Teachers TV: The Multilingual Classroom

Using a range of classroom techniques to teach EAL.

Teachers at St. Stephen's Primary School in Newham, London, use a range of classroom techniques to teach the curriculum to children who speak English as an additional language. Anne Clayden, EAL Coordinator, stresses the importance of giving children with EAL lots of opportunities for speaking and listening. She also highlights the need to model the language they require and to allow other children to do the same. The children also get the chance to work in their home language. Nicola Coupland uses reading examples and peer modelling to encourage her Year 2 class to act out the roles in the story 'Amazing Grace'. Tam Van Tran uses the guise of a Kung Fu Grand Master to help his Year 6 class hone their punctuation skills, while Ken Davies has his Year 5 class dressing up and wearing hats from around the world to inspire their descriptive writing.