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Innovations in

English language teaching

for migrants and refugees

Edited by David Mallows

InnovatIons sErIEs

Innovations in

English language teaching

for migrants and refugees

Edited by David Mallows

Contents |^1

Contents

Foreword ....................................................................................................................................................... 2

Introduction ................................................................................................................................................. 3

1 Writing bilingual stories: developing children’s literacy through home languages Justine Dakin ..................................................................................................................................... 11

2 Developing vocabulary in a multilingual classroom Latika Davis ....................................................................................................................................... 23

3 Valuing home languages Clare Wardman, Judith Bell and Emma Sharp .................................................................... 37

4 Teaching and learning in diverse school contexts: the journeys of three newly-arrived students Dimitrina Kaneva ............................................................................................................................. 49

5 In search of high level learner engagement: autobiographical approaches with children and adults Dina Mehmedbegović ................................................................................................................... 65

6 Curriculum innovations for students learning EAL in mainstream state secondary schools in England – a cross-curricular EAL pedagogy for teacher development Sara Green ........................................................................................................................................ 79

7 Creative ESOL: the power of participatory arts in language acquisition Eleanor Cocks and Theah Dix ................................................................................................... 93

8 Class blogging in ESOL Richard Gresswell and James Simpson .............................................................................. 105

9 Providing emotional support to ESOL and EAL students Thomas L Lloyd ............................................................................................................................. 117

10 The use of mobile technologies as a bridge to enhance learning for ESOL students Carol Savill-Smith, Rekha Chopra and Octavia Haure ................................................... 129

11 The personal made impersonal and the impersonal made personal: reading circles and language learning Sam Duncan .................................................................................................................................. 141

12 ESOL in the Hebrides and Island Voices – ‘Hey, hang on a minute, tha mise bilingual!’ Gordon Wells .................................................................................................................................. 153

13 Responsive teaching and learner centredness Sam Shepherd ............................................................................................................................... 165

14 A ‘social turn’ in ESOL? John Sutter ..................................................................................................................................... 177

2 |^ Foreword

Foreword

Melissa Cudmore

The British Council is very pleased to introduce the ‘Innovations in…’ series. This collection aims to bring to the reader a wealth of ideas and practices in English language teaching, and to stimulate new thinking and experimentation, by providing accounts of innovative experiences from a range of national and international contexts. The focus of this particular volume is on English language teaching for migrants and refugees.

The British Council has a long-standing record of international engagement with the field of English language teaching. We have recently started to extend our work to the UK, connecting with the ESOL (English for speakers of other languages) communities by launching our first ESOL-specific website, a substantial resource for the community: http://esol.britishcouncil.org

Increasingly, we organise events that bring together practitioners from not only the ESOL community, but also teachers from EAL (English as an additional language) and EFL (English as a foreign language) communities, many of whom share the same passions, beliefs and approaches, but have not always had the chance to meet, learn from each other and build networks.

By commissioning papers for this volume from diverse areas, we hope to stimulate further discussion, by highlighting the common ground, and providing a range of thought-provoking perspectives and insights. We hope too that the volume will encourage further collaboration and innovative thinking in the future, and contribute to the ongoing strengthening of the profession.

Melissa Cudmore Senior Adviser, English and Examinations, British Council

4 |^ Introduction

language users also makes it difficult to identify a ‘first’ language or a mother tongue. For this reason, all of the chapters in this volume refer to ‘home languages’ rather than mother tongue or first language.

Readers may expect to find more in the chapters that distinguishes the practice of EAL and ESOL teachers than that joins it. They work in different phases and sites of learning, have separate professional associations, and little reference is made in ESOL teacher education to EAL pedagogy or vice versa. However, in compiling this volume I have found the opposite to be true. The writers appear to be drawing on a similar body of knowledge, grounded in sophisticated language awareness, theories of second language acquisition and socio-cultural understanding. Whatever their professional formation and prior experiences, they are all language teachers working with often vulnerable and disadvantaged groups of learners.

