Early years and EAL

Familiarise yourself with the English as an additional language (EAL) guidance (September 2024).

This contains:

checklists for new arrivals
information on what topics to discuss in the welcome meeting
advice on EAL proficiency assessments
information on attendance, safeguarding and the ‘silent’ period
strategies for the classroom
how to access support, including the bilingual support programme for new arrivals.

Training opportunities

We offer a range of workshops, including Supporting EAL children in the Early Years.

To book your place, visit the Devon Education Services website and search for EAL.

We can also provide bespoke training for settings covering topics such as:

bilingualism
induction and supporting new arrivals
teaching and learning vocabulary
multilingual storytelling
EAL assessment

New arrivals

Please see our page about new arrivals for more information, including using EAL proficiency assessment resource and advice on how to manage the silent period.

For further advice, please contact Lead advisory teacher, Kat Tasinkiewicz, Kat.Tasinkiewicz@devon.gov.uk.

Making your setting EAL friendly

To make your setting as friendly as possible you should try to:

encourage parents’ active participation in the setting, for example, using bilingual skills for storytelling and making dual language labels – link with parents and community groups to inform your planning and help you provide a global curriculum
raise all children’s and parents’ or carers’ language awareness, for example, a welcome sign in many languages, signs and labels around the setting in many languages, dual language books for free choice and to share at home, dual language storytelling songs or rhymes in a variety of languages especially counting songs and counting rhymes
use multicultural cooking utensils and dressing up clothes, multicultural food, cutlery and crockery in the roleplay area and encourage children to experience food from a range of cultural traditions at snack times and during cooking sessions – see the Eduzone website for ideas
provide opportunities for children to listen to music and play musical instruments from around the world
supply resources in the imaginative play area that explore a range of different cultures – use books and posters of families from a range of backgrounds, portraying festivals, decorative cloths, a variety of scripts and number systems
ensure dolls and puppets have accurate and realistic skin tones, facial features and hair textures. Supplement nursery rhymes and songs with visuals – see the Eduzone website for ideas
teach the whole class songs or rhymes in other languages – EAL children need to know that you value their home language and the monolingual children in your group can only benefit from this
read our guide to vocabulary teaching strategies
read the early childhood education in English for speakers of other languages report

Download our ‘Reflect on your practice and provision’ resource and our One-minute guide on understanding equality, diversity and inclusion in early years and childcare to help you understand your settings provision for EAL.

Assessment

The early years foundation stage (EYFS) is an excellent tool for assessing children in early years including those who have English as an additional language. It can be difficult to assess accurately with bilingual children unless it is done using the child’s home language.

One way to assess language development could be to work alongside an interpreter and the parent to complete an assessment using I CAN’s Talking Point.

We recommend that you use the early years EAL proficiency assessment alongside the EYFS in order to track language learning progress and set appropriate language learning targets for children.

EAL and SEN

If early years practitioners are concerned that a child is not speaking English they should use the EAL assessment. Some children go through a silent period so they will need time to acquire their additional language.

If a child is showing challenging or concerning behaviour or an inability to express themselves or make friends or no progress in EAL, please see our EAL and SEN website for further guidance.

The benefits of a bilingual brain

What are the advantages of having a bilingual (or multilingual) brain? This TED Ed video details the three types of bilingual brains and shows how knowing more than one language keeps your brain healthy, complex and actively engaged.