Observation of Two Eal Classes

Description of the Interesting Features Observed

In the year 1 class, there are 27 young students of mixed ability. Of the 27, only two have some proportions of EAL. The layout of the class is a continuous provision with a small writing area, reading corner, iPads, world role play and an independent area. The class appears very unsettled with the children speaking uncontrollably. The students appear much disengaged and seem to have a problem with following the instructions and requests of the teacher. Noticeably, there was a lot of little physical movement during the lesson and the differentiation of interactions. The year 4 class is more settled when compared to the year 1 class. The participants in the class are young adults. There are 23 students in this class. Of the twenty-three, five of them have EAL. For the year 4 class, throughout the observed portion of the lesson, all of the students appear engaged and follow the teacher’s instructions and requests. Tables are put together and on each table, there are six students. There is also an interactive whiteboard used by the teacher and which has visual aids and books and paintings.

Children from Year 1 seem to perform better when directly involved with a particular task (e.g. storytelling and activity games). Children from Year 4 appear to perform in a better way if exposed to a visual stimulus (e.g. video watching about social media and breaking news). Aspect is interesting to analyse as the same teaching strategies and methods may impact differently on different groups of learners (for instance, according to their age or gender). The system of education has been changing in the past decades, shifting from the merely acquired literacy skills (e.g. reading, writing and calculating) to a more complex system which aims at teaching problem solving and how to think independently (Bransford et al. 2000).

Even though EAL students share many common characteristics with pupils with English as their first language, they have different and distinct needs from the others in that they are usually learning in and through an additional language. Additionally, they also come from diverse communities and cultural backgrounds and expectations of learning, language and education.

It is evident that there exists some variance in the level of exposure of the learners to the English language, which is in line with other previous observations (Coles, 2016). The age at which each sensitive period occurs varies from one child to another. Teachers must be acutely aware of when the right time is to introduce concepts to each individual child (ibid.). The language backgrounds of the students include Romanian and Arabic. There are several children who receive interventions for numeracy and literacy. Those students with EAL are not a homogenous group and as such makers of educational policies and teachers need to be aware of the range of variables in relation to both individual groups and learners.

Analysis of Teaching Methodologies

Students were observed by myself while being exposed to the external environment (either by taking part actively to situations or by watching the news about events happening in other countries). In the year 4 class, the teacher uses a video to explain different things like government guidelines. Teachers effectively play the role of ensuring that the new modes of understanding are introduced at the right points and only after there has been sufficient practice with the earlier cognitive tools (Egan, 1997). The amount of Teacher Talk is high; however, it is all geared toward moving the learners through the lesson stages to enable them to do different calculations (Galante, 2015). However, from time to time, the teacher involves her students by asking them questions. The teacher's talk consists of main instructions. The talk in the video mainly consists of modelling and elicitation. The students appear to be very comfortable with the approach used because they are observed to carefully follow the video.

EAL teaching involves developing teaching strategies that are specific and resources with the aim of making the language of the curriculum accessible, for example through increased use of visuals, modelling and scaffolding while concurrently keeping the cognitive interest and challenge level high. Visuals provide access and context for learners of EAL who have a deep needing for making sense of information that is rather new and languages that are new too so as to learn. This enables the language demands of an activity to be reduced without necessarily having to reduce the cognitive demand (Cortazzi and Jin, 2007). Visuals are also important in the demonstration of the thought processes of learners and are capable of providing a record which can always be revisited and as such helping learners in clarifying their thinking.

In the year 1 class, there seems to be a general appreciation for the different learning preferences (Reid 1995) and personalities that may exist within the classroom. The teacher actually appears to know each and every student's name. Planning sheets and iPads are used. Younger children (year 1) tend to be more active, therefore retaining more information in their brain. Older children (year 4) were found to be shyer and to remember more by visualising rather than doing something hands on. The teacher used the Montessori Method which is an approach to learning which emphasizes active learning, independence, cooperation, and learning in harmony with each child’s unique pace of development (Montessori, 1936).

