Teaching Children with English as an Additional Language (EAL): what teachers say they think and do

19th February 2019 : 13:00 - 14:00

Applied Linguistics Lunchtime Seminar Series Event

In this presentation Naomi Flynn will talk about some of the outcomes from the EAL Teaching in England Survey which sought teachers’ views on the teaching of children with EAL. Findings related to what teachers said about the once current DfE proficiency scales have already been published (Flynn & Curdt-Christiansen, 2018), but in this talk Naomi will present other outcomes from the same survey. Specifically, she will talk about those questions which asked teachers both how they advocate for children with EAL and what their beliefs are about effective practice for EAL. Some survey questions, and their responses, were further explored using focus groups of practitioners, and Naomi will reflect on the interesting differences between survey answers and face to face conversations. Discussion will shed light on the methodological complexities of engaging teachers in talking about and identifying their practices.