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With respect to resources for teachers working with bilingual pupils, the Multiverse website developed from 2002 to 2011 has been archived and access to teaching resources is very limited. However many other materials developed over the last few years remain available of the Department for Education website. .
Task 1: Auditing your knowledge of children learning English as an additional language. (Standard 8).
Please complete this prior to your first placement.
Throughout the course you need to track your understanding of the issues that affect the education of bilingual children and your professional development in this area.
What do you think the issues are for bilingual children children learning English as an additional language?.
London has such an inviting multicultural society that it is no surprise that there is such a high percentage of bilingual students and students with EAL. Statistics show that the percentage is rising every year. NALDIC state that in 2012 the local authority areas with the highest proportion of EAL learners were Tower Hamlets (74 percent) and Newham (71 percent). .
In my opinion the biggest issues bilingual children face is fitting in and the transition period for learning a new language. Speaking as someone who had to learn English as an additional language I feel that the Early Years are the hardest individually, where you are already familiar with your first language at home and need to speak a new language in school. However I think collectively it is easier in early years to be a new learner of EAL especially in a diverse community, being surrounded by speakers of your first language is definitely comforting and it is presumably because it is very likely that you are not the only one in that position, so you do not feel that common level of embarrassment as perhaps you would when you are older. .
This leads me to think that being an EAL child is more difficult in later academic years e.