Innovations in English language teaching for migrants and refugees

leading the children from one type of talk to another in a pedagogic style that
Gibbons (2002) calls Teacher Guided Reporting. Using questioning and feedback,
I encouraged the children’s talk to move from a literal, conversational style to a
more formal expression of ideas.
Concluding thoughts
I feel more confident with the different languages that I speak and yes, my
home language is important to me. The work has made me feel like I can write
any Swahili word.
Aliya, Year 5.
There are many advantages to being bilingual. Greater meta-linguistic awareness
and knowledge of one language can influence the acquisition of another and vice
versa. Thinking in and manipulating two or more languages provides bilingual
speakers with a broader range of cognitive and academic resources to draw
on than monolingual learners.
Children often acquire EAL in school while maintaining their home languages through
interaction with family members, through religious practices and via community
schooling. When these two separate worlds combine, forming connections between
home language learning and EAL, pupils transfer skills from one language to another
in a way that enhances the acquisition of both languages. The bilingual books project
created a small window into this way of working. If schools, in their quest for higher
standards in English literacy, recognise literacy and oracy skills in any language
as partners in the development of EAL, then using those skills within mainstream
teaching and learning will engage bilingual pupils in a more meaningful and inclusive
curriculum.
The bilingual books project allowed children at different stages of learning English,
and with varying levels of literacy in their home languages, to ‘syncretise’
or combine these skills to produce books of quality that they felt justifiably proud
of. This outcome focused the children’s attention on specific skills but also inspired
them to use their full language repertoires.
It also allowed the children to be independent workers who demonstrated identities
and talents that would normally remain hidden beneath a drive for attainment in
and through English. School-based literacy practices that legitimise English as the
dominant language were momentarily replaced by other literacies of equal value.
Finally, this validation of children’s language increased their sense of inclusion and
self-worth. It gave them opportunities to excel in ways that were normally unavailable
to them. Presentation of the books during a special, whole-school assembly publicly
raised the profile of the children’s work. It resulted in a disaffected, English-speaking
pupil leafing through Casmir’s book saying, ‘Isn’t this great Miss’, as he grinned at
Casmir with genuine respect. Best of all, it led to other EAL learners asking when they
could write their bilingual stories.
20 | Writing bilingual stories