learn / are you learning how to ‘do’ it? If you’re like me, you came to EAL from a TEFL background or somewhere else in ELT – EAP, ESOL, etc. Others I have met have come to it from an MFL background, and I imagine mainstream […]
A Hive of Activities 