Evaluation

In both the year 1 and year 4 classes, the lessons are quite teacher focused as they act as the model for their students. In the year 4 class, the students are well behaved and interact with one another. They are observed to always be on task and work well with other children. The children are also confident speakers. They are also very confident in asking and answering questions. They give opinions and make comments.

The year 1 class is livelier when compared to the year 4 class. The teacher constantly uses reminders, praises is fast-paced, lively and organised. Story-telling in young children allow enhancement of imagination and identification of what is real or fictitious. There is enough evidence that teacher-student interaction is of paramount importance. Research suggests that learners have very strong beliefs about the role of the teacher, usually based on previous learning experiences, as the leader and facilitator, which could account for the learners’ apparent engagement during the lesson (Alford, 2018). You are packing a lot of interesting ideas into these next 3 sentences (teacher persona/role, control/freedom, and variety of learning strategies) and it might be better to be more selective, to enable depth/detail of discussion/referencing, rather than a more generalised coverage.

The teacher makes use of the PPP method (Present, Practice, Produce) throughout the majority of the lesson in the year 4 class. Visual stimuli (e.g. video or TV programme watching) should ideally be followed by an active discussion including opinion exchange among students and the teacher. Without this intervention, children have shown little benefit in terms of critical thinking.

Summary of Personal Learning Experiences

Henceforth, my goal will be to get to know my students individually, so that I can tailor activities that appropriately suit different students. The need to support and develop the competence of EAL learners is one of the most important aspects of effective teaching. There exists a general agreement among linguists that all people have an innate ability to learn new languages. This implies that, that knowledge that it is possible to transfer that knowledge that is developed in the first language into the second and also third languages. Paying close attention to those links that exist between academic and cognitive development, and language acquisition is another important aspect of EAL teaching.

However, the challenge, of course, is that every learner is different in terms of their characteristics, personality, motivation, aptitude, learning preferences and cultural background.

By making the imaginative leap into the leap of a linguistic stranger, teachers can start to envisage some of the difficulties one new to a language might come across (Afitska and Clegg, 2016).

Some of the key features of EAL pedagogy that I will seek to incorporate more in the future are;

• Making the verbal curriculum more visual.
• Increasing the concreteness of the abstract curriculum.
• Developing collaborative and interactive teaching.
• Identifying the curriculums language demands both written and oral.
• Applying role play and drama to demonstrate how in real life language is used with a specific focus on communication.

I will also try to be aware of students’ limitations and difficulties, trying to address them by making some individual adjustments for them to catch up with their pairs. Improve my knowledge, competencies and experience to introduce more techniques and methods to be able to catch more my students’ attention.

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References

• Afitska, O. and Clegg, J., 2016, ‘4 supporting teachers in EAL classrooms: working towards the centralised provision of subject-specific, EAL-tailored resources for primary classrooms,’ The European Journal of Applied Linguistics and TEFL, 5(1), pp.95-109.
• Alford, J.H., 2018, Critical literacy with EAL learners: Making the most of learners' diverse languages. In Teaching Literacies: Pedagogies and Diversity [2nd. Ed.] (pp. 315-338). Oxford University Press.
• Bransford, J. et al., 2000, How People Learn. Brain, Mind, Experience, and School. Washington DC: National Academy Press.
• Coles, R.A., 2016, Children Learning in a Second Language. A study of the relationship between cognitive abilities and additive bilingualism and the importance of maintaining first language and culture in a mainstream school (Master's thesis).
• Cortazzi, M. and Jin, L., 2007, ‘Narrative learning, EAL and metacognitive development,’ Early Child Development and Care, 177(6-7), pp.645-660.
• Egan, K., 1997, The Educated Mind: How Cognitive Tools shape our understanding. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• Galante, A., 2015, ‘Developing EAL learners’ intercultural sensitivity through a digital literacy project,’ TESL Canada Journal, 32(1), p.53.
• Montessori, M., 1936, The secret of childhood. B. B. Carter (Ed.). Calcutta: Orient Longmans.