This is an interesting moment to stop and reflect on the distinctiveness and the shared knowledge, skills and understanding of EAL and ESOL. There have been recent attempts at professionalisation of both the workforces, with differing strategies, levels of commitment and success, and there is increasing overlap in their institutional settings, particularly with the 14 –19 age group, which forms a distinct middle ground. It is within this age group that the barriers between EAL and ESOL most clearly break down, allowing us to consider more carefully what we actually mean by EAL and ESOL.

For those working in a school setting, EAL is seen as curriculum-facing. Its primary purpose is to aid the young person in accessing the mainstream school curriculum, not to help them learn English for its own sake. As a consequence EAL teachers are required to interact with mainstream teachers and, where possible, to influence their pedagogical approach, supporting them in creating a more accessible classroom environment.

For young people who have arrived in their early teens, and whose language skills require such development that they are unlikely to be able to meaningfully access the curriculum in time to complete examinations at 16, it is common to hear reference to ESOL rather than EAL. In this context ESOL is understood as curriculum-independent, focused on language learning rather than curriculum learning and usually takes place away from the rest of the student body in individual or small group withdrawal sessions.

ESOL as curriculum-independent and EAL as curriculum-facing is an interesting and useful distinction that we can also use to understand the adult sphere and its professional links to EAL. Mainstream adult ESOL classes in further education colleges and elsewhere are generally curriculum-independent with a primary focus on language development. However, many adult migrants and refugees are enrolled on courses leading to vocational qualifications in which vocational and language aims are integrated. In this type of course, generally known as embedded ESOL, the language teaching and learning is also curriculum-facing.

For both EAL and ESOL teachers in England the first decade of the 21st Century was a period of change with two major government initiatives, the National Strategies in schools and the Skills for Life strategy in post-compulsory education, having

Introduction |^5

a profound impact on teachers and learners. In the schools sector the National Strategies was a ‘ systematic attempt at a national level to drive improvements in standards through a focused programme of managing changes in the way that core subjects are taught in classrooms ’ (DfE 2012). Skills for Life was the national strategy for improving adult literacy, language and numeracy skills. It led to the introduction of the adult ESOL Core Curriculum, standardised national tests for learners and new teacher training qualifications. In engaging teachers in structured professional development and investing in a coherent learning infrastructure, the National Strategies and Skills for Life have loomed large in the working lives of teachers and their learners’ experiences in the classroom. Both policies were part of what has been described as the new public sector managerialism. With a focus on issues of economic efficiency and increasing productivity, they were characterised by massive centralised control and a consequent loss of autonomy for teachers.

Neither the National Strategies, nor Skills for Life, nor the New Labour government that introduced them is with us any more. The chapters in this collection suggest ways in which teachers of migrants and refugees are freeing themselves of the recent prescription and centralisation inherent in national education policy. The teachers in this volume question some of the assumptions that lay beneath the surface of the National Strategies, Skills for Life and other New Labour policy initiatives. The creative approaches of many of the authors of the chapters in this collection may be taken as evidence that the yoke is off and teachers are beginning to explore the new freedoms afforded them, with fascinating results. There is evidence of the development of more critical pedagogies, with questioning of the role of the teacher and learner and a desire to centre the learning on the experience, knowledge and needs of the individual. We hear directly from learners as they describe the place of language and language learning in their lives and there is reference to ‘ bringing the outside in ’ (Cooke and Roberts 2007), drawing on learners’ own experiences and lives outside the classroom to develop teaching and learning resources and strategies.

A few notes of clarification are needed to aid the reader unfamiliar with one or other context or indeed both. With net immigration into the UK of around 252,000 per year, there has been high demand for ESOL classes with participation rising throughout the period of the Skills for Life strategy.

ESOL provision in England is generally organised with reference to five different levels. These are shown below with their rough equivalence to Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) levels and to the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF).

