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My EAL strategy is using visuals to teach vocabulary. I got it from my previous teaching practice. This is how it works: using images of the required vocabulary, students don't need to translate the words to their first language. They just simply look at the pictures and repeat the words. It works well because they have a better understanding of the vocabulary, don't translate and remember better the required information. Also, using visuals will allow them to use the vocabulary as they describe the pictures.

To make it even more effective, next time perhaps I could use visuals with the substitution tables and speaking frames. I think if I model the target language while using a picture they can describe, will help them communicate more accurately.

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My EAL strategy is to create substitution tables containing curriculum-related content along with model sentences and choices for sentence-building practice, comprehension, and vocabulary use.

I got it from a previous Bell Foundation Training called ‘Using substitution tables to support learners who use EAL’

This is how it works. Firstly, pre-teach vocabulary. Secondly, once learners have a grasp on the needed vocabulary, choose or create content-based text. Next, identify the target language and its components. After that, decide how to divide the table. The next step is to then select clipart/visuals as needed. Lastly, use it to help scaffold tasks in class.

It works well because it focuses on speaking and writing accuracy using vocabulary already taught. I feel that it is truly effective on many levels.

To make it even more effective, one may create differentiated tables increasing in difficulty with gaps and also with vocabulary specific to the learner or school environment.

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My EAL strategy is … the use of sentence stems and writing/speaking frames during Mathematics lessons.

I got it from … my school uses the White Rose Hub materials for Mathematics, which is based on the mastery approach and the different stages of demonstrating mastery (concrete, pictorial, abstract).

This is how it works … I find that an often overlooked aspect of Maths teaching is the quantity of unknown vocabulary that our learners have to face, and ideally use. As my students explore a concept, speaking and writing frames help my EAL learners greatly. They use sentence stems to verbalise or write their ideas and make use of banks of vocabulary. This is, of course, all related to activities that allow my students real experience of the concept (concrete, pictorial, abstract).

It works well because … I find that my EAL students initially rely on the speaking/writing frames and then gradually move away from them, making use of the keywords or phrases independently. They can also demonstrate said concepts in a number of ways, so my assessment shows that they understand the ideas at hand.

To make it even more effective, next time perhaps I could … Building on an idea in this thread, I could send home the sentence stems and word lists, to flip the learning process and to allow the children more time to become even more familiarised with the vocabulary.

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A pair of students accessing the CleverTouch for instructions on their activity which was to create an instructional poster based on hygiene. 

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My EAL strategy is to use visual instructions for class based activities. These aid the students understanding of the task and encourage independence too.

This is how it works, you create it using any program/software or app with a bank of visuals and words. I love using Widget Online as it has a great variety of templates, symbols and vocabulary. You select a template, input your instructions with the symbols your children will be able to understand and it’s ready to be used.

It works well because it’s visual which allows the children to access it instantly. It also has the words for more proficient EAL learners to read and comprehend the instructions given.

To make it even more effective, next time perhaps I could ensure that each instruction is less wordy and more concise.

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My EAL strategy is... to allow pupils to do research in their native language.

I got it from... a Bell foundation video in a staff meeting.

This is how it works... pupils complete research in their native language as this allows the pupils to fully engage and understand in greater depth the area of study. For example in history last half term we were studying Ancient Egypt. I asked the children to use the internet and find 10 interesting facts about this topic. My NTE/EAL pupils would only be able to copy and paste in English, whereas doing the work in German allowed them to actually really engage and expand their understanding.

It works well because... the NTE/EAL pupils feel excited to use their native language and feel included.

To make it even more effective, next time perhaps I could … Be more specific to help the pupil's deepen their understanding in a specific area or/and afterwards ask pupils to try and summarise their work in English using basic sentences with word mats etc for support.

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My EAL strategy is using a '4 square' for new academic / topic vocabulary.

I got it from a colleague

This is how it works An example is in the picture when we were pre-teaching topic vocabulary around a water cycle science unit. Each child experimented with a 'water cycle' bag and saw the process of condensation and evaporation.
It is folded into 4 pieces, and in each quarter, there are headings: definition, non-definition, drawing, examples. Students fill this in for each scientific process they have observed.

It works well because they are clear with the vocabulary before they start to use it in the context of the fast-paced classroom.

To make it even more effective, next time perhaps I could as the children to 'teach' their classmates the words when they go back into class.

