EAL learning in National Curriculum subjects 

>Design and Technology- KS1,2 and 3

>English - FS, KS1 and 2

>Geography KS1

>History KS1 and 2

>ICT KS1 and 2

>Mathematics - KS1 and 2

>Mathematics-KS2, 3 and 4

>Religious Education - KS1 and 2

>Religious Education- KS3 and 4

>Science - EYFS, KS1 and 2
>Science - KS3 and 4

All student teachers, irrespective of their subject and phase specialisms, are expected to pay attention to the language needs of bilingual pupils and to promote EAL development through their teaching. At present, EAL is not a specialist subject in initial teacher education and in this situation there is sometimes a tendency to assume that learning an additional language across the curriculum will develop ‘naturally’ in a school environment or will largely be achieved through English as a subject.

Research (Cummins 1981,Thomas and Collier 1997) indicates that it takes as long as seven years for pupils learning English as an additional language (EAL) to acquire a level of English proficiency comparable to native English speaking peers. Teachers cannot wait for pupils learning EAL to develop this high level of English language proficiency before tackling the demands of the curriculum. Their task is to enable pupils to participate in curriculum content learning while they are simultaneously learning English. To do this, they must ensure that subject content is linked to language objectives and that language objectives are compatible with subject content (see Language and Curriculum)

Whilst this general principle is often accepted, there is relatively little guidance available for student teachers in the UK which illustrates exactly how this might be achieved in a subject context. The aim of this strand is to explore issues related to the teaching and learning of EAL within each National Curriculum subject. Each subject specific section illustrates what student teachers may need to know about the use of language within their subject as well as what practical steps have been found to be useful for supporting the language and subject learning of EAL pupils in the subject classroom.

Further national curriculum subject areas will be added throughout 2009.

Section Editors

Carrie Cable

Maggie Gravelle

Contributing Authors

Richard Barwell

Luke Bazeley

Paula Bosanquet

Fiona Collins

Steve Cooke

Patrick Eve

Alison Griffiths

Tözün Issa

Dawn Lama

Imran Mogra

Chris Pim

Kimberly Safford

Jen Smyth

Shehnaz Tharia

Manny Vazquez

Further Reading and References

Cummins, J. (1981) 'The role of primary language development in promoting educational success for language minority students. in California State Department of Education (Ed.) Schooling and language minority students: A theoretical framework. Los Angeles : Evaluation, Dissemination and Assessment Center, California State University.

Thomas, W.P. and Collier, V. (1997) School Effectiveness for language minority