Classrooms are made up of bilingual and plurilingual students as well as English speakers. Students whose home language isn’t English and who are new to English will have language needs or sometimes both language and learning needs. These students need support strategies so they can feel a sense of achievement when trying to understand and communicate knowledge of STEM subjects taught in English.
Both primary and secondary EAL (English as an Additional Language) students need an abundance of support especially during their first two years of learning STEM subjects in another language. However, EAL students in their 3rd or 4th year of learning about STEM topics may continue to need support to understand and express language clearly, fluently and accurately. EALs with low levels of literacy in their first language will also need longer-term support to cope with the demands of a STEM curriculum.
EAL students therefore need to be:
• motivated to participate in basic classroom interaction before tackling STEM vocabulary and academic English such as describe, analyse, explain, evaluate
• encouraged to contribute STEM language during pair and group work
• given extra wait time to respond to STEM questions and to express opinions about a STEM topic
• helped to notice grammatical forms and their functions
• supported to develop English language and subject-specific skills at the same time
EAL students need to be given time to:
• use online bilingual dictionaries to check the meaning of STEM vocabulary and to hear how to pronounce words
• look at STEM vocabulary regularly and play creative word games such as ‘think link’ when students make connections between two, three or several key words from a subject topic
• notice some STEM words have different meanings in other subjects eg ‘primary’ in design technology describes colour; ‘primary’ in science, a consumer in a food chain; ‘primary’ in engineering and science, an original source such as a photo or recording
• process new STEM language; think how to do a task; consider how well they are progressing; note if they completed a task with or without help
• acquire both communicative skills, subject-specific vocabulary and the academic language used in STEM. This is cognitively demanding and does not happen overnight
How can teachers support EAL students?
• pre-teach STEM vocabulary through visuals; label or add captions to images and read them aloud; provide a list of high frequency words
• write STEM topic word banks on the board or wall display
• model STEM language in context at a slower pace so EALs can write key language and consolidate learning. Ask which words are hard to spell and pronounce
Mark main stress on multi-syllabic words in red or bold to help with pronunciation eg equilateral, isosceles; carbohydrate, nutrition. Display till end of lesson or subject topic.
This is also an opportunity to compare STEM vocabulary in English and home languages.
• encourage students to record or draw and label new STEM vocabulary in a sense unit rather than alphabetical order e.g.
Primary – Plants (growth order) root, stem, leaves, flowers
Secondary – CO2 (process order) organic matter, fossil fuel formation, fossil fuels, combustion, CO2 in atmosphere
• provide sentence and question stems e.g.
New to English:
I can speak/ read / write about…. I know how to say / draw / do the…
What / Where / When / How can I say / do / make this… / these…?
3 + years of English:
The organiser / diagram presents … I think the description / explanation of …. is…
How / Why does the graph show …. What could we change to improve the…?
• help EALs to notice grammatical forms and their functions using gap fills e.g.
This… is more / less accurate than the… (comparing and contrasting)
If we change this…, it will make … (predicting)
What would / could happen if we made… What would have happened if we’d made… (hypothesising)
Our … wasn’t clear but we presented our… clearly. (evaluating)
• provide language frames to support independent speaking and writing.
Plan these with sentence stems and cohesive markers such as: then, next, later; because of, as a result of; so, therefore. EALs can then describe steps in a process, explain subject concepts etc. Frames also act as prompts for sharing ideas.
• show STEM video clips without sound and instead, provide simplified commentary at a pace to suit EALs.
• pause videos to check comprehension of STEM concepts to help EALs understand content more deeply. Afterwards, provide key parts of script with gap-fills to complete.
• support EALs to present information about a STEM topic related to their country e.g. ways they promote clean energy; new engineering projects; technological advances
Sharing information promotes intercultural awareness and helps EALs to feel their language is being noticed, valued and talked about. Praise and give feedback to students for progress they are making both in English and in developing subject-specific knowledge.
‘Differentiation planned for the cognitive and linguistic needs of EAL students will support all in the class. Differentiation for monolinguals will not adequately support needs of EAL students.’ (Bower, V. 2017)
More useful links
Reference
• Bower, V. (2017) Supporting Pupils with EAL in the Primary Classroom. London: Open University Press
Recommendations
• Leung, C and Creese, A. (eds.) (2010) English as an Additional Language: Approaches to teaching linguistic minority students. London: Sage
• Mehisto, P. and Ting, Y.L.T. (2017) CLIL Essentials for Secondary School Teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press