Tracey Costley

English as an additional language, policy and the teaching and learning of English in England

This paper is focused on the ways in which social policy and social concerns have impacted upon and shaped provision for students who consider English as an additional language (EAL). It provides an overview of practice and provision in relation to EAL learners in the context of state-funded education in England over the last 60 years in order to highlight common patterns and similarities in approaches as well as to draw attention to some of the implications of these patterns or policy tendencies on classroom practice and provision. The past six decades is a period in which important changes have occurred at all levels of English society in terms of its ethnic and cultural composition as well as educational organisation, provision and classroom practice. Against this historical backdrop, the paper highlights what we can learn from past policy in addition to how it may inform where we might be heading next.

Multilingual and monolingual children in the primary-level language classroom: individual differences and perceptions of foreign language learning

ABSTRACT Existing research suggests that being multilingual may convey advantages for additional language learning. However, little research to date has examined the role of multiple languages in primary-school classroom settings and in foreign language learning in particular. We investigated the learning of French by children with English as an additional language (EAL) aged 8–9 in England. The EAL children and their monolingual peers were tested on their achievement in French, their metalinguistic awareness and associative memory. Their attitudes to languages and language learning were assessed. Two French classes were observed and teachers interviewed in order to document their approach to teaching French to a mixed-language class and their perceptions of the multilingual nature of the classroom. Our findings suggest that the EAL children’s multilingualism is not drawn upon as a potentially facilitative tool. English appears to be the only medium and the primary aim of instruction, with other languages assigned a subordinate role. The EAL children performed similarly to their monolingual peers on all measures, with level of English correlated with most measures. We argue that while an egalitarian treatment of all children is clearly desirable, it would be equally desirable to utilise the presence of other languages as a resource.