■ ■ Entry level 1/ CEFR A1 / SCQF 2

■ ■ Entry level 2 / CEFR A1(A2) / SCQF 3

■ ■ Entry level 3 / CEFR A2 / SCQF 4

■ ■ Level 1 / CEFR B1 / SCQF 5

■ ■ Level 2 / CEFR B2(C1) / SCQF 6

In English schools children who speak languages other than English are increasing in number year-on-year. There are currently a million five- to 16-year olds in English

Introduction |^7

to generate an interest in words and provide a collaborative learning environment which encourages risk taking by EAL pupils.

Valuing home languages – Clare Wardman, Judith Bell and Emma Sharp Clare and collegues describe the journey taken by Judith and Emma, two monolingual class-teachers in north-west England, over 18 months as they complete a postgraduate-level accredited teacher training course and reflect on the changes it has brought to their classroom practices. In particular the chapter looks at what Judith and Emma implemented in the school as a result: a ‘language-buddies’ scheme and a ‘Pashto club’. They describe how this professional development activity has significantly raised the confidence of the EAL workforce through increasing understanding of second language acquisition and associated strategies for working in heritage languages alongside English.

Secondary

Teaching and learning in diverse school contexts: the journeys of three newly-arrived students – Dimitrina Kaneva In this chapter we meet Dalmar, Toni and Rafael, three recently arrived migrant children at an inner-city secondary school in the north-west of England catering for over 900 students aged 11 to 16. EAL pupils comprise nearly 80 per cent of the school population. Through a detailed account of their stories Dimitrina describes the multiple models of support used by the school to meet the needs and learning styles of students with EAL and discusses the impact of extreme diversity on the organisation of teaching and learning resources at the school.

In search of the highest level of learner engagement: autobiographical approaches with children and adults – Dina Mehmedbegović Dina describes her efforts, as a teacher new to working with migrant and refugee children, to develop an approach which could engage children at different levels of English proficiency, and with different levels of literacy skills in any of the languages they use. Although it is widely accepted that good teaching takes as its starting point that children and adults in any classroom are the most valuable resources, they are often overlooked and underutilised in teaching and learning processes. All too often curriculum and teaching appear disconnected and irrelevant to children’s lives. Dina explores the use of personal narratives with a Year 7 class in a secondary school and encourages others to look for ways which will enable them to exploit autobiographical approaches for the benefits of enhanced participation, achievement and intercultural competencies.

Curriculum innovations for students learning EAL in mainstream state secondary schools: a cross-curricular EAL pedagogy for teacher development – Sara Green Sara focuses on the professional development needs of teachers in secondary schools through an exploration of content-language integration, defined as teaching and learning subject content and English language at the same time. She describes content-language integration in practice through the development of a range of content-language integrated EAL courses and curriculum options and argues that

8 |^ Introduction

knowledge and expertise in addressing the distinctive content-language needs of EAL learners in the curriculum is essential for teachers working in ethno-linguistically diverse schools.

Creative ESOL: the power of participatory arts in language acquisition – Eleanor Cocks and Theah Dix Eleanor and Theah explore an innovative, creative approach to supporting newly- arrived young migrants and refugees with their English language development. ‘Creative ESOL’ is an arts and language programme which works with young people aged 11 to 16 to improve their English language skills through drama and the arts. ‘Creative ESOL’ draws on applied theatre practice encouraging participants to explore culture, emotion and imagination through drama activities. The teaching approach adopted is grounded in critical pedagogy, recognising that young people should become active agents in their own learning.

16 –19 further education

Class blogging in ESOL – Richard Gresswell and James Simpson Richard and James draw on specific examples of class blogging projects in 16 –19 ESOL provision in a further education college to explore, from practice and theoretical perspectives, the issues, challenges and opportunities, of introducing new digital media into the young adult ESOL classroom. They show how learners encountered, engaged with and used digital technology for productive learning experiences and how their use of digital media enabled them to overcome some of the literacy challenges they face.

Adult ESOL

Providing emotional support to ESOL and EAL students – Thomas L Lloyd Thomas explores the issues faced by teachers when their learners disclose a traumatic event from their past, or one which is still present in their life today. EAL and ESOL teachers often work with learners who have been through traumatic experiences prior to arriving in the UK. Thomas offers guidance on finding best practice in relation to these issues for both sectors of language teaching.

