English as an Additional Language and educational achievement in England: Understanding the evidence beyond aggregate statistics

Pupils recorded as speaking English as an Additional Language (EAL) now make up over one in five of the school population in England, and more schools over a broader range of local areas in England have pupils speaking EAL than was the case a decade ago. On average, these pupils perform as well as—or in some cases better than—their monolingual English-speaking peers by the end of compulsory schooling. However, these aggregate statistics mask substantial variation within the EAL group and obscure important differences in individual circumstances and support needs.

Drawing on analysis of individual-pupil-level data from the National Pupil Database, this presentation considers educational attainment among pupils speaking EAL at key stages of compulsory education in England (at ages 5, 7, 11, and 16 years), with particular attention to the effect of pupils’ year of entry into the English school system. Although pupils who enter in Reception “catch up” with monolingual English (MLE)-speaking peers by the end of primary school, pupils who enter in year 1 or later are at an educational disadvantage increasing with later entry. The same is true for secondary school, where pupils who entered the education system in year 5 “catch up” by the end of secondary school, those who enter later are at increasing educational disadvantage with later entry. Findings also highlight the limitations of the EAL flag in the NPD as a proxy for language proficiency or language support needs, where pupils speaking EAL might be fully bilingual and fluent in English, new to English, or anywhere in-between.

Taken together, the findings point to the importance of considering proficiency in English (or a reasonable proxy for it via year of entry) and the nature and duration of support provided to pupils speaking EAL. It is well established in this and other research that it takes, on average, at least 6 years for pupils who are new to English to gain the academic proficiency in English necessary to fully access the curriculum in schools where English is the language of instruction, and the current way in which EAL support is funded (via a fixed allocation of funding for three years after a pupil joins the school system) is therefore not sufficient to help later arrivals to close achievement gaps. We will end by discussing implications for policy and practice in England, particularly around funding structures, assessment and targeting of support, and teacher professional development.

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AL lunchtime seminar: Ariel Lindorff | Join meeting in Teams | Microsoft Teams