Raising achievement of more advanced EAL learners – grades d into c at GCSE

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Which particular mistakes are EAL learners likely to make?

Within text:

• Prepositions, verb agreements and endings.
• Idiomatic use of verbs such as 'do', ' make' , etc. (e.g. make a cake / a friend).
• Use of modal verbs, especially in science ( show hypothetical/ conditional meanings)

At whole text level:

• ·Lack of content ( e.g. rephrasing ideas, giving examples, adding relevant information )
• ·Failure to use paragraphing to organise content.
• ·Lack of sub content/development of ideas at more detailed level.
• ·Frequent difficulties using source materials to generate ideas.
• ·Little variety in sentence types.

How can teachers help EAL learners improve?

• Teach how to use and develop ideas from source materials ( identifying key ideas and vocabulary, changing genre and register.etc)
• Teach the difference between general and specific vocabulary – give details and examples. Successful writers can move between general and specific levels.
• Practise writing extended texts under timed conditions; analyse results with the student and suggest improvements, then redo the exercise. This is not the same as writing several short texts.
• Teach how to organise ideas into paragraphs, using graphic organisers – could be done in first language if necessary at this stage. Highlight the difference between the main and supplementary topics. Organise ideas into a logical sequence.
• Provide the opportunity to talk through ideas extensively before committing to paper.
• Explicitly teach aspects of grammar and give corrective feedback on specific errors; if there are many errors, focus on one or two aspects and target with all teachers for short time. Over generalisation of grammatical rules (e.g. I drinked) is common. Teach common irregular forms. Show how to increase complexity of writing by, for example, expanding phrases into clauses, writing longer noun phrases
  (e.g. I talked to the boy .... I talked briefly to the tall boy who lives in my street.)
• Teach how to expand vocabulary bank through use of a Thesaurus.
• Provide a bank of clauses that show a link between ideas
  (e.g. after listing the reasons.., in agreeing to this..,by joining in sport...)
• Provide a bank of signposting phrases, with examples of their use.
  (e.g. another point is…. some people think…. others disagree..)
• Give examples of the sort of writing required, highlighting successful aspects.

Last updated: 30 November 2009