The use of mobile technologies as a bridge to enhance learning for ESOL students – Carol Savill-Smith, Rekha Chopra and Octavia Haure Through two case studies, three experienced ESOL practitioners address the use of new technologies, specifically mobile technologies, for learning by ESOL students. The ways the technologies were used for teaching and learning are described, with a particular focus on how they were introduced into the curriculum, the resources created by the teachers and how they were used by the learners. The authors demonstrate the innovative and useful role that mobile devices can play in helping people, whose first language is not English, to learn, understand and interact with the host community.

10 |^ Introduction

of the Wolf review (DfE 2011), may open the way for ESOL teachers to be employed directly by schools, making it increasingly important and indeed productive for professionals in EAL and ESOL to work more closely together.

By presenting EAL and ESOL as English language teaching for migrants and refugees the common ground between the two becomes increasingly apparent. Many teachers work, or have worked, in both EAL and ESOL, with the 16–19 group of learners being a distinct middle ground. Recent experiences of professionalisation of both the ESOL and EAL workforces make this a particularly interesting time to stop and reflect on the distinctiveness and the shared knowledge, skills and understanding of the two professions.

I hope you agree that the chapters in this volume, as well as being thought-provoking and enjoyable, demonstrate that there is great potential for more formalised and structured collaboration between EAL and ESOL practitioners.

David Mallows November 2012

References

Cooke, M and Roberts, C (2007) ESOL. Developing adult teaching and learning: practitioner guides. NRDC/NIACE: Leicester.

Department for Education (DfE) (2012) The National Strategies 1997–2011 A brief summary of the impact and effectiveness of the National Strategies. DfE: London.

Department for Education (2011) Review of Vocational Education – The Wolf Report. DfE: London.

Introduction |^11

Writing bilingual

stories: developing

children’s literacy

through home

languages

14 |^ Writing bilingual stories

the mainstream classroom it added enormously to the children’s personal sense of inclusion and identity. Combining skills in their home languages and English gave value and status to their other languages in ways that traditional classroom pedagogies do not. As well as boosting the children’s self-confidence, it provided them with opportunities to be independent learners. It also built on prior knowledge, setting high expectations for pupils at very different stages of acquiring English, and, rather than focusing on what each child could not do, uncovered personal strengths. Above all, it valued the children as individuals.

The pupils

A group of pupils in Years 4, 5 and 6 (aged 8–10 years old) were invited to write stories in their home languages and English to create additional bilingual books for the library. The children and I met in the school library for an hour each week during the spring term. Using the limited resources at our disposal, we constructed a working space that used a newly carpeted area with round spongy cushions, two circular tables surrounded by coloured chairs, a single computer and the hundreds of books arranged on shelves around us. The room became a working space and a haven, not merely for sharing resources, but for experimenting with new ideas, new skills and new identities. Over ten weeks the children made a variety of different books that reflected their personal skills and strengths.

Rabeena (Year 5), who was highly literate in Tamil, and Estela (Year 4), who spoke Bosnian at home and was just learning to read and write it at a community school, collaborated on a project together. Having produced an English version of The Wolf and the Seven Kids , a traditional story familiar to both of them, they translated it into their respective home languages and created a tri-lingual book.

Aliya (Year 5) adapted the traditional English tale of Little Red Riding Hood and set it in her homeland of Tanzania. She called the main character Red Dress and transformed the wolf into Wild Dog. Written in Swahili and English, Red Dress reflected Aliya’s African roots and her British identity.

Baahir (Year 6) chose to re-tell a school assembly story with a strong anti-bullying message. He did so in Norwegian, his second language, and then translated it into English, his third language, Ethiopian, was reserved for family interactions at home.

