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 …
Category: L1 supporting L2
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 …
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 …
Say it with GOOGLE
Google Translate is a great calculator for EAL/ESL students and has its flaws but I find it a very useful tool to use in multilingual classrooms. I especially like the audio playback function which I use for the following activity: (All students will need to have an internet connected device) Students are given a text (example below) and identify target/key …
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 …
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 …
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 