Article taken from http://www.naldic.org.uk/eal-professional-development/conference-reports

EAL experts and specialists from the field of additional needs came together on 16 June 2012 to call for greater recognition of the training needs for education and health professionals concerning bilingual children who may or may not have additional needs. Their comments came during the second NALDIC conference on this issue, organized in response to demand from teachers for support on this issue.

The conference heard from specialists from across the spectrum about the need for more training and professional development for practitioners in education and health. In the plenary debate chaired by Professor Viv Edwards, Director of NCLL, Dr Tony Cline from University College, London noted that current moves to base more initial and continuing teacher education in schools created an opportunity for organisations such as NALDIC to develop teachers' specialist knowledge in this area at the point when it becomes most important to them - for example when they are faced for the first time with a bilingual learner with Aspergers Syndrome, or a newly arrived pupil whose language development is causing them concern. Dr Cline pointed out that teachers' interest in EAL and additional needs is often ignited at precisely these points creating 'a huge motivation for deepening their professional knowledge of this issue'. Anne Margaret Smith, a specialist in language learning and specific learning differences, urged conference goers to support a petition by the British Dyslexia Association to make dyslexia a mandatory element of initial teacher training. Dr Sean Pert, a specialist speech and language therapist working with bilingual children with specific language impairments, argued for the greater understanding of bilingualism amongst health professionals and speech and language therapists. Dr Theo Marinis, Director of Research at the Department of Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, outlined a European research project which was developing sentence repetition tasks in a number of languages to assess the language abilities of bilingual learners.

Presentations and workshops included the following:

Keynote from Professor Tony Cline: “Diverging approaches to special educational needs in England and Scotland and their implications for children learning English as an additional language”

Professor Tony Cline, University College, London: “EAL Learners and Dyslexia”

The workshop began with an audit of the skills and knowledge associated with reading proficiency. The challenges may be different for a child who is monolingual in English and has dyslexia, a child who is in the early stages of learning EAL and has some reading difficulties associated with that, and a child who is learning EAL and has dyslexia. The workshop considered recent research on the identification of dyslexia among EAL learners and reviewed participants’ experiences of problems over identification and assessment. The last part of the session focused on basic strategies in teaching pupils with EAL who showed learning difficulties in literacy. It covered writing development as well as reading.

Anne Margaret Smith, Director, ELT: “Co-Occurring Specific Learning Differences”

Dyslexia is usually thought to be the specific learning difference (SpLD) that raises the most significant barrier to language learning and literacy development, because of its association with phonological processing and auditory memory problems. However, there are other SpLDs that commonly co-occur with dyslexia, which also present considerable challenges to language learners who experience them. This workshop offered a brief overview of some of the most common SpLDs (dyspraxia, AD(H)D and Asperger’s Syndrome), highlighted the impact they could have on language development, and offered some solutions that could be implemented in the classroom.

Dr. Sean Pert, Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists: “Developing a Language Therapy Package to Meet the Needs of EAL Learners”

This presentation focused on a new language therapy package that had been adapted, in collaboration with Newcastle University, to meet the needs of the local Pakistani heritage community. It included discussion about translation issues, how home language supports subsequent EAL, and the role of the SLT. Participants were able to pose questions on SLT-bilingualism issues.

Dr. Theo Marinis, University of Reading: “The Use of Sentence Repetition Tasks to Assess the Language Abilities of Sequential Bilingual Children With Specific Language Impairment”

Speech and language therapists, SENCOs, and teachers have very few tools to measure the language abilities of children who have English as an additional language (EAL) in all languages spoken by the children. To address this issue, the sentence repetition tasks (SRTs) were developed in a range of languages. SRTs are easy to administer and score and provide rich information about children’s strengths and weaknesses.

This session presented the English version of the task to illustrate how it worked, what it measured, and how the children’s responses were scored. Then the session showed how typically developing monolingual and EAL children perform in comparison to children with specific language impairment. At the end of the session, the Polish version was presented and how children from the Polish community in Reading, England performed in English compared to Polish was discussed.

Carolyn Blackburn, Birmingham City University:“The Diverse Communication Needs of Children in the Foundation Stage: Reflecting on Policy to Practice Issues”

Young children’s communication skills are acquired within an environmental and cultural context. Children entering early-childhood settings with English as an additional language or a communication delay/disorder may have a range of nonverbal communication strategies such as gesture, touch, eye gaze, pointing, drawing, and other methods of creative nonverbal expression. This seminar shared early findings from a study that aimed to describe and analyze the communication needs of children aged birth to 5 years.

Amy Thompson, Education Consultant: “The Place of Mother-Tongue Assessment in Identifying Additional Needs of EAL Learners”

This session covered the following areas:

• Why mother-tongue assessment? What are the principles/theories supporting mother-tongue assessment?
• What information to look for in mother-tongue assessment
• Case studies

Peta Ullmann, Head of Ethnic Minority Achievement Service, Essex: “Selective Mutism and the Bilingual Learner”

We know that many children in the early stages of English language acquisition go through what is termed the silent period and that some children can be more reluctant than others to attempt to speak the new language. When should we become concerned about a reluctant speaker? This interactive workshop provided participants with an opportunity to discuss the silent period, the reluctant speaker, and selective mutism with reference to case studies. The last part of the session focused on strategies and approaches to address the needs of bilingual learners who are anxious about speaking in the school environment.

Alex Barrett, Cheyne Child Development Service, and Emma Jackson, Maxilla Children’s Centre: “EAL Learners With Speech, Language and Communication Needs”

This workshop explored the differences between EAL and speech, language and communication needs (SLCN). It also considered the signs to look for and the process for making referrals for speech and language therapy for EAL learners, how to support children learning EAL who also have SLCN in the classroom, and the most effective ways to advise parents.

Note: Article taken from http://www.naldic.org.uk/eal-professional-development/conference-reports with minor edits

Nicola has worked in the EAL field for many years as a teacher, trainer, adviser, consultant, and inspector. She joined NALDIC’s executive committee in 1999 and managed the development of the NALDIC web site. She was deputy chair from 2001 to 2004 and chair from 2007 to 2010.