University Report: School X's Approach to EAL Learner Development

This School Experience Report (SER) examines how School X, a coeducational school with a high percentage of EAL learners, understands and supports the needs of students learning English as an Additional Language. The report analyzes the school's EAL interventions, including assessment policies and classroom support strategies, with a focus on core subjects like English, Math, and Science. It reviews relevant literature on EAL interventions, government policies, and the importance of teacher awareness and support. The report also assesses the perceived effectiveness of these interventions and explores strategies for improving teaching practices to meet the diverse needs of EAL learners, considering factors such as language proficiency, cultural backgrounds, and the importance of providing access to the curriculum.

Running head: SCHOOL EXPERIENCE REPORT (SER)
How Do Staff at School X Understand the Needs of EAL Learners and How Do
They Support and Monitor the Development of These Learners in the Core Subjects of
English, Maths & Science?
School Experience Report (SER)
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Literature Review.......................................................................................................................3
EAL Interventions..................................................................................................................3
EAL support in Class.............................................................................................................4
EAL........................................................................................................................................6
References:.................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
Students who learn English as their additional language (EAL) share several different
common characteristics with the other students whose first language is English. Most of their
learning requirements are also similar to that of the other children. Notwithstanding this fact,
these students also have different needs from them by virtue of fact that they are learning in
and through an additional language while also learning that very language. With the same,
they also come from different cultural backgrounds and the communities with diverse
expectations and understandings of the education, learning and language. The population of
United Kingdom is rapidly increasing and at the same time, the ever increasing immigration
is outweighing the total emigration. This is bringing is diversity within the nation as the
population belonging from diverse background is increasing in a fast pace. Therefore,
increasing number of students are entering into the education system with other languages
apart from English as their first language. This in turn is playing a very challenging role for
the parts of the teachers in UK as well as the Department of Education to cater these
population who still need access to same high standards of teaching and learning but might
not be capable of cooperating in the classroom environment because of not knowing the very
language.
This paper is going to elaborate on providing a brief analysis of the EAL intervention
that are put in place by school X for understanding the various different needs and
requirements of the EAL learners as well as their development in the core subjects. It is to
note that School X refers to the Harrow High School, which is a coeducational school in the
borough of Harrow with a total of 1000 students on a roll. It has a large number of students
who are classified as the EAL learners. 79.3% of the total students in this school are EAL
learners. It is an inclusive school where the teachers value the achievements and the abilities
of all the learners. It is a school for students aging 7 to 11 years with diverse population of

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about 18 different nationalities and home languages. However, this paper would also shed
light on how the staffs of the School X support and monitor the development of these
learners. With the same, the perceived effectiveness of the EAL intervention shall also be
assessed in the following paper. It aims at determining some strategies which could be
implemented in the practices of teaching in the school X over different subjects present in the
curriculum, especially English, Mathematics and Science.
Literature Review
EAL Interventions
School X has a clear policy on assessment, within which specific elements relate to
AfL strategies and there are also references to AfL within the school’s teaching and learning
policy. Within the assessment policy there is a strong emphasis on comment only marking
across key stage 3 (p.12), which seems to draw directly from the original AfL research.
Although there is no direct reference to UK government recommendations or policies around
AfL within the school policy document, there are clear echoes of the government’s guidance
document in the section of the school’s policy that indicates how summative assessment may
be used for formative purposes. The policies laid by UK government states that the students
who are exposed to a particular language at their homes which is known or perceived to be
other than English are referred to as EALs. It is to note that according to the recent study
conducted by Cummins (1992), the national proportion of the students of secondary school
who are classified as the EAL has continuously risen in the past ten years and at present, it
stands at 16.2%. This rise has been very stead and is six years behind the percentage points of
the EAL students belonging from the primary schools that at present stands at 20.6% (Siegel
and Lipka 2017). This indicates that most of the students in primary school moved to the
secondary school in United Kingdom and this further demonstrate that they have about six
years of education with having English as their classroom language prior to their entry in the

