EAL

A Foreign Language Learner with English as an Additional Language

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Introduction
n has recently arrived at your school from the West African Republic of Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast). A peripatetic teacher of English as an additional language from the local authority gives Chantal a weekly one-to-one lesson, withdrawing her from registration time and the first period of the school day. Otherwise Chantal follows the normal curriculum. English is a relatively new language for her, which is why she has been placed in a low-attaining group, but her general ability and motivation are high and she demonstrates a flair for language learning right from the start. As Côte d'Ivoire is a Francophone country, Chantal speaks and writes French fluently. In French lessons she outperforms all her classmates, who feel somewhat intimidated by her enthusiasm for, and prior knowledge of, the language.

Problem 1
n How can your school include Chantal better in MFL lessons?
n Read the Department for Education and Skills guidance Access and engagement in modern foreign languages: teaching pupils for whom English is an additional language. Then browse through the other online documentation listed in English as an Additional Language (EAL) in Modern Foreign Languages, which includes professional development advice and classroom-ready materials. Armed with this advice and your own ideas, devise ways of reconciling the conflicting priorities of stretching Chantal's already advanced knowledge of French and delivering the subject to her classmates in small, easy steps. How might Chantal's experience of living in a non-European French-speaking country be used for cultural enrichment?

Problem 2
n A decision is taken to withdraw Chantal from French and to give her one-to-one German lessons instead.
n Read deutschlehrer aus der elfenbeinküste in kiel, the story of Zibo Gogbe, a 38-year-old Ivorian German teacher studying at the University of Kiel, which might ease Chantal's engagement with her new language. Can you suggest other ways of introducing the target language, the people who speak it and the countries where it is spoken? Since you have been given carte blanche when it comes to devising a German course for her, how would you tailor it to suit her circumstances? How could you deploy another new arrival in your school, a German-speaking Learning Support Assistant, to aid Chantal's progress? What are the pros and the cons of introducing Chantal to Spanish or any language other than German?

Problem 3
n The head of the local authority's EAL service asks your school to enter pupils with EAL for GCSE in their home languages.
n Read Responding to diversity: Certification of multilingualism in a mainstream secondary school, which describes how one school in the mid-1990s arranged for candidates to be entered for GCSE in their home languages. Do the examination boards offer the same range of languages in the new millennium? The Centre for Information on Language Teaching and Research (CILT) has posted Community Languages Exam Information indicating which community languages are now available at GCSE and A-level. In the light of the expansion of the European Union eastwards and the consequent rise in migration from the accession countries, are Slavonic and other East European languages well served by the current provision? How can a school help multilingual pupils qualify in languages outside the competence of the MFL department?

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