Challenge and opportunity: Supporting the transition for Year 7 students using EAL (2023)

The transition to 7th grade is a difficult time for all students, especially those for whom English is an additional language. Sarah Moodie offers ideas, tips, resources and advice for colleges looking to admit EAL pupils in September

Every September, a new cohort starts in seventh grade. Some come with a positive attitude, relatively self-confident and full of anticipation for a new, larger environment, new subjects and new acquaintances.

For others, the transition is terrifying. They are afraid of getting lost, difficulties at work and feeling lonely. And for many, it is a mixture of all these feelings.

Of course, teachers must try to harness the tension and remove doubts and fears.

Researchers from the Universities of Leeds and Lancaster investigated the language challenges faced by all students moving from Level 2 to Level 3 (Deignan et al., 2023). They illustrate the explosion of vocabulary as the curriculum is divided into disciplines taught by multiple subject teachers.

There is a sudden shift in tone from narrative to abstract, more complex grammatical structures are routinely used, and patterns of interaction also change as high school students listen longer to the teacher's directions.

Research has not yet proven that these language challenges are the cause of the often-reported drop in achievement in seventh grade, but they do appear to be a contributing factor.

Transition notes for EAL students

Students who use English as an additional language (EAL) are a very diverse group, including but not limited to those who grew up in the UK, those who arrive as children of migrants, asylum seekers, students from different socio-economic backgrounds, etc. Students with different SENDs and none. Common to them is the need to develop their knowledge of the English language, at the same time as they acquire the content of the curriculum.

In addition to the transition from Level 2 to Level 3, EAL students are at different stages of transition from using a second language as their primary learning tool to learning English. For this reason, the language challenges highlighted in the study cited above are likely to increase.

It can take longer to get used to the many subject teachers, each with their own mannerisms and accents, as well as polysemic words that can lead to misunderstandings. With the right mindset and support, students can use the changes as an opportunity to develop their English skills alongside learning in the curriculum.

Notes on asylum seekers

Another heterogeneous group is refugees and asylum seekers. Some may have had extensive age-appropriate education before moving.

For others, education may be seriously disrupted, or they may have periods when they cannot go to school at all. Some may already have experience learning English, while others may be completely new to the language. However, they have all been forced to leave their homes and homelands and seek safety elsewhere, and have undergone many unwanted changes as a result.

Having to change schools at the age of 11 can be culturally foreign and another unwanted expense is the need for new uniforms etc. Newly arrived families can find it difficult to make the physical journey to the secondary school which is often further away from the family home.

With these factors in mind, schools should ensure that translated information about school buses, uniform shops and any funding opportunities are available.

Keep in mind that exposure to traumatic events can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder, which has been shown to negatively impact language learning (Furneaux, 2018). Although it is unlikely that all asylum-seeking students will be affected, a greater emphasis on well-being and the development of security and belonging in the new school is recommended.

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School closures and lockdowns during the pandemic have left many EAL students unable to hear and speak English in social situations.

Research by the Bell Foundation found that school children using EAL suffered from "speech loss" in English, particularly in productive writing and speaking skills, while the level of student engagement with curriculum content varies depending on factors such as variable access to technology and quiet places to study (Scott, 2021).

On September 7, 2023, he was in 4th or 5th grade during the 2020/21 closures and partial school closures. Therefore, teachers should provide as many opportunities as possible to develop speaking and writing skills through scaffolding and modeling. The Bell Foundation has useful resources on prediction, scaffolding and modeling (see Resources).

What can schools do?Bbefore they pass?

Bring together EAL specialists from Key Stages 2 and 3 and give them time to exchange ideas and discuss:

• Students' English skills (you can use an EAL assessment framework, such as those developed by the Bell Foundation).
• Length of study in the UK.
• Mother tongue, reading skills and preferred language for communication with parents/guardians.
• The student's strengths and talents.
• Areas of the curriculum they find more difficult.
• Everyone knew SEND.
• Leisure activities and sports clubs participated in the elementary school and possible offers in the high school.
• The type of language support students currently receive and how this can be continued.

Multi-academic foundations and colleges with established post-secondary schools have already established links, but it is important not to neglect pupils who come from primary schools outside regular post-secondary schools.

Meet elsewhere with external services such as family liaison officers or educational welfare officers who may have worked with the student and/or family.

Consider creating your own EAL database or student profile system to collect and compile useful data about students using EAL and share it with staff to sit alongside or within existing school systems for integration.

The Ministry of Education's Common Transfer File (DfE, 2022) does not contain all this information. Please note that some information may become known gradually as schools and students get to know each other better. The Bell Foundation offers free guides on how to create a student profile (see Resources).

How can schoolsall go out to my parents?

Like their children, parents of EAL pupils will be a diverse group. Some may not make contact because they fear language barriers, are reluctant to contact authorities due to previous negative experiences, or are simply reluctant due to work commitments. For many this may be their first encounter with a UK secondary school and there may be misunderstandings or concerns about the expected role of parents in school life.

Building positive home-school relationships is likely to influence student engagement, participation, and achievement. Once you have established a good relationship with your primary school, try to strengthen it by initiating a parent meeting with key staff at both schools. If not, take this as an opportunity to increase parental involvement.

Find out what the families' preferences are for communication in the home (email, phone, text, etc.) and what language to use for translation. Consider coffee mornings/evenings where parents can access interpreters, meet staff at the new school and perhaps be shown around the school.

