EAL

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I'm a teaching assistant, supporting a teacher who has recently taken over EAL responsibilities in the school. We were going through the file yesterday and there were children on the list who had their home language listed as english

Sorry posted too soon
Has their home language listed as.English however they were of minority ethnic origins. We don't see how this could be right, these children do not speak English as an.additional languahe

Sorry again!
English is their first language! However other staff have told us that children with descendants differing to white.British should be on the list, this just does not feel right to me!
Anyone know if this is correct?

We have children who have English as their home language but are being put down as EAL due to their ethnicity. According to other staff these children are EAL as relatives speak a language other than.English

I've spoken to these parents and they have said their home.language is ebglish

So sorry something is going.wrong with my phone.
These parents haven't requested this

I used to be the EAL co-ordinator for a large inner city comp and we had this a lot. In our school most children fit who listed English as their home language despite staff believing otherwise fit in one of these three options -

1. they really did speak mainly English at home because that was what they and their siblings and friends used most of the time once they started school. This was particularly apparent when one parent (usually the primary care giver) didn't speak any English - the children would interpret. They only spoke their mother tongue with quite literally, their mothers.
2. The families perceived it to be a way to fit in.
3. The parents didn't understand the forms.

So times, especially at primary school, children who are British born and bread arrive with very little English (see 1.) - now, do we class those children as EAL? (I did) Do we expect them to show the same barriers as other EAL children? (depends on each child, some "catch up" quickly, others not so much). It's a minefield to negotiate... Good luck.

Obviously, option 4 is that they aren't EAL at all and someone is making that judgement based on their ethnicity. When I said teachers believed otherwise it was more that they recognised pattterns of speech and language idiosyncrasies than anything. Could it be that?

Thank you very much for your wise words. The children I mentioned parents do indeed speak English and only English to them, this is what is so frustrating! I honestly think teachers have put these names on the list without even looking at forms! There is one child in particular who goes to Arabic.school to learn Arabic as his first language is English, yet he is on the list, it makes no sense.to us at all! A big re think is definitely in.order! Glad to.hear.it.is not.normal for children to just be listed fo. Ethnicity
Again apologies for my awful typing, phone definitely needs.replacing!

And remember that just because a child speaks English as their first language, it doesn't mean they speak it well. For example my school has a family where Mum is from Somali and Dad from Senegal. They don't speak a common language so speak English to their kids at home. Neither speak English very well. So the kids speak English as a first language, but learnt from non-fluent speakers. Socially they sound fluent but actually have huge gaps in vocabulary and understanding, and we still include them in EAL support criteria. You really need to know the circumstances of each different family, and support individual
children as needed. It's tricky!

I agree with fourcornered, that's been my experience of why some families of EAL put English on their forms. It is tricky and needs to be handles with sensitivity rather than disbelief. Good Luck!

Sometimes parents don't admit it on the form as they feel that their child will be treated differently.

I have had 'white British' children in my class who are British but black, with a Caribbean background. We have a problem in my school with under performing black children, but I was not allowed to include these particular children in my data, as they identified themselves as 'white British'.

Hopefully, in your school, somebody has used their common sense to identify certain children who would actually benefit from EAL support. As a PP said, these children are quite easily identifiable by the certain grammar mistakes they make. If they able to access support and closer monitoring- surely that's a good thing.

padkin makes an excellent point about the quality of English children are exposed to... Of course that opens a can of worms for a great many families... EAL or otherwise!

Maybe this works both ways too - I certainly feel my teenage foster son speaks a different language to me at times!

I was going to suggest creoles/Patois/international English.

There are debates about what constitutes a language, a dialect or a creole/pigin.

One of my friends is an immigrant from Jamaica, she came to the UK as a small child, her parents spoke patois but when they moved to the UK decided to only speak 'standard' English to their children.

If someone is speaking a different form of English at home are they EAL? Is a difference between, "he dead" and "he is dead" a poor grasp of English or a grasp of a form of English that is non standard in the UK?

If the former then you have my friend's parents who were ashamed of speaking patois, if the latter then it is an example of diversity and the child learns to use both in the appropriate place.

And it doesn't have to be non standard English from outside the UK, I was taught standard English as something used in the classroom, Yorkshire dialect was used in the playground

I just think there was a huge misunderstanding with the last teacher who took this.on, as far as we.can tell, the.parents.of.most of these children haven't put.anything.on forms.about speaking.other languages.and unfortunately they have been.placed on the list wrongly as they are a.different.Ethnicity! One.example is a.mother who only.speaks.English, no.other language, therefore.her.children.do.not.eithe,. However.because they are.black they have been.placed.on the List.
There is a white.British child on

There is a white.British child.with white British parents, placed on.the list.because she had descendents from Italy! I'm shocked at how.poorly this has been.run.in my school, and am.glad.it will not.be.my.responsibility to sort.it.out. I.have passed everybody's advice.and.information.on.to.the teacher concerned and she.is.very grateful, unfortunately she is awful with.computers which is.why, despite my awful typing.on this.awful phone I've.done this.as.opposes to.her

Assessing a child's linguistic background is a very difficult task when many languages/cultures/levels of education are at play. Don't be too judgemental of your colleagues or predecessors.