I’ve been writing a bit about disciplinary literacy this week. If you’re not familiar with the term, it’s *basically* how people communicate, share knowledge, etc within a particular discipline. For the purposes of teaching EAL, think about how we teach… Read More ›

ESL
EAL support for mainstream English
What does ‘EAL support’ look like in (or alongside) mainstream English lessons. Here’s an example of some support I provide to help with literature. It was with a Year 7 class (all learners on the EAL register). They were studying… Read More ›
Primary Science Resources
I was tagged in a post about Primary Science resources on LinkedIn: Thanks for the tag Silvina Mascitti. I had a few suggestions but LinkedIn didn’t like something about my response (maybe too long? Too many links? Not sure –… Read More ›
Reflections on my EAL role
I’ve just finished a stint working in English as an Additional Language (EAL) at an international school. It’s been a really interesting experience, and one that has changed my direction in both teaching and writing. I know many teachers (especially… Read More ›
EAL Science: Command words/phrases
Just a quick share – something we’ve been doing in EAL. Our learners in KS3 and KS4 are developing their knowledge of task types, both for in-class activities and for their exams. I’m doing little ‘command word challenges’ as starters… Read More ›
Overview: EAL resources from Ellii
There’s a new section on Ellii (great site) for Academic Vocabulary. Here’s the blurb: ‘A content- and language-integrated learning approach gives K–12 students a chance to learn English and an academic subject at the same time. The resources in this… Read More ›
Materials writing news and views, January 2022
Not much to report at the start of the year, but a few bits and bobs. New releases I haven’t really been on the lookout for these recently tbh, but I did see Michelle Worgan’s book Move! For A1 Movers… Read More ›
Drama activity: Frozen in Time
We’ve been doing lots of drama tasks recently. Here’s one that worked really well. (See these slides on Genially) Excuse any spelling errors etc, I took the link from a draft of mine and Rich McCully’s TEFL role play book…. Read More ›
What’s it like to write for ESL Library?
I’ve been working on a cool new series of functional Business English lessons for ESL Library. Here’s a bit about the approach taken and my experience of working with ESL Library. The overall content Here’s the basic info: And here… Read More ›
EAL Science and CLILing it
I’m supporting in some really interesting classes this term, especially Science. The subject knowledge of those Science teachers is pretty impressive, especially once you get to KS4. The need for language support in our class tends to be high. The… Read More ›