Quality first teaching for bilingual children in the early years

Children in early years learn and develop at a faster rate than at any other time in their lives. It’s the time their brains are growing and developing billions of new connections so high-quality provision is critical for good outcomes.

Learning an additional language is not a step-by-step process. Structures that a child had encountered and subsequently used one day might be misused and misunderstood in a different context or on subsequent days. 

Research shows that it takes a newly arrived child with no previous knowledge of English around two years to become fluent in social English, but a minimum of five to seven years to become fluent in academic English. During this period, fluency in social language can be mistaken for fluency in academic language and therefore a child’s needs can be overlooked.

Although it is advisable not to pressurise newly arrived children with EAL to talk if they are not ready yet, it is crucial to ensure that the listening is active- that children make sense of what they are hearing and are given plenty of opportunities to participate in activities.

Children with EAL already have one or more languages to build on! They already understand the nature of language and its complexity so how can we support them to develop additional language/s in the early stages effectively?

Listening, understanding and speaking

All children learn to speak by listening to the sounds produced by other people. You should provide interactions that encourage and extend children’s ideas, thinking, communication and language development. Children with EAL need to develop their listening skills before they can learn to speak English.

• Learning a second language can be tiring. You can create a peaceful space/room where children with EAL can sometimes go and ‘switch off’
• Children with EAL will need to be exposed to a variety of rhyming texts in English which will help them to become more familiar with how English works
• Involve children with EAL in games where they can practice taking turns and responding to other children
• Playing games for instance snap, picture cards or Simon Says will help their concentration skills
• Cut down the language during the initial phase to support children’s understanding
• Speak slowly and make sure you encourage children to use their home language
• Use visuals, non-verbal cues and signals to help convey meaning
• Place various objects around the room for the children to discover and wonder about
• Use parallel talk and model the correct language
• Give children extra time to think and respond to your questions
• Use board games to practise vocabulary, social language and concentration skills
• You can make your own games to focus on particular vocabulary and language
• Find activities that your EAL children are comfortable doing and apply it to your planning

Reading and Writing

• Encourage parents to come in and share a story in their home language
• Use story sacks and puppets and ask parents for stories in their home language
• Look for opportunities to use the same word in different context
• Share dual language books with children
• Display different types of scripts
• Model sentence starters and encourage children to complete the sentence
• Support key vocabulary using visuals
• Model appropriate language
• Teach language comprehension alongside phonics
• Use real objects and pictures during phonics session to support their understanding
• Use wordless picture books- they are great for introducing new vocabulary and they are a great way to expand children’s imagination
• Repeat key vocabulary and phrases
• You can set up a multilingual/multicultural space and display books, scripts and rhymes from around the world
• Remember to encourage your EAL children to write in their home language!

Working with parents

All EAL families are as unique as all the individual children in your setting and have a wide range of experiences, skills and knowledge. It’s vital to enable all parents to become part of your setting as well as part of your community.

Through working with EAL parents, you can establish effective ways to support children’s progress at home and in the setting by sharing the knowledge you both have about their child.

It is crucial that you work closely with parents to ensure that their children’s home language is maintained and developed.

Parents are the best resource you have! You can invite them to visit your setting and read a story, sing, or deliver a language session with children in their home language.

Break time

Break time can be one of the most important parts of a child’s day. Children who move to another culture might have different experiences of play. It is therefore crucial to ensure they feel included and take active part. So how can we support them during their break time?

• Create an outdoor space where less confident children can use to play with their peers
• Encourage children to take part in a variety of outdoor activities. This can help them to develop their social language as well as vocabulary
• Monitor break times to ensure they are not isolated
• Water play and sand play are great resources for vocabulary building and language development
• Outdoor games are fantastic for children learning EAL-you can ask parents which play games are traditional in their culture
• Label items/objects outside to support vocabulary learning
• Craft activities are also useful as they provide context EAL children need to process and remember their new language and newly learned vocabulary
• Try to pair children up with a naturally caring and friendly child/children