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secondary education level. Notwithstanding this fact, this conclusion cannot be immediately
drawn from these provided statistics in any way. It is also to note that the number of EAL
students are growing with a rapid pace. With the same, it is also imperative that the
provisions are placed for ensuring that they can get an access to all the parts of the curriculum
when it is presented in additional language (Leung 2018). When the students would not be
too different from their peers or class mates, their learning experiences get contrasted.
According to Cummins (1992), EAL is a very broad term. It comprise of students who have
moved to the United Kingdom in recent years and also the ones who are new to the English
language. With the same, they also include the students who have lived in the place their
entire life and have several years of education in the English language.
EAL support in Class
As per the National Curriculum in England of 2014, all the teachers need to take an
account of the needs of the students whose first language is not English. With the same,
monitoring their progress should also be considered by the teachers as per the age of the
students and the length of time they spend within the nation and at the same time, their earlier
educational experiences as well as their potential in the other languages (Strand, Malmberg
and Hall, 2015). Furthermore, the potential of the students for whom the language of English
is an additional one for taking part in the national curriculum might be in advance of their
skills of communication in the English language (Leung 2010). The staffs of School X are
required to plan the teaching opportunities in order to help the students to develop their
fluency in the English language and at the same time, they should also aim at providing
proper support to the students that they require for taking part in every subjects.
Furthermore, it is also to state that as one of the significant parts of the annual School
Census, the EAL schools are required to provide a language proficiency grade on the scale A
to E for every EAL student. However, it is also to mention that this is only necessary when

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the student in question states that his or her language is anything other than “English”. Leung
and Street (2014) have defined the students as one among the aforementioned grades of
fluency. This might be seen as negatively labelling it could assist the schools for focusing
their attentions where it is necessary. Furthermore, it also assist the teachers in gaining a deep
understanding about the students who need some extra attention all through their time that
they spend in the classroom. If any student is assessed and is recorded as having the quality
of being “fluent: as per the system of coding, then it no longer is required for the very student
to be monitored for the improvement in the language. Notwithstanding this fact, a student
who have grade in between A and D, needs an on-going assessment with an aim that each and
every student is required to be eventually coded as fluent. As per the research conducted by
Whiteside, Gooch and Norbury (2017), there is a difference in between the textual
dimensions of the different forms of communication. This research study of his have showed
in different factor tests that the semantic style of the one-to-one conversation differ
significantly from the academic prose and as well as some works of the fiction. Hence, it is to
note that the system of grading that is employed at present by the DfE are required to make
sure that it does not just test the BICS of a student from the one-to-one interview.
It has been assumed that the English language speakers who have gained high level of
accuracy and fluency in the day to day spoken English already have the corresponding
proficiency in the academic language (Newton et al. 2018). It might help in avoiding seeking
the children or students who possess this disparity as having some special educational
requirements, when what they need is much more explicit academic literacy teaching. Such
type of bilingual education is not at all feasible in the education system present in United
Kingdom (Bowyer-Crane et al. 2017)). Notwithstanding this fact, in the case of School X, the
first language of the EAL speakers was collectively English. In the United Kingdom today,
the spread of different types of languages means that there is a very simple bilingual

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approach that would not be effective. For allowing the huge number of access of students to
the curriculum, the education system need to attempt a much more generalised approach,
rather than focusing on attempting a multilingual system.
The EAL teachers can more often be at the fault for not possessing some high
expectation for the EAL students. In the teacher’s standards that are implemented by the UK
government, it has been stated that the teachers should possess a clear and in-depth
understanding of the various requirements and needs of the students and at the same time,
should also take into consideration the ones with English as additional language (Uccelli et
al. 2018). There is a number of research studies into assessment for learning consider the
impact of teacher questioning on student learning. Black’s research (1998) suggested that the
quality of teacher questioning was one of the four key features of effective formative
assessment. Another study with English teachers similarly pointed to ‘the improved quality of
classroom work when teachers had planned questions to target at specific pupils in the
lesson’. The main focus on the assessment for learning in the schools were really initiated by
the Inside the Black Box”. This meta study have examined the prevailing research evidence
on the field of Afl for identifying the important features for enhancing the attainments of the
students in the schools.
EAL
According to Rivers (2018), the term “First Language” refers to the language to which
a student was initially exposed at the time of early development and at the same time,
continuous to be exposed to this language in the home or in the community. The term
“English as an Additional Language” (EAL) is basically used in the mainstream schools in
United Kingdom, especially in England, for the learners who make use of the language or
languages other than English at home as well as in their communities. Gibbons (2008) have
defined EAL as a “is the specialist skills partner and awarding organisation for industry”.

