How to incorporate English as an Additional Language into your curriculum

Today’s classrooms are multilingual. In the UK, around a fifth of students are English as an Additional Language (EAL) learners – either they speak another language besides English at home or it’s not their mother tongue.

And of course, that number is likely to be even higher in international schools, which accept children from a broad range of countries and cultures.

While EAL learners might be confident in English, they can struggle with certain tasks. Not everyone may be able to follow instructions, explain their reasoning or engage with tasks, and this could lead to them falling behind.

The challenge isn’t these students’ language ability. It’s how international schools account for EAL learners in their syllabus and integrate support into teaching practice and classroom materials.

So let’s explore how to support EAL learners by making vocabulary building a core part of your curriculum and teaching practice – and not just an add on.

Where language can become a barrier to learning

Does this sound like one of your students? They are chatty, clearly very intelligent and get along well with most of their classmates. But when it comes to classroom work, they hesitate over your instructions and look around to see what others are doing.

Maybe they still achieve good grades, but you can’t help thinking they’re not meeting their full potential.

What you’re seeing here isn’t a lack of understanding but a difference in the type of language the student is being asked to use. Many children develop conversational English quickly. However, they may be unfamiliar with the kind of language you use in the classroom or find it more complex and demanding.

Plenty of children watch English cartoons, for example, and pick up everyday words and phrases. EAL learners can immediately use many of these with their classmates. Far fewer children read academic texts for fun so they’re less likely to know vocabulary specific to subjects like Science and Maths in English.

Vocabulary as a foundation for EAL learners

Students can’t be expected to engage with tasks if they don’t have the language they need. International schools must play an active role in helping EAL learners build their vocabulary knowledge before they encounter these words and phrases in class.

Teachers often find ways to bridge gaps in understanding. They might provide EAL learners with a list of translations, get another classmate to help or pause to explain unfamiliar words as they arise. But while these strategies allow students to complete the task, they don’t help them understand and remember the new language.

Integrating this vocabulary into the curriculum is a far more effective approach. Identify key words and phrases as you plan units and consider how to introduce it across a sequence of lessons. That way all students develop familiarity with the language and understand what it means before they need to use it in tasks.

Subject-specific language in EAL learning

Understanding words and phrases is only part of the challenge. EAL learners must know how to use language in context to not only complete tasks but also perform well across all their subjects.

The issue for many students is that subjects have distinct patterns of communication. Science requires them to use precise language to build hypotheses and explain cause and effect. Meanwhile, art and literature involve using more descriptive and often abstract vocabulary to explore different themes.

Effective curricula should make learners aware of these patterns, whether they’re EAL or not. First, decide what kinds of responses students will need across an entire unit. Then, build in time to highlight the words and phrases, break down how they’re structured and show examples of strong responses.

Practical strategies to build into your school curriculum

What teaching practices should you be incorporating into your curriculum? Here are some effective strategies you can build into classes across subjects and year groups to provide EAL learners with immediate support.

• Visual support: Ensure teachers have plenty of access to resources like maps, charts and diagrams and refer to them frequently in class. These not only present the language to EAL learners but also help them build a strong visual association with each new word and phrase.
• Graphic organisers: Text-based tools like venn diagrams and concept maps help EAL learners organise information according to a structure. In the process, they can see how vocabulary is connected within a unit or subject. One popular idea is to have a breakdown of how to write an analysis for English literature classes with the topic sentence, explanation, evidence and examples.
• Sentence frames: Short prompts can help EAL learners see which structures to use to explain ideas based on the common practices for the subject. For example, science teachers can introduce phrases for cause and effect like ‘results in…’ and ‘leads to…’ at the start of the academic year and encourage classes to refer to them when writing up experiments.
• Think-pair-share: This framework has students reflect individually before discussing ideas in pairs and presenting them to the class. Schools can make it a common practice to give EAL learners more time to process and rehearse language, so responses are based on their subject knowledge and skills rather than their English ability.

How to support EAL learners through curriculum design

Support for EAL learners must be built into the curriculum to be most effective. This involves taking it beyond teaching practices and classroom resources to how you structure classes and units throughout the syllabus.

What might such a curriculum look like?

Pearson has built support for EAL learners into our iPrimary and iLowerSecondary curricula. Our framework accounts for students from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds from ages 3 to 14 across all the core subjects, including English, Maths and Science. That’s what allows our partners to give children a strong foundation in English vocabulary and keep building on this knowledge as they progress through school.

English as an Additional Language: Just a part of effective teaching practice?

EAL calls for a shift in mindset: It’s not a separate approach to teaching but a part of effective classroom practice. When language is explicit, students can engage with content more easily and show what they know.

That goes for all children in your classes. Clear expectations, familiar structures and well-structured support can help anyone communicate more easily, especially when it comes to discussing complex ideas.

Further reading

For more advice on how to support EAL learners, read our articles on navigating a multilingual classroom and using AI to improve accessibility.