EAL - help!

[Lancrelady80]

Hi guys, after some ideas please. I work in a whole KS2 class, splitting off Y3/4 in the morning. We've had a Y6 child arrive fresh from Portugal with not a word of English and zero support from anywhere. The other class teacher is relying heavily on Google Translate (although apparently that is Brazilian Portuguese so not quite the same) and is basically stumped. County have been as useless as always and basically said "use Google Translate" but he needs more than that. Poor kid sits there apparently bored stiff most of the day. Noone in the area who speaks the language, parents have zero English to be able to help. We've printed off some Twinkl word mats (yay, Twinkl!) but he needs help learning English. Interestingly, he can read out writing in English but has no understanding unless run through (again) Google Translate.

Anyone got any brilliant ideas or experiences for interventions/resources we could tap?

First job, labels on everything. Pick a buddy child to repeatedly say those things when handing them over, or using them. As well as you, obv.

racingtoenglish.com/

Buy the first lot for 7 quid, or whatever it is. Do you have a TA?

I've got 11 EAL kids in my class of 23. 75% EAL in my school. We do Racing to English with different groups all day every day. A Turkish boy who arrived last Christmas with very little English, had the second main part in the play by March.

When they've got a few words going, and can say some stuff and read some red, yellow and blue levelled books, get them going on writing using Colourful Semantics for structure of sentence.

Expect them to possibly not to speak to you at all for 3 months by the way. They'll use some words with the other kids, but for some reason they say nothing to adults until they can do it properly. Fully formed, grammatically correct sentences appear from apparently nowhere.

Racing to English...will look into that. I double as Y3/4 teacher in morning and TA for all KS2 in pm, so other teacher has no help in morning. I am currently running interventions in the afternoon too, so not in class.

He has got a buddy who is very good with him, and he joins in with football at break with others happily enough. You're quite right, not a word spoken to any adult yet.

So more labels, look into Racing to English , then Colourful Semantics. Thank you!

Last time I had an EAL child with no English was a good 15 years ago and he was in Y1. He picked up a lot quickly as we did phonics and just standard KS1 things. But he also had regular weekly support from County, plus we got a load of word cards/phrases and books provided (dual language.) But those stayed at that school.

Am just really surprised so little support is on offer for this child.

I am watching with interest as I am doing School Direct this year and have a very similar child in my SEN/EAL small group, down to being Y4. The school has a lot of new EAL children, but quite a transient population so I feel like I am pretty much being left to get on with it. I have already being told off for being too proactive but want to do my best for this child. I am also surprised by the lack of support and relying heavily on Google translate!

Look up the Milton Keynes Ethic minority achievement support service. They have a good booklet with some tips for this.
Essex county council also have dual language booklets which are really good.
I don't work in either of those places

Those look great, thank you @MrsHamlet!

No problem. One of our TAs used to be county advisor for EAL (still not in those places) and would put us right if we needed it!
Her bottom line was scaffolding everything and knowing that they'd be able to comprehend English long before they could produce it. My last EAL student was Bulgarian and I let her write words in Bulgarian if she didn't know the English - we'd get a mishmash of an answer but it was an answer, and they got fewer and fewer. She's now in year 11 and speaks English fluently (with Cumbrian idiom, no less) and writes in English. Neither parent speaks English at home so she and her brother have to translate.

A colleague who was looking into relocating came over for a couple of weeks with her DC who was 8 and had no English. The DC went for a visit to my DCs' primary and the school had an "EAL fan" about which I know very little except that they'd used it for a DC a few months previously and that DC had progressed beyond it (they regularly have new-to-the-UK DCs at that school).

A quick Google shows a variety of these on Twinkl
www.twinkl.co.uk/resources/new-starter-eal-inclusion-teaching-resources/survival-vocabulary-new-starter-eal-inclusion-teaching-resources/communication-fans-survival-vocabulary-new-starter-eal-inclusion-teaching-resources

Those look great too @drspouse, thank you. I did the letting him write in Romanian thing today @MrsHamlet and it was great, we then used Google translate together and he copied out the English, so thanks again

Please be wary of google translate - it is a useful tool in the absence of anything else but it is imprecise and incapable of managing idiom and the nuances of local expressions and sayings. Word reference is a great tool as an alternative.

Lingro.com is a useful tool when working online - hard to explain but give it a go!

So glad that worked for you :)

Thank you so much for your input everyone. Have got Head to dip into pocket for Racing to English - he's bought the whole set.

I'm very wary of translation services - always translate back into English again just to check it's come up with something along the lines of what we were trying to say. Get some very interesting results sometimes!

Hadn't noticed the EAL fans on Twinkl - had looked for dual language so those hadn't come up. Will send link to other teacher.

You guys are ace!