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My EAL strategy is Chalk Talk

I got it from a colleague

This is how it works, its a silent ‘discussion’ where children move around the room responding to different prompts by adding their inputs and responding to other students. See full explanation here https://www.2peasandadog.com/2020/06/chalk-talk-teaching-strategy.html

It works well because it allows all children to join in the discussion, not just the confident ones. Also you can give children to join in the discussion by using images if they can’t find the right words.

To make it even more effective, next time perhaps I could use a talking frame that I’ve just learnt about!

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Using Talk for Writing strategies to help EAL learners 

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Using Talk for Writing strategies to help EAL learners 

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I got it from Talk for Writing.

This is how it works: pupils are taught a text, through actions and then through drawings. They can eventually retell the whole story or text and learn the model that that text type follows along the way. They then have opportunities to make changes and then create their own version further in the teaching sequence.

It works well because it allows learners to internalise stories and learn new vocabulary and learn a model which they can then adapt and gradually move away from, or stick closely to, depending on their ability and confidence levels.

To make it even more effective I could work on adding more key vocabulary to the story/text map to help their sentence structure as this is an area for development for my learners.

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My EAL strategy is to preteach EAL children vocabulary prior to their lesson.  Where possible, concepts are first looked at (at home) in the child’s home language as Knowledge Organisers and visual Word Mats are sent home before a new topic begins.  This is an idea started by a colleague of mine which we have rolled out across the primary school.

This is how it works:  Before a new topic is introduced, I would go through the plan and pick out key words and concepts.  New vocabulary would be categorised and reproduced into visual word mats.  I would also try to create diagrams and charts for concepts they would cover in class.  The Knowledge Organiser will also have some words translated into the child’s home language.  It will contain simple videos where required to help explain new concepts.

It works well because it allows the child the time to discuss ideas with their parents in their home language.  The child may already have some prior knowledge of topics / concepts and will simply need the appropriate language to support their knowledge.  It also helps to keep parents involved in their child’s development.

To make it even more effective, next time perhaps I could tie in grammar covered in class to their topic.

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My EAL strategy is to send home more scientific or technical words and concepts as this allows parents to help explain it in the mother tongue.
I got it from a Y5 colleague as the language in upper KS2 is often a lot more difficult to simplify or explain.
It works well because the students get to find out about the meaning in English, but also in their own language. It also helps the parents to know what is being taught in school.
To make it even more effective, next time perhaps I could send key words home in Maths as well as Topic.

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My EAL strategy is to use Phonics teaching to help learners understand English letter sounds for decoding for reading and segmenting for spelling.

I got it from being a Year 1 classroom teacher for many years.

This is how it works.
I have found it very helpful to work through the Letter and Sounds phonics programme, which can be done quite quickly for older children, in order to give learners a better understanding of English alphabet letters, their sounds, and strategies for decoding new words and for spelling. It has been useful to point out common L1 interference in letter sounds, and I always say every language has it's tricky bits.

It works well because learners can develop a better understanding of phonic sounds aiding pronunciation and enabling independence when reading or spelling unknown words. They can also make links with their home language. It also aids inclusion because the learners have the same foundation as their classmates when talking about how language and its sounds work.

To make it even more effective, I could build in more discrete repetition of sounds. However learners are encouraged to access independent resources to support their phonics understanding and knowledge.

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Most recently, I have started using mind maps as a way of checking understanding at the end of a topic. This way, students can categorise the new vocabulary taught in any way they can think of . An example of this would be when we learnt about the colours. The younger students categorised the colours according to primary and secondary colours as they had been learning about this in Art.

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My EAL strategy is using flashcards to help students learn new vocabulary on a specific topic. … I got it from teaching Modern Foreign Languages we find that students are very responsive to using flashcards. This is how it works, we pre teach the vocabulary and then we give each child an individual set of their own flashcards with pictures and words to take home and look through… It works well because we also use them to play matching pairs for the second lesson on the topic. … To make it even more effective we make an Imoves video with the same flashcards and we say the words so students can practise the correct pronunciation. I also reinforce the new vocabulary by letting students have access to the same words taught by using Quizlet or Wordwall.

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My EAL strategy is to use new vocabulary taught by making children act out a roleplay.
I got it from working with younger children in learning through play this is a very effective strategy to apply new vocabulary taught.
This is how it works. We pre-teach vocabulary by sending it home beforehand and then once back in the classroom model how we would use it and then invent a scenario eg: going on holiday.
It works well because it puts the new words learnt in context.
To make it even more effective try getting the children to dress up to make it more realistic.

