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 …
Month: April 2016
Multilingual Displays
Most classrooms are decorated with students' work, info graphs and posters. Unfortunately they are static and are rarely used for learning. A way to make your displays more interactive is by making sure to leave space for translations for students' own languages The photo below is a great example of a multilingual display from my classroom. Every …
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 …
Multilingual Memory
If we want classrooms to be metacognitively aware of language use then our EAL learners are some of the best resources we have to achieve this Diane Leedham Activity: Students translate target vocabulary into their home language and play memory. When a card is turned the student who speaks that language says the word in her/his language …
Gap f__l with a twist
Activity: Instead of a normal gap fill exercise, one of the students, whose home language is not English, chooses 10 words from a text and translates them into his/her home language. That student then reads the text aloud while other students who are listening guess the words based on the context. This activity can also be …
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 …
EAL-time 