EAL Learners Support and Monitoring in School X: Experience Report

This School Experience Report (SER) investigates how staff at 'School X' understand and support English as an Additional Language (EAL) learners in core subjects, and how effective the staff perceive this provision to be. The report highlights the increasing diversity in UK schools due to immigration, which presents challenges in catering to EAL students' needs. It reviews EAL interventions, classroom support strategies, and the broader context of EAL education, including the national curriculum requirements and language proficiency grading. The report also touches upon the importance of cultural responsiveness, the distinction between basic communication skills (BICS) and cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP), and the need for high teacher expectations. It examines the impact of teacher questioning on student learning and the role of formative assessment in enhancing student attainment. The report aims to determine the effectiveness of strategies implemented in practices of teaching and learning in school X over different core subjects present in the curriculum: English, Mathematics and Science.

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)?
How effective do staff perceive the provision to be at school X?
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.......................................................................................................................4
EAL Interventions..................................................................................................................4
EAL support in Class.............................................................................................................5
EAL........................................................................................................................................7
Summary....................................................................................................................................9
Research Methods....................................................................................................................11
Findings and Discussion..........................................................................................................12
Conclusion................................................................................................................................18
Appendix..................................................................................................................................22
References:...............................................................................................................................33

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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. School X
is a coeducational school in the borough of Harrow with over 800 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 aged 11-19 years
with diverse population of about 49 different nationalities and home languages. However, this

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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 effectiveness
of strategies implemented in practices of teaching and learning in school X over different
core subjects present in the curriculum: English, Mathematics and Science.

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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. Policies laid by 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 while having English as their classroom language prior to their entry in the
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.

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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.
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 lessons 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 guidance (Gov.uk. 2019), 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 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
however, it could assist the schools for focusing their attentions where it is necessary.

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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 Basic
Interpersonal Communicative Skills (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).
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

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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 “the specialist skills partner and awarding organisation for industry”. 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

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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 students. 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 has 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).
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. 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 adapt themselves 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 or 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

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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 noteworthy. 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 issues 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
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. Teachers
should also be well-aware of these techniques by means of the standardised teacher trainings
implemented within schools through government guideline and provisions within schools.
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 country and at the same time,
their earlier educational experiences as well as their potential in the other languages. Teachers

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should also aim at providing required support and interventions 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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Research Methods
Primary research in school X was conducted via an interview with Assistant Head of
EAL. As the research was based on the perceived effectiveness of EAL intervention and the
effect of these in core subjects, only assistant Head of EAL was interviewed not the students.
Interview questions that were asked, were based on the information needed to collate this
paper, to further develop the understanding of the interventions within the school and effect
of these in core subjects.
In addition to the Assistant Head in charge of EAL, three other teacher were interviewed
from Maths, English & Science. In order to further develop the understanding of EAL
learner’s needs and how they are supported at school X in core subjects.
Assistant head was informed about the title of this paper during the interview and
made aware of the information provided will be used in PGCE research project. Staff
interviewed informed in advance to ensure a suitable time was set and interview took place in
calm manner. Informing staff in advance ensured all the relevant information provided was in
detail and they are able to collate any report or material to support the answers in the
interview.
Process of interview was recorded using handwritten transcript of the Reponses and
was semi -structured. This enabled to remove the formality element of discussion and placed
the interviewee as ease. However, providing question in advance enabled to get school
reports on effectiveness of interventions on core subject for different year groups. Choosing
an approach of semi structure interview enabled to gather a large amount of detail quickly
and efficiently, as this would not be possible in such depth in other techniques such as
observation and questionnaires (Cousin 2009). There are always limitation and weaknesses of
particular research method, but this method enabled to get detailed overview of the EAL