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King Noodle - (headband game) to encourage speaking and listening

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King Noodle - (headband game) to encourage speaking and listening

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I always try to include games in my EAL teaching sessions and again particularly for encouraging interaction, speaking and listening. My colleague and I made up a game similar to headbands a few years back call 'King Noodle' with cardboard headbands and the vocabulary/ flashcards that we were teaching for that session or the session prior. The students would tape or blu-tack a card to the front of their headband. I would write the model questions/ sentence on the board. The children practise it with you, but may change the noun that they are asking about. Question model stays the same. This is similar 20 questions. The junior headbands is excellent for vocabulary and basic question practise. All students take turns as asking questions and replying.

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words, cello tape and giggling children.... constructing sentences

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words, cello tape and giggling children.... constructing sentences

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This would have to be an activity that I often use particularly for junior EAL speakers as they often find the strategy fun and amusing.  We start with creating a simple sentence using colour paper to represent the structure of the sentence .  One colour for the subject/ pronoun, another to represent the verb, another for the noun and another for the punctuation.  Depending on the level of the learner, I will start adding in articles, adjectives or adverbs once students have understood the basics of a main sentence structure.
First we lay them out on the floor randomly and I ask the students if they could make a sentence.  This gives me a quick indication of their understanding.  You would initally pre-teach some vocabulary in relation to start with.
2. Then I would lay out the sentence correctly and model.
3. The children then cello tape these to their tops, but you would muddle the words up.
4.  The children walk around and reform themselves into the correct sentence structure.  We practise the sentence all together.
5. I then keep the same colour but change the subject or verb.
Once the students feel confident with this then we add to another word like an adjective (on a new colour) into the mix.
The key is to use laminated coloured sheets and keep the colours the same for each grammatical structure...eg subjects are always orange, verbs are blue.
6. Afterwards we tape them on the board and record the sentences together.
Depending on the level of the learner, you can use the strategy for older students adding in main clause, subordinating conjunctions and dependent clauses.
It's essential to use punctuation as it teachers the students context. This strategy can be used anywhere as you only need paper and tape.

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Sending home vocabulary around topic based learning 

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Sending home vocabulary around topic based learning 

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One strategy that I have found really helps EAL learners to understand vocabulary is to send home the English vocabulary in advance around topic with a simple letter for parents to discuss words in the child's home language. This is what I will do with words that arise in IPC topics. Not only is it essential for students to discuss the vocabulary in their home language, they need to understand the context. The topic words are also accessible in the classroom for students to read, write and copy. It makes it easier when unpacking a topic when my students have a better understanding of the words in their home language. This is something I've always done for my students in my international schools.

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Over the years of teaching EAL students I have to say this is one of my go to websites for resources, particulalry for games, vocabulary practise, speaking and writing frames and follow up.  I have many sites that I use but this is like a 'bread and butter' site so EAL teachers are not recreating the wheel.
I play many games, particularly with younger children. Laughter and fun often helps students to enjoy the learning and remember it better.

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Welcome to MES English, Resources for Teachers of Young Learners. All of the resources are designed to be versatile and useful across a broad spectrum of ages and levels. This site hosts: , and other activities all ready for printing.

Flash Cards:

There are 2,000+ words depicted in flashcards. The vocabulary are provided in 100+ sets covering 60+ themes and I'm adding to them regularly. These are flashcards not clip art. Each flashcard set is ready to print and go with matching handouts, PowerPoint flashcard presentations, game cards and bingo cards. Plenty of cards for supplementing or designing your lesson plans.

Worksheets:

There are 2 options for MES Worksheets. You can create your own custom worksheets on Tools for Educators or you can use the ready-to-print worksheets here on MES English.

Tools for Educators is an MES site that hosts free, online worksheet applications and templates that let you make and print custom materials to suit your classroom. You can make spelling, reading, writing activities, crosswords, wordsearches, mazes and other classroom games using all of the images from MES.

Ready-to-Print Materials: A growing section of MES-English. There are talking worksheets, worksheets for introduction of grammar points, a phonics workbook series, award certificates, clipart to make your own worksheets, song sheets, nursery rhymes and chants cards, and vocabulary building worksheets to match the MES Flashcards.

