Use multilingual resources to support EAL learners’ subject understanding, participation and English development. Plan the bridge into the required English response and check each learner’s understanding.
Translanguaging draws on the language resources learners use to make meaning. Planned classroom use can include discussion, annotation, comparison of terms, reading and rehearsal. It can support subject understanding while English language development remains an explicit goal. A short language window is one planning routine, rather than the definition of every translanguaging practice.
What thinking will another language help learners do? What will they produce? How will you check individual understanding? Students should have a useful option even when they do not share a language with a peer.
Use space, time, purpose and output as planning prompts. Adjust the time window to the task; the aim is useful meaning-making, rather than policing every language choice.
Use a short subject text or diagram. Let learners annotate meanings or questions using familiar languages before building an English explanation.
Check: Each learner explains the concept using evidence from the text or diagram.
A brief discussion in a familiar language can help learners organise a difficult explanation. Make the route into the required English text explicit.
Check: The final response preserves the original thinking; it is not simply a copied translation.
Words do not always have neat one-to-one equivalents. Record a meaning, example, visual or usage note alongside the English term.
Check: Students can use the concept in context, rather than repeat a dictionary entry.
After a gist viewing, invite a short multilingual discussion of the main message. On replay, collect evidence for an English summary.
Check: The learner can distinguish the media’s claim from their own interpretation.
Offer alternatives: bilingual annotations, a labelled sketch, a trusted glossary, individual rehearsal or discussion with an English language frame.
Check: No learner is excluded from the activity by the grouping arrangement.
Observe whether the language arrangement helped learners understand, participate and produce a stronger response.
Check: The teacher can describe what improved and what still needs teaching.
| Subject | Multilingual thinking | English bridge and evidence check |
|---|---|---|
| Humanities | Discuss how a source’s purpose shapes its message; compare meanings of a key concept. | Write an interpretation with one supporting detail and one limitation. |
| Maths | Explain a relationship with familiar language and a bar model or equation. | Use English relational language to justify the operation and check the answer. |
| Science | Discuss the mechanism represented by a diagram, keeping labels and units visible. | Produce an English explanation connecting cause, process and observation. |
Explain the purpose, expected product, working arrangement and transition. Model a useful discussion question.
Check: Learners know what they are doing and why.
A translation is a resource to check, not evidence that a student understands. Be especially careful with subject meanings, units and causal relationships.
Check: A learner can explain or apply the translated idea without relying on the tool.
Complete these fields, then download an editable plan or print it. Your draft is stored in this browser when storage is available.
Further reading: British Council: using multilingual practices ↗; Using multilingual approaches ↗.