(This is a text-heavy post, so every now and then I’m going to drop in an album cover of a band I’ve been listening to recently – just so you don’t get bored) I’m building an ‘academic English syllabus’ for… Read More ›
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EAL Digest August 2026
Shorter summary than usual, but I’ve been a bit busy! New releases The new EAL Journal from NALDIC is out: Putting Multilingualism on the Map. Find out more here. Jason Anderson and Suyog Dixit have a new book out: Translanguaging… Read More ›
Teaching EAL learners: talk for iQTS candidates (Uni of Sunderland)
I was invited by Uni of Sunderland to talk to their iQTS candidates about EAL teaching strategies. I had an open brief, so I opted to share some more general tips for early careers teachers. I talked about: There was… Read More ›
EAL adaptations: Poetry, Year 6
Our current poetry unit with Year 6 is probably the strongest planning I’ve picked up this year. Minimal adaptation needed, mostly accessible, fun, and the level of challenge is spot on really. It just needs tiny tweaks. Here are some… Read More ›
Interview task: Optimising the development of SLA in an international school
I had a positive job hunting experience towards the end of this week. I put out the feelers for work at a good school on Wednesday, was offered an interview on Thursday, interviewed Friday morning, then rejected Friday afternoon. Why… Read More ›
Research in brief: Disciplinary literacy and verbal language in PE
I haven’t come across many studies into disciplinary literacy development in PE, so this action research from Lindberg (2024) is fascinating. Here’s a very brief summary – logging it here for my own reference more than anything! The action research… Read More ›
Some general tasks for a new EAL department
I’ve posted a bit about the process of setting up a new EAL department. I’ve mentioned target setting, establishing teaching and learning principles, quality assurance processes, long- and medium-term planning, blah blah. You can view the posts through my Teaching… Read More ›
Assessment Only Route to QTS: Interview Presentation
Part of the interview process for the AO Route to QTS (Sunderland) is delivering a presentation. You do this during the live interview. The presentation lasts approximately 20 minutes, and it’s recorded for moderation. During the interview you should respond… Read More ›
One of our research areas is missing
I’ve been flicking through Jamie Clark’s Teaching One-Pagers recently, and overall I’m a big fan. Evidence-informed summaries of research and practice – informative, accessible, perfect for the staffroom coffee table. As Oliver Caviglioli points out in the foreword, One-Pagers is… Read More ›
Pre-teaching academic vocabulary
This term we’re trialing an approach to pre-teaching academic vocabulary. Here’s the basic process: Step 1: Subject teachers identify 10-12 items of key vocab for an upcoming topic in either science, humanities, or maths. This should happen a couple of… Read More ›
ELT Planning 