Classroom Games:

There are 22 versatile, communicative games for the classroom available for printing and a list of 15+ other games to play. These games were designed to be flexible and useful across a broad range of target language and great care was put into making them fun, interesting and student centered. Many are great for one-on-one. You'll find Big Town, High Town, Eigomon, Bombs Away, Treasure Island, Spiders and Candy, Get Four, the Paper Game and more. The games were designed around the principle that if the game is just a grammar game, the students will bore quickly. Thus, the goals of these games are not "perfect English wins the game," but the students must communicate in the target language to accomplish their goal and win the game. In doing so you'll be surprised how many times they use the language and hopefully perfect/internalize it through repetition.

Phonics Resources:

MES has 2 options for phonics materials, MES Phonics and Fun Fonix.

MES Phonics has flash cards and handouts for presentation. There are alphabet cards, posters and materials to get you started on the right foot with your phonics curriculum.

Fun Fonix is a 6 part workbook series. The website also has worksheet makers you can use to create custom phonics worksheets and additional activities for your classroom needs.

Additional MES Resources:

MES English has quite a few other sections with materials or resources for English language teachers and LOTE teachers as well.

The MES Speaking First Curriculum is a curriculum designed to focus on speaking and fluency while building phonemic awareness and preparing students for study in a course book. It is a guide for the order and how to use all of the materials you can find through the MES sites.

The International Project Exchange: there are classroom projects that teachers can download, print the lesson plans, and print projects already completed by students from different countries around the world. Teachers complete the projects with their classes, and then share completed projects from around the world with their students.

MES Games is a website with online games for students to build vocabulary, practice listening, spelling, grammar and more!

123 Listening a website with many different audio downloads and many different worksheets that can be combined to make listening tests or listening exercises for various levels.

MES Teacher Forums: Check out the MES-English community, leave feedback, ask questions, find support for problems, get or leave game ideas, advice and more! There are forums for games and activities ideas and questions, forums for teaching where you can get or leave advice, a 'What's new?' forum, and additional sections with advice for teaching English to young learners.

MES Coloring Section has free printable coloring pages for holidays, alphabet activities, numbers, and other themes from the MES vocabulary flashcards.

What is MES English

MES-English.com is a site containing actual resources, made by myself to be downloaded and used today. This page is not a collection of links to resources, with links to resources, with a collection of links to resources ... (which frustrated me enormously and forced me to make everything myself.) I will try to keep it short, to the point, and help you find what you're looking for fast. You do not have to register but an e-mail letting me know something worked well, was helpful, or with suggestions would be great.

Happy teaching - Mark

If you'd like to support MES-English, please consider making a donation:

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MES English - free printable resources for teachers

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Free Printables for Teachers - Free flashcards, worksheets, handouts and game cards to match, phonics materials, projects, games, and more all ready for download and printing.

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My EAL strategy is “lego sentence building.” I have used it to develop functional phrases into complete sentences.

This is how it works.

Firstly you begin with a word the child has picked up in English, e.g. “toilet”. The child picks a lego brick/ building block to represent that word. We write the word on the block in erasable marker and repeat it aloud several times. This block is now the subject of their sentence.

I then model how we could add a word to extend the phrase, e.g. “toilet, please.” We write the new word (please) onto another block and place it next to the first word. Here you can begin to play around with the order and explain which order the words need to be in to make sense. The visual representation creates a hook for the child to place new words onto.

The child repeats the phrase and is encouraged to use it.

This activity can then be repeated in future, when the child is confident with the phrase.

We can then extend the phrase to a sentence e.g. “Go to the toilet, please” and developed into longer sentences e.g. “May I go to the toilet, please Miss O’Grady”

You can choose whether to have individual words, clauses or phrases on the blocks. Each should be a different colour to indicate to the child how the sentence is extended.

If utilised effectively it can also be transferred into English lessons to scaffold constructing sentences (similar to a concrete version of colourful semantics.) You could also change and/or add punctuation where appropriate.

For older children, a block can also be built on top of. If teaching more colloquial expressions that are synonymous, for example, or introducing alternative words. E.g. ‘toilet’ could have the word ‘bathroom’ on top, or ‘go to’ could have ‘use the’ - this demonstrates to the pupil how the same phrase may be said in different ways.

