[ELTWeekly Volume 6, Issue 7 | March 10, 2014]
Nick Morrison has published an article ‘How schools are breaking down the language barrier for EAL students’ on the Guardian.
Nick says, “One of the more significant changes to the school population in recent years has been the increase in the number of children with English as an additional language (EAL). Such students now form a majority in one in nine schools in England; the number has risen by 20% during the last five years.
Although this is a relatively new challenge for many schools, others have a long track record of working with EAL children, allowing them to develop tried and tested approaches.
Around nine in 10 children at Birchfields primary in Manchester have EAL. Many are from settled Bengali and Pakistani communities, although the school has also had a recent influx of children from North Africa and the Middle East. About 20 different languages are spoken at the school”.