Excellence and Enjoyment: learning and teaching for ... - NALDIC

EAL pedagogy: an overviewof the researchResearch over the past two decades into the developmentof young bilingual learners has resulted in the development ofa number of theories and principles that underpin the distinctivepedagogy for children who are learning EAL – children for whomthe additional language being learned is also the medium ofeducation.The development of EAL pedagogy has been influencedby social constructivist theories which emphasise the importanceof scaffolding learning, and those which highlight theimportance of socio-cultural and emotional factors. Childrenlearning EAL will be affected by attitudes towards them, theirculture, language, religion and ethnicity.A distinction needs to be made between interpersonalcommunicative skills and cognitive and academic languageproficiency. Generally speaking, children learning an additionallanguage can become conversationally fluent in the newlanguage in two to three years, but may take five years or longerto catch up with monolingual peers in the development ofcognitive and academic language. The distinction betweenthese two types of language and their rates of developmentis recognised in the Ofsted framework for inspecting EALin primary schools.There is research evidence that bilingualism confersintellectual advantages. It also highlights the important roleof the first language in the child’s learning and in their acquisitionof additional languages. Once children have developed cognitiveand academic language, they can transfer much of this learningto additional languages. Children benefit enormously if they aregiven opportunities to continue to develop their first languagealongside English.continuedsection 2Primary National Strategy | 0013-2006DCL-EN | © Crown copyright 2006Excellence and Enjoyment: learning and teaching for bilingual children in the primary yearsIntroductory guide 15