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NALDIC CONFERENCE: EAL AND ADDITIONAL NEEDS
Nicola Davies, Executive Committee, NALDIC
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.
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