Gabrielle (Year 6), a gifted and talented pupil, surprised me when she declined the opportunity to compose her own narrative or to re-tell a familiar story. Instead she opted to translate her favourite French story, Ma Vie de Sorcière , into English. Although this activity was different from the original aim of creating a text in her home language and English, it suited Gabrielle’s individuality. It provided her with a considerable intellectual challenge, which is what she thrived on in class, and continued to develop her literacy skills in French and English.

Polish speaking Casmir (Year 5) struggled to compose a coherent story in English or his home language possibly because of limited exposure to this type of genre. After trying a variety of scaffolds, I suggested he might like to design a photographic information book instead. This use of visual media led to the creation of a school

Writing bilingual stories |^15

guide for new Polish parents and children, explaining the physical geography of the site and some of the school routines. Armed with my digital camera, he took full responsibility for photographing different areas of the school at different times. At home, he catalogued the photographs into groups and wrote captions in Polish. His mum provided him with her Polish/English dictionary which he brought into school to use. With the help of a multi-lingual assistant he extended both his written Polish and English. Here is an example from his text:

And now – attention please – the best class in the school: YEAR 5! (my class  ). In Year 5 we have got Peeper – the gerbil. We also have got the class library with many interesting books.

A teraz prosze o uwage – najlepsza klasa w szkole- klasa 5 (moja klasa  ). W naszej Sali mamy chomika – Peepera. Mamy rowniez klasowa biblioteczke z wieloma interesujacymi ksiazkami.

Estela summarised the whole experience as ‘fun’, not a word that is necessarily bandied around by children when they are asked to write a story or an information text during literacy lessons, but it captured the sheer enthusiasm with which the children approached the task. It also gave them opportunities to express themselves in ways that are not possible during daily classroom interactions where attainment targets dictate the pace and delivery of the curriculum and discourses are generally controlled by teachers rather than students.

In terms of their English acquisition, Estela, Rabeena and Aliya had attended the school for several years and were advanced bilingual learners whose grasp of English language equalled that of their English-speaking peers in most situations. Casmir, Gabrielle and Baahir, on the other hand, had only begun learning English over the previous 12 months. Some of the children were literate in other languages from previous schooling abroad; some were learning new skills at weekend community schools, or from parents. Overall, the children’s language and literacy profiles differed enormously.

To assess the impact of the project I asked the children to complete a simple questionnaire at the end, commenting on different aspects of the work and rating it with a mark out of ten. The following discussion draws on the notes I made during the ten-week project, plus the children’s reflections.

Multiple identities shared

A close camaraderie developed between the students and was an important aspect of the project. Through working together each week, the children gained the confidence to reveal their identities as speakers of other languages in ways that do not often occur in mainstream classrooms. Initially the students were tentative about sharing details of their home languages. They sat on the spongy library cushions and expressed a range of emotions from shyness to dismissiveness, suggesting that speaking their home languages amongst people who wouldn’t understand was a waste of time. However, their attitudes quickly changed. Having the opportunity to hear, exchange and potentially ‘learn another language’ became, as Estela described

Writing bilingual stories |^17

the children’s awareness of translation as a skill. Rabeena wrote, ‘I’ve learned ... I can translate’, while Gabrielle reflected that if she were to ‘train how to translate better’ her work would be improved. Translation, along with a critical use of first language, is a skill that schools rarely have time to encourage and which is often only called upon as a bridge into English, the dominant discourse. Through the bilingual books project children were able to view translation and interpretation as a specialised tool for learning and communication that every one of them had access to, thus positively reinforcing their identities as bilingual or multilingual individuals.

Casmir had the following advice for anyone considering making a bilingual book:

I would say is easy when you gonna try your best. They would learn about how to make the book. You can do it in calm because if you rushed everything is gonna be not good.

His advice is insightful and reveals some of the impact the project had on him as an individual learner.