The Bell Foundation has some useful parenting guides, translated into 21 languages, including Ukrainian and Dari, that explain how the school system works in England (see Resources).

If you are organizing induction camps/summer schools/welcome parties for Year 7, ensure that families with EAL children are invited with translated information and preferably the opportunity to ask questions in their mother tongue. These events may be culturally unfamiliar to some parents, but can be a useful way to increase social inclusion.

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If the pupil received support from an EAL specialist in primary school, consider inviting this specialist to attend transition days in secondary school. If this support is to continue among secondary school professionals, care should be taken to introduce it.

Use young interpreters (see the Hampshire sample program link for more information), language ambassadors or other student representatives to speak to newcomers in their native language. This will help facilitate the social integration of EAL students, particularly students who are in the early stages of English language acquisition. It also emphasizes the school's positive message about multilingualism.

When September comes

Avoid making too many judgments in the early stages. If CAT4 tests are used, give EAL students more time, make the instructions as clear as possible or translate them.

Look for "top profiles" of EAL students where non-verbal grades are significantly higher than verbal grades, as this suggests that the overall grade is indicative of the student's level of English proficiency rather than their innate cognitive ability.

Keep the grouping flexible. Irrevocable decisions based on short-term assessments are not helpful for EAL learners, as many of them make rapid progress in developing their language skills.

Ensure teachers are trained to welcome EAL pupils and provide them with the best pedagogy. The Bell Foundation runs a series of training courses on welcoming new arrivals and adaptive learning.

Rola Ssubject teacher

Try to spend short periods explicitly teaching vocabulary. A useful aspect of vocabulary is polysemy,association of a word with more than one meaning, which can cause confusion for language learners.

For example, it is possible that seventh grade elementary school students have become familiar with the word "concentration," meaning mental focus. They may not know the scientific meaning of either the geographical term or the term "concentration camp".

If you know a specific polysemous word in your subject, spending a few minutes explaining it can be beneficial for all students, but especially for those using EAL (see Huntingdon Research School, 2021).

It is also worth checking that you understand the most important everyday concepts you use in class. A student may be familiar with the term "subtraction" in math, but not "subtraction," "minus," or "subtraction."

In addition, students will be exposed to and use more academic language at Key Stages 3, 4 and 5. For most subjects, their proficiency level will be at least partly based on this competency.

A great way to teach and learn grammar is context. So if a task requires a specific structure that is complicated (eg using "could" and "should have" when thinking or analyzing), take time to emphasize this, show some example sentences, and students can practice by creating their own examples (The Bell Foundation runs "Language for Learning" courses.)

advice for fTeachers/priests Orm

• Make sure you can pronounce your child's name correctly and tell the rest of the staff. Hearing her name pronounced differently at her new school can add to the sense of confusion.
• Be aware of which students are refugees or asylum seekers. There are guides from the Bell Foundation with links and resources.
• Explain that the students' mother tongue will continue to be valued in upper secondary school. Reference to any existing post-secondary schools. The development of the mother tongue is important not only for the learner's sense of identity, but also allows them to build on existing linguistic and curriculum knowledge. If GCSEs are available in their mother tongue, please inform your students of this option.
• Identify clubs or activities outside of the school's special interest that may interest students and allow them to expand their friendship networks. A sense of continuity from elementary school as well as expansion (eg continuing to play on the soccer team and starting to jump on a trampoline) can help build a sense of security while opening up new opportunities.

• Sarah Moody is a lecturer at the Bell Foundation, a charity dedicated to overcoming exclusion through language education.Visitwww.bell-foundation.org.uk

More information and resources

• Bailey & Baines:The effect and risk of resilience factors on the adaptation of children after the transition from primary to secondary school, educational and child psychology(29), 2012:http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10011539/
• Deignan, Candarli and Oxley:The upper secondary school's transition to a language challenge, Routledge'a,2023. This book is open. Find this and related more comprehensive research and articles on the topichttps://linguistictransition.leeds.ac.uk/
• DfE: Joint Broadcast File, 2022:https://bit.ly/3W4zHKH
• EEF:Tool for changing schools, 2021:https://bit.ly/3Bi0vOb
• Furneaux:Trauma and learning a second/foreign language.In language of resistance: crossDis disciplinaryPperspective,hood(bred.), British Council, 2018:https://bit.ly/3M8FMBj
• Services in Hampshire: Junior Interpreter Scheme:https://bit.ly/2WER0EXHuntingdon Research School:polysemy in the classroom,2021:https://researchschool.org.uk/huntington/news/polysemy-in-the-classroom
• Scott:Loss of language and learning:Evidence for children who consumeEnglish as an additional language, Bell Foundation, 2021:https://bit.ly/3I4v7pQ

Bell Foundations ressourcer

• EAL assessment framework:https://bit.ly/3oNXmjM
• Improve conversations in the classroom:https://bit.ly/42uYBWm
• Create a study profile:https://bit.ly/3HZTKnR
• Model:https://bit.ly/3Mi7ooS
• Instructions on parental involvement:https://bit.ly/3AmRpN3
• Counseling for refugees and asylum seekers:https://bit.ly/3llevQ4
• Structure:https://bit.ly/2YrPTMa
• Education and training:https://bit.ly/3b7OFc9