It works well because it is progressive, building on the students' knowledge rather than overwhelming them with too much new information at once. Also, when used to develop ‘survival’ phrases, the strategy has immediate benefit to the child and therefore becomes meaningful.

By chunking information down, the child is able to enjoy success at many levels. By using a kinaesthetic approach, the child has a visual, tangible object to refer back to when searching for the correct vocabulary.

To make it even more effective, next time perhaps I could ...

Draw/ use pictures of the nouns/ actions for verbs next to the words to help the student remember each new part.

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My EAL strategy is “lego sentence building.” I have used it to develop functional phrases into complete sentences.

This is how it works.

Firstly you begin with a word the child has picked up in English, e.g. “toilet”. The child picks a lego brick/ building block to represent that word. We write the word on the block in erasable marker and repeat it aloud several times. This block is now the subject of their sentence.

I then model how we could add a word to extend the phrase, e.g. “toilet, please.” We write the new word (please) onto another block and place it next to the first word. Here you can begin to play around with the order and explain which order the words need to be in to make sense. The visual representation creates a hook for the child to place new words onto.

The child repeats the phrase and is encouraged to use it.

This activity can then be repeated in future, when the child is confident with the phrase.

We can then extend the phrase to a sentence e.g. “Go to the toilet, please” and developed into longer sentences e.g. “May I go to the toilet, please Miss O’Grady”

You can choose whether to have individual words, clauses or phrases on the blocks. Each should be a different colour to indicate to the child how the sentence is extended.

If utilised effectively it can also be transferred into English lessons to scaffold constructing sentences (similar to a concrete version of colourful semantics.) You could also change and/or add punctuation where appropriate.

For older children, a block can also be built on top of. If teaching more colloquial expressions that are synonymous, for example, or introducing alternative words. E.g. ‘toilet’ could have the word ‘bathroom’ on top, or ‘go to’ could have ‘use the’ - this demonstrates to the pupil how the same phrase may be said in different ways.

It works well because it is progressive, building on the students' knowledge rather than overwhelming them with too much new information at once. Also, when used to develop ‘survival’ phrases, the strategy has immediate benefit to the child and therefore becomes meaningful.

By chunking information down, the child is able to enjoy success at many levels. By using a kinaesthetic approach, the child has a visual, tangible object to refer back to when searching for the correct vocabulary.

To make it even more effective, next time perhaps I could ...

Draw/ use pictures of the nouns/ actions for verbs next to the words to help the student remember each new part.

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My EAL strategy is “lego sentence building.” I have used it to develop functional phrases into complete sentences.

This is how it works.

Firstly you begin with a word the child has picked up in English, e.g. “toilet”. The child picks a lego brick/ building block to represent that word. We write the word on the block in erasable marker and repeat it aloud several times. This block is now the subject of their sentence.

I then model how we could add a word to extend the phrase, e.g. “toilet, please.” We write the new word (please) onto another block and place it next to the first word. Here you can begin to play around with the order and explain which order the words need to be in to make sense. The visual representation creates a hook for the child to place new words onto.

The child repeats the phrase and is encouraged to use it.

This activity can then be repeated in future, when the child is confident with the phrase.

We can then extend the phrase to a sentence e.g. “Go to the toilet, please” and developed into longer sentences e.g. “May I go to the toilet, please Miss O’Grady”

You can choose whether to have individual words, clauses or phrases on the blocks. Each should be a different colour to indicate to the child how the sentence is extended.

If utilised effectively it can also be transferred into English lessons to scaffold constructing sentences (similar to a concrete version of colourful semantics.) You could also change and/or add punctuation where appropriate.

For older children, a block can also be built on top of. If teaching more colloquial expressions that are synonymous, for example, or introducing alternative words. E.g. ‘toilet’ could have the word ‘bathroom’ on top, or ‘go to’ could have ‘use the’ - this demonstrates to the pupil how the same phrase may be said in different ways.

It works well because it is progressive, building on the students' knowledge rather than overwhelming them with too much new information at once. Also, when used to develop ‘survival’ phrases, the strategy has immediate benefit to the child and therefore becomes meaningful.

By chunking information down, the child is able to enjoy success at many levels. By using a kinaesthetic approach, the child has a visual, tangible object to refer back to when searching for the correct vocabulary.

To make it even more effective, next time perhaps I could ...

Draw/ use pictures of the nouns/ actions for verbs next to the words to help the student remember each new part.