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Why English as an Additional Language (EAL) Matters?

Why English as an Additional Language (EAL) Matters?. Feyisa Demie Head of Research and Adviser for School Self-Evaluation Assessing English Proficiency of EAL learners Education and Learning Professional Development Centre International House 1 st July 2016. Outline.

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Why English as an Additional Language (EAL) Matters?

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  1. Why English as an Additional Language (EAL) Matters? Feyisa Demie Head of Research and Adviser for School Self-Evaluation Assessing English Proficiency of EAL learners Education and Learning Professional Development Centre International House 1st July 2016

  2. Outline The aims of the Worksop sessions are: • To examine Why English as an Additional Language (EAL) Matters? • To look at existing Lambeth EAL stages of fluency and the new nationalScale • To suggest the way forward in Lambeth

  3. Why English as an Additional Language (EAL) Matters? Policy concerns • There is a growing bilingual population in England and it has increased by 60% since 1997. • The 2015 Schools Census indicated there are over 1 million EAL pupils in England.This is about 18% of the school population (DfE, 2016) • Over 350 languages are spoken in England’s schools • There is a need for additional targeted support for EAL pupils to improve their levels of fluency in English. • This is a major concern for schools, LAs and EAL professionals as it ignores the needs of EAL pupils who are underachieving

  4. Why English as an Additional Language (EAL) Matters? EAL Achievement Concerns • A number of individual research studies have explored the relationship between EAL and attainment. For example Demie 2005; Demie and Strand 2006 analysis of a large sample of KS1, KS2 and GCSE data suggests that pupils who spoke English as an additional language scored significantly lower than those who spoke English as their first language. The studies confirm that pupils in the early stages of fluency perform at very low levels, while bilingual pupils who are fully fluent in English perform better, on average, than English-only speakers. • DfE Key Stage 1, 2 and 3 data also shows show that pupils for whom English is a first language consistently outperform their peers for whom English is an additional language in all three core subjects. • Somali, Bangladeshi, Polish and Portuguese pupils who achieved poor results were more likely to be relatively new to English. • Underachievement of EAL pupils, particularly those not fully fluent in English, continues to be a concern for policy makers and schools.

  5. EAL attainment at GCSE in Lambeth and in England (5+A*-C English and Maths)

  6. EAL attainment at GCSE in Lambeth and in England (5+A*-C English and Maths)

  7. GCSE Attainment Gaps between EAL fully and Non fluent (5+A*-C incl English and Maths) • Pupils non fluent in English perform well below the monolingual English speakers. • Fully fluent pupils have consistently been the highest performers. • The KS2 and GCSE data indicates that the worryingly low achievement of a number of EAL pupils has been masked by Government Statistics which have failed to distinguish between EAL pupils who are fully fluent and not fluent in English.

  8. EAL attainment at KS2 in LA and England in Reading, Writing and Maths (Level 4+)

  9. EAL attainment at KS2 in LA and England in Reading, Writing and Maths (Level 4+)

  10. EAL KS2 and GCSE Performance by levels of fluency in English in Lambeth LA (%)

  11. Difference in KS2 and GCSE Performance by Language Spoken at Home

  12. Conclusions and Policy Implications • Language barriers remain the key factor affecting the performance of EAL pupils in English schools. • This underlines the importance of additional targeted support for EAL pupils to improve their levels of fluency in English. • More needs be done to help English learners to achieve education equality with monolingual English speakers in the classroom. • There is a need by central government to provide additional targeted funding for EAL pupils for at least 6 years. • We also need EAL National Assessment Systems to monitor EAL performance beyond language in common. • The absence of national data which identifies stage of English fluency and patterns of attainment of EAL pupils places serious constraints on effectively targeting policy and practice developments at the national level.

  13. The next Step and EAL Assessment? • English Proficiency is a major factor in understanding how pupils with EAL achieve. We need national data • From Autumn 2016 onwards, all schools will have to include details of English Proficiency of pupils with EAL pupils as part of the School Census. • This government initiatives to collect EAL fluency in English is a step in the right direction • Todays briefing sessions aims: • To review the new EAL assessment systems in Lambeth and offer guidance in using the new national English Proficiency scales as part of census.

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