APPROACHES TO LEARNING AND TEACHING

Developing learners’
language skills
Teachers increasingly find themselves working in multilingual or bilingual classrooms, where the challenges
facing English as an Additional Language (EAL) and English as a Second Language (ESL) learners mean that
all teachers, whatever the subject, have a responsibility to develop learners’ language skills.
Research shows that many of the strategies designed for EAL learners also benefit first-language learners,
helping them to boost their literacy levels. Each of the approaches mentioned below, implemented at
whole-class level, will foster skills which enable all learners to reach their highest potential in every subject.

Understanding the EAL learner

EAL learners face the twin challenge of learning new concepts in a second language. Our working memory
can only handle a finite amount of information at a time. As a result, EAL learners may reach their cognitive
limits before first-language peers, restricting learning.
Conscious effort must therefore be made to reduce cognitive load. One effective method is to equip learners
with clear processes that can be committed to long-term memory and employed to solve problems as they arise.
Routinely introducing, modelling and scaffolding these processes encourages learners to later use
them automatically and independently.

Developing writing: the writing process

Challenges: writing poses the biggest challenge to language learners. Obstacles include vocabulary, organisation,
sentence-level complexity and register. Learners also lack regular opportunities for academic writing across
the curriculum.
Process: make writing a core part of learning in all subjects. Employ a routine process each time a writing
task is undertaken. The basic process (outlined below) can be adapted to the demands of your subject
and learners:

1 Understand the task

2 Generate ideas

3 Plan and organise

4 Draft

5 Revise

6 Edit

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In practice:
Steps 1–3 provide opportunities for pair and group work based around structured talk (see below).
Activities that help generate and collate ideas (brainstorm, mind map, think-pair-share, jigsaw groups)
and organise and prioritise (hierarchy and sequencing activities, planning templates) are useful. Definitions
and examples of all these practices can be found easily on the internet.
Step 4 should involve independent writing: this can be supported by initial shared writing, writing frames,
sentence starters, vocabulary lists and so on. These may be produced by the teacher or collaboratively by
learners.
Step 5 relies on establishing clear and consistent marking criteria that learners can understand and employ.
Self- and peer-assessment are crucial; teachers should guide learners as to what to assess and how.
Step 6 ensures learners engage with feedback. Only after this do teachers formally mark writing.

Developing reading: the reading process

Challenges: EAL learners’ fluency when reading aloud can mask difficulties with comprehension, inference
and analysis. Classroom reading must involve active interaction with a text, where content and language are
considered.
Process: active or close reading has three stages (pre-reading, reading, post-reading). Activities at each stage
should revolve around one or more of four key skills (predicting, clarifying, questioning, summarising).
In practice:

1 Predicting – learners use textual clues and activate prior knowledge to make informed predictions.
These can be revisited and revised. Activities for structured talk can support this.

2 Clarifying – learners identify challenging words, phrases or grammar and use textual clues or prior
knowledge to find meaning. Teacher modelling and encouraging learners to think aloud as they clarify
are useful.

3 Questioning – learners should ask teacher-like questions as they read. To facilitate quality questioning,
provide question stems, assign roles and encourage annotation.

4 Summarising – learners identify the main points of the text and express them in their own words. This is a
perfect opportunity to employ the writing process.

Developing speaking and listening

Challenges: EAL learners benefit from routinely engaging in academic conversations with peers and teachers.
To ensure quality, activities must be carefully planned with clear outcomes.
Process: speaking and listening are fundamental to the writing and reading processes. Give learners
opportunities to orally express ideas before writing. Equally, orally expressing cognitive processes (thinking
aloud) while reading challenging texts improves reading skills. EAL learners benefit from actively listening to
teachers and peers doing the same.
In practice: for structured talk activities, provide discussion questions, sentence starters, suggested vocabulary
and time-limits; and assign roles such as critic, interviewer and facilitator. For structured listening, assign roles
such as note-taker, assessor, word-spotter and spokesperson. In both cases, feedback activities hold learners to
account for engaging in quality discussions.

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A word on vocabulary
Listeners/readers need to understand upwards of 90% of the words they hear/read to fully comprehend.
Additionally, advanced vocabulary is crucial for expressing complex information precisely.
Explicit vocabulary instruction should therefore be at the heart of the content-language classroom (in which
the aims are deep content learning and improved language skills). The first step is to pre-identify key words;
Cambridge resources generally do this for you. Aim to introduce one or two key words a lesson. The following
process may help, particularly if consistently employed:

1 Define the word

2 Give a familiar example

3 Link to a visual image or action

4 Describe how it is used (other forms, similar and different words, common uses)

5 Active practice (6–8 rapid (30-second) activities, oral or written)

It takes 15–20 meaningful exposures before new words enter a learner’s active vocabulary. Explicitly taught
words should reappear throughout the course: include them in success criteria and writing and speaking frames
and ask learners to spot them when reading and listening.

Further reading
Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation (2017), Cognitive load theory: Research that teachers really need
to understand, NSW Department of Education.
Conteh, J. (2015), The EAL Teaching Book: Promoting Success for Multilingual Learners in Primary and
Secondary Schools, SAGE Publications, UK.
Meltzer, J. & Hamann, E.T. (2005), Meeting the Literacy Development Needs of Adolescent English Language
Learners Through Content-Area Learning – PART TWO: Focus on Classroom Teaching and Learning Strategies,
The Education Alliance, Brown University.
For ideas and guidance on effective activities visit The Bell Foundation’s Great Ideas webpage.