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These learners are also identified as the bilingual learners. Prevalence of two different
languages can be defined as the “exposure to two languages; living in two languages”. It is a
very inclusive definition that avoids the complicated one and in most of the time, is very hard
for measuring the different aspects of use of language- proficiency, literacy, competency and
fluency. The main reason behind its importance for the schools are many. Firstly, the notion
of “living in two languages” allows the inclusion of different profiles of bilingual pupils and
that of the EAL. As per Dennaoui et al. (2016), there is also a difference in between being
fluent in the skills of communication as well as being fluent in the academic language of the
classroom. This difference is more often regarded as the CALP (Cognitive Academic
Language Proficiency) and BICS (Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills). They both can
be very indicative of the inferior performance of the students in the academic non-verbal
testing when they are compared to the communication skills and verbal reasoning.
The BICS (Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills) refers to the surface skills of
speaking, comprehension and that of listening which are typically gained quickly by most of
the students, especially by the ones from the language backgrounds that are similar to the
English language who spend most of their schooling time in getting interacted with the
English speaking candidates. On the other hand, the CALP (Cognitive Academic Language
Proficiency) as per Jefferies et al. (2018) is a very important component for the engagement
with the academic task all over the curriculum. He have claimed that when most of the
children try to develop a high degree of BICS within them and that too, within two years of
the immersion in their target language- i.e., of English, it take about five to seven years for a
student to be working at that expected degree as far as the academic language as well as the
literacy are taken into consideration (Andrews 1989). The EAL teachers can more often be at
the fault for not possessing some high expectation for the EAL students. In the teacher’s
standards that are implemented by the UK government, it has been stated that the teachers

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should possess a clear and in-depth understanding of the various requirements and needs of
the students and at the same time, should also take into consideration the ones with English as
additional language. Teachers could often be at the fault for not possessing higher
expectations from the students. For qualifying as a teacher, it is very important that they are
able to adapting with the subject content and be well-aware of all the limitations that the EAL
students would possess. Still, the teachers could qualify in the schools where the EAL is
especially prominent and is entirely non-existent. Further investigations by the Riley and
Pidgeon (2018) have shed light on the different stereotypes that the teachers hold. One of
such stereotypes is that the EAL students misinterpret the reading tasks and instructions as
well as a different cultural background might also be a very significant factor that inhibit
them from aiding to the discussion in the classroom. With the same, the teachers also go on
for discussion that they might misperceived the role they play with these students as to
significantly monitor their spelling, grammar and the punctuations used in English language.
This continuous regulation depicts that the content of what is written is often not looked
through and are ignored. With the same, any positives that could be taken are also note
mentioned. The EAL teachers can more often be at the fault for not possessing some high
expectation for the EAL students.
Summary
As per the above literature review on the subject, there are several issues which are
required to take into consideration in order to improve the fluency of the students. Two of the
most notable issue are the ability of the students in communicating academically and the
difference in between their spoken language. The EAL educators are required to make sure
that the classrooms for these pupils are responsive in cultural manner for benefitting each and
every students in the classroom. With the same, there are several techniques which could be

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used in the classroom settings for ensuring that there is a significant progress shown by the
EAL students.
It is very necessary to ensure that students are well-motivated towards enjoying their
classroom environment. The formal aspects of classroom should be removed in order to help
the EAL students to get engaged in friendly manner and easily grab the knowledge. The EAL
educators should also be well-aware of these techniques by means of the Standardised teacher
trainings implemented in UK. With the same, monitoring their progress should also be
considered by the teachers as per the age of the students and the length of time they spend
within the nation and at the same time, their earlier educational experiences as well as their
potential in the other languages. The teachers should also aim at providing proper support to
the students that they require for taking part in every subjects. They should possess a clear
and in-depth understanding of the various requirements and needs of the students and at the
same time, should also take into consideration the ones with English as additional language.
.

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London: Routledge
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