English as an additional language funding.

[HystericalMe]

I am wondering what extra info ppl may have on this subject:
At some London schools the council funds lessons in other(ethnic minority) languages such as Bengali and Arabic.

The school does not have English as a Foreign Language or English as an Additional Language lessons as many EAL pupils access English ?as an additional language? rather than as a foreign one. Most of the school pupils are from an ethnic minority group. 50% of the students have English as an additional language.

I think what schools need is for our EAL pupils to be immersed in the English language. There are many students who go home and speak a foreign language, and do not even watch TV in English.

Does this policy of the council funding make economic sense, of providing money for teaching other languages/mother tongues when the school is struggling to teach the pupils English, and yet no English as an Additional Language class is provided.

Teaching Assistants and the Inclusion Team support the subject departments, and the English department tries to prepare classes for their upcoming exams such as GCSEs.

I would have thought that a holistic learning environment therefore would support their EAL pupils in providing English lessons for beginners, 2nd stage learners and 3rd stage learners.

Doesn?t it make good sense, to stop funding other language classes, and allow more focus on English literacy skills?

Does anyone know why we spend council money on things like, for example, Bengali language classes but schools think teaching EAL pupils within the English lesson is sufficient English teaching and don't provide English as an Additional language class?

LEAs do not fund such things, schools give a top slice of money to the LEA every year to fund many areas, EAL included. How the money is spent is agreed upon by schools and LEAs.

Children who are FULLY bilingual have greater cognitive ability and do better in all academic areas than their peers research shows.

Children with an "easy A" in their home language garner valuable points for University/ College applications.

Children who are taking additional language classes are also being immersed in english through the rest of the curriculum as they are attending regular classes. Most models of practice have children opting out of French or German on their timetable to study home language and EAL. Most home language teaching models also have rigorous EAL classes alongside. Most home language study is self study.

Proper scaffolding of English alongside home language use has proven to be the best model of practise in terms of results.