Activity: When you have an exercise in which students have to order certain events or tasks, consider writing a few sentences in some of the home languages of that class. As a result the multilingual EAL learners will be needed to complete the exercise as they will have to translate it to their peers. A …
Multilingual Activities for Fast Finishers
A couple of months ago I came across a gem of an online downloadable resource book called '100 Activities for Fast Finishers' by Rachael Harris . "A hundred different activities which students can undertake autonomously within the language classroom". Most of the activities on my blog are tweaked versions of well-known existing ESL activities. By 'multilingualising' …
The Multilingual Odd One Out
Show your learners three or four target words in some of the languages that are spoken in the classroom. First ask the students who don't speak that language whether they recognize the languages and perhaps the meaning of the words. If not, ask the students who do speak that language to clarify. At this moment, if time allows, get …
How similar are these words?
Cognates are an obvious bridge to the English language and are particularly common in content areas such as Maths, Science, and Social Studies. However, many English words might also be related through other word forms or word associations. To introduce new content-related academic vocabulary, ask your students to group them in three categories: Cognate, Somehow …
esreveR Translation
EAL learners want and need to understand and explore the differences and similarities between English and their home language. As such, translation exercises work really well. Reverse translation is an already well-established and ancient technique. I really like it as students can see for themselves where they can improve and what they should focus on …
The Class’s Translator
As a lesson starter or activity consider using a video clip in one of the many home languages of your learners. That student should then come to the front of the class, play the video and ask the other students what they thought was said. Many students will recognise words and with help of the images the …
Cognate of the lesson
Cognates are words that have a common etymological origin. For example, "pineapple" is very similar in a lot of languages. Activity: Give the students a list of key words for the topic that you are covering. At the start or end of a lesson give students 5 minutes' time to discuss which of the key …
What is she/he talking about?
This activity originated from looking at all of the academic word of the week photos shown in an earlier post. So many words are similar, even in languages with different scripts. So now after a content-based lesson (Geography, Science, Food, IT and so on), I’ll have students play a game in which one of them …
Multilingual Grouping
Multilingual grouping is a fun way of using everyone's L1 and can be used in any EAL or mainstream classroom.The following example is based on a recent Year 7 Geography lesson about Hazards. As a warmer activity, give all students a card with either volcano eruption, earthquake, tsunami/flood or hurricane/typhoon/cyclone on. The students then have …
My favourite home language quotes – Part 3
My name is Joris and depending in which etymological name dictionary you look it up, it means either farmer or dragon killer. I kind of prefer the first one. The long o sound in Joris doesn't really exist in English amongst other languages and has proven quite tricky for family, friends and people I work with. They usually …
My favourite home language quotes – Part 2
Spanish grannies and Flemish elevators In 2005 I moved to Valencia in Spain and taught ESL for 5 years in a private language academy. My two children were born in sunny Valencia and I can confirm that the Spanish absolutely adore children. People will give up their seat on the bus for young children. Children of all ages are welcomed and will be handed a …
My favourite home language quotes – Part 1
A while ago I did a series of lessons with all my EAL learners on the importance of home languages. During this lesson the students wrote a quote about their home language. What does it mean to you? How does it feel to speak or hear your home language? How does it feel if you can't use it? Home …
Collective Translation
Many big companies, museums and councils translate their websites in numerous languages but one organisation leads by a mile. The Jehovah's witnesses website has been translated into a staggering 805 languages and they are still adding more. For obvious reasons that is not the site I use for the following activity but many others can be easily …
Portraying Proverbs
A fun translanguaging activity with the more advanced language learners is to explore different proverbs in different languages. A great introduction to this is the painting of Pieter Bruegel the Elder called “Netherlandish Proverbs" in which approximately 112 identifiable proverbs and idioms are hidden in the scene. This easily generates discussion and proverb exchanges for a whole lesson and …
EAL-time 