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EAL Department · Week 1 of 6

Week 1: Know the learner

Build a picture of languages, prior learning, interests, participation and the learner’s own priorities before choosing support.

Your guiding question

What can this learner already do, and what helps them take part?

Build a picture of languages, prior learning, interests, participation and the learner’s own priorities before choosing support.

Weekly outcome: A strengths-first learner snapshot and one participation goal.

Understand the idea

EAL describes language experience, not a single level of need.

A learner may use English confidently in conversation and still need help explaining a subject idea. Another may understand a complex concept through another language while having very little English for sharing it. Begin with evidence rather than a prediction based on the label.

Ask about resources as well as barriers.

Find out which languages the learner uses, where they have learned before, which topics feel familiar and how they prefer to show understanding. A language biography can be a short conversation, an annotated drawing or a response in a familiar language. Offer choices rather than requiring personal disclosure.

Notice participation across a lesson.

Look at listening, partner talk, reading and writing separately. Record the task and support available: “explained the diagram to a partner using labels” is more useful than “weak English”. Include what you have not yet had an opportunity to observe.

Try it in a real lesson

  1. Choose one learner with your mentor or EAL colleague. Use a pseudonym in this induction record.
  2. Have a brief, welcoming conversation about languages, interests, familiar learning and one thing that would make lessons easier. Use an interpreter or a suitable language resource where needed.
  3. Observe the learner in two different lesson moments. Note what they do independently and with support.
  4. Write three strengths, one participation barrier, one question to explore and one small goal. Share the goal with the learner.

Fictional worked example

See the decisions in practice

Fictional learner

Mai, aged 12, uses Vietnamese and English. She enjoys practical Science and talks readily with a partner. In one lesson she labels a force diagram accurately, but her written explanation is only “same force”. This is a starting observation, not a diagnosis or a CEFR placement.

Teacher response

Ask Mai to explain the diagram using pointing, labels and any language resources she finds useful. Check the scientific reasoning separately from the English wording. Agree a goal: explain one diagram to a partner and record a sentence showing why it is balanced.

Record

Strength: connects arrows to forces. Barrier: has not yet expressed the relationship in a complete written explanation. Next enquiry: what can she explain orally, and what changes when a model is available?

Make your weekly record

Create a short learner snapshot: languages and interests; three observed strengths; task and support conditions; learner voice; one participation goal; one unanswered question.

Reflect on what happened

  • Which strength changed my initial assumptions?
  • What have I observed directly, and what am I guessing?
  • What does the learner say would help?

Discuss with a colleague

Compare your snapshot with your colleague’s knowledge. Agree one observation to collect next week and who will check in with the learner.

For the EAL colleague: Connect the snapshot to admissions and existing assessment information. Check that the learner’s voice and subject-teacher observations are both represented.

For the subject teacher: Bring one real classroom task and your observations to the EAL colleague. Ask what further evidence would make your support more precise.

Pause and think

A learner is quiet in a whole-class discussion but explains the topic accurately to a friend in another language. What would you investigate next?

Compare your thinking

Explore the learner’s understanding through a supported explanation, while checking how confidence, task familiarity, processing time and English demands affect participation. Silence alone does not establish low understanding or a learning difficulty.

Use these resources

Further reading: British Council: using multilingual practices ↗. This week’s sequence and examples are original EAL in Practice materials.

Your week 1 record

Plan, trial and reflect

Use a pseudonym. Your notes save only in this browser; download a copy to keep them elsewhere.