Of all the children involved in the project, Casmir was the pupil who surprised me the most. From being a quiet, unobtrusive, slightly distracted student working well below age-related expectations in English literacy, he transformed into an engaged, enthusiastic, talkative and focused child from the moment I discussed the project with him. He welcomed the opportunity to work ‘calmly’ and, along with the other children, appreciated the value of drafting and re-drafting his information text and reorganising the photographs until each element was ready to be presented in book form. Casmir wanted to try his ‘best’ and the project gave him the chance to reveal a different identity – one as a literate Polish bilingual speaker. He projected humour in his work (‘And now – attention please – the best class in the school: YEAR 5! [my class ]’) and revealed a growing maturity that was reflected in his appreciation of the need to work carefully to produce the best results. First to complete his book, he used his experience to encourage his peers with practical advice and even began to plan another book as a follow up.

The ethos of the project meant that every child’s home language was considered of equal value and importance. This positive environment encouraged the children to reveal many different talents. Firstly, they learned how to construct a book – from the germ of an idea through a process of writing, translating, illustrating and editing – to making decisions on graphic choices and text content for the title and end pages. Secondly, providing them with brightly coloured folders containing notepads, pens, pencils and sticky notes to keep their manuscripts in, gave the books a status that immediately instilled each pupil with a sense of responsibility for his or her work.

The project also provided the children with opportunities to act and think independently that might not always be available to them in a mainstream classroom setting. Pressure to complete work quickly can often disadvantage pupils learning English as an additional language (EAL) as the curriculum leaps from one topic to the next with little time for consolidation. To paraphrase Casmir, when work is rushed you often fail to produce your best. Finally, the children negotiated help from their parents, siblings or family at home, as well as arranging to meet up with me for

18 |^ Writing bilingual stories

additional sessions. They were active in driving the project forward and taking full ownership of their own, unique pieces of work.

While I acknowledge that the children worked outside their classrooms for this project, I believe that the bilingual literacy model we developed can be adapted to mainstream lessons. The genuine surprise and delight that the children’s English-speaking peers showed at the sight of the completed books could lead on to valuable and integrated learning about language, literacy and identity for all children. Cummins (2001) argues that when pupils’ language and culture are incorporated into the school curriculum, they are more likely to receive an inclusive and transformative education that advocates for them, rather than against them. Who we are as individuals is too complex to be shared in a day or even a week of multicultural activities. Including children’s home languages in lessons would give ‘language’, as opposed to ‘languages’ a higher profile. It would offset the status given to the teaching of a modern (often European) language to children at Key Stage 2 (7–11 years old), in favour of recognising the importance of all language. Not only is language a means of communication, it defines who and what we are, how we interact, think and behave. If schools can integrate ‘language’ learning into their cultures, students will benefit by developing a more critical and analytical approach to literature and its inherent messages.

Collaborative learning and community links

Collaborative learning is important for the acquisition of any additional language and became a significant strategy during the project. Baahir reflected on the process by saying, ‘I was pleased because when we were talking together, we gave each other ideas’. As part of the evaluation, I asked the children to grade the experience with marks out of ten. Aliya graded the experience ten out of ten because ‘I had a lot of help from different people, especially my group’. Along with my help, as the teacher organising the project, the children received support from school and home. At school Casmir was helped by a multi-lingual assistant who came in each week to support Polish speaking pupils. Other pupils like Aliya, sought advice from peers who spoke the same home languages and used their skills alongside translation tools on the computer to edit and refine the stories. Parents and family members also became involved at home. Casmir explained, ‘(A) translator helped me with Polish. And Mum. My mum helped me whole day in computer – writing and choosing pictures.’ Gabrielle’s older sister also worked alongside her as she translated Chapter One of her favourite French story, Ma Vie de Sorcière , into English while Aliya’s aunt proof read Red Dress and offered lexical alternatives in Swahili.

The collaborative nature of the interaction between the children, their parents and staff encouraged the development of meta-language. For example, I heard Rabeena and Estela discussing alternatives to the word ‘terrified’ as they sat at the computer together and constructed their English version of The Wolf and the Seven Kids. I reflected on how focused and mature they were, negotiating language meaning and form within their joint text. This type of discourse would rarely be heard in mainstream classrooms where the writing of stories is often a solitary and silent endeavour. As a group we also ‘noticed’ similarities between our respective languages. For example