Children can arrive with any degree of first language literacy, from some early literacy skills to age-appropriate skills expected for a child in upper stages. Formal schooling can begin later depending on the child’s home country, with children starting at age seven in many countries. It is important to confirm the child’s previous educational experience and what skills they already have in first language.

EAL initial assessment will provide some information on L1 proficiency, but it can sometimes take some time for children to feel comfortable to use their first language skills in the school where English is the majority language.

Where the child has learned literacy skills it is important to recognise that they will not need to learn those skills again, only the differences between English and their first language. The iceberg picture shows how on the surface we may only see what the child can communicate in English, but just like most of the iceberg is hidden below the surface, the child may have much greater knowledge of the concept than they can show.

For example, there may be different sounds/letters in English, or the conventions for use of capital letters may be different. If they already understand the concepts of persuasive writing, they will not need to learn the concept again, only the English vocabulary and structures that will help them to demonstrate their knowledge. See the section on activating prior learning.

Consider first language influence on English. Many aspects of the child’s English language acquisition may be influenced by their first language.

o   Information on other languages can be accessed from the EAL service and from many other sources.

o   Other languages may have a different alphabet/script and may be written in a different direction.

o   Characters may look the same as English letters but have different sounds.

o   Some sounds may be present in English but not in the first language and vice versa. This can also be true for groups of sounds/consonant clusters. Be aware that many children have difficulty hearing, recognising and pronouncing many English sounds/sound combinations.

For example, for Arabic speakers:

§  ‘p’ is difficult to pronounce, often pronounced as ‘b’

§  consonant clusters of more than two consonants can be challenging. They would often add a vowel i.e. spilit, ithrew, lengthes (split, threw, lengths)

§  vowel sounds can be tricky – English has around three times the number of vowel sounds, so learners may find perceiving differences/producing vowels challenging – i.e. ship/sheep and bad/bed. This can make decoding and blending more challenging.

Children with other first languages may experience the same or different challenges, depending on their first language.

o   Information on the common areas of difficulty for English language learners is available from the EAL Service. Learner English (Swan, M. & Smith, B., 2001) 978-0521779395 has detailed information on some language although is quite technical.

Depending on their previous educational experiences, children may have some English literacy skills. They may be able to decode some words with or without understanding.

If they have no first language (L1) literacy skills but have some in English, they will not have the prior knowledge of L1 literacy on which to build their English skills. They should still be able to acquire the skills, but they will be learning the concept from the beginning.

It is important to encourage the family to support first language development at home, including reading stories in first language, which is a rich source of vocabulary. See the section on multilingualism for more information.

Children will benefit from a dual language dictionary (first thousand words (Usborne) & My Bilingual Talking Dictionary suitable for early primary, DK Visual Dictionary suitable for later primary, L1/English word power dictionaries suitable for late primary and secondary. Ebook versions of many books are available too. You can find these from a range of sources including Amazon, Mantra Lingua UK, Browns Books and many other suppliers.

A range of translated resources are available from the EAL Service. A huge range of translated resources are also available online. Some caution should be used as it would be difficult to verify the quality and accuracy of resources. Translations can contain errors, especially if they have been translated using an app or website rather than professional translation. Sticking to well known sources should help to avoid errors.

Translated resources available from Twinkl will be helpful to children who are literate in first language.

As always with translated resources, some languages will have more resources than others. It depends on which languages were in high demand for the organisation or person who developed the resources.