When I worked as an English Teacher, I was always amazed at the enthusiasm of young learners who found reading a challenge when the S6 mentor students appeared at the door to take these pupils for Paired Reading sessions. The same thing struck me when I moved to Support for Learning and was tutor to Community Involvement (then latterly Volunteering Skills) students, hearing their feedback about working as Paired Readers amongst other roles in classrooms. It really shouldn’t have been so surprising though: when we observe more closely the dynamics within group work and paired tasks in classes, what we often see is peers mentoring and learning from peers. It’s hardly the greatest observation to have been made in teaching, but it’s one that we don’t often use to its full advantage.
One thing that has struck me in my new role as EAL Teacher, is that the job seems too big for the time allocated to do it in. My allocation of time to one secondary school covers the equivalent of one day per week, six periods to provide support to all of the EAL learners there of whom there are quite a few! Of course, learners can be seen together in groups, but one period of support for this will never be enough. But then, does it need to be?
One of the issues teachers are sometimes guilty of, is not recognising their role as facilitator of learning. As a subject specialist, let alone a member of a team going into schools to offer specialist support, it’s hard not to see yourself as being at the core of learning and teaching. That’s why you’re brought in, after all, to be the specialist on whom learning and teaching rests is it not? And, of course, their is validity in holding this view. But isn’t there a better way, especially when what you can really offer is so restricted by time?
This brought me back to the idea of peer mentoring but specifically for EAL learners. You can imagine my delight, then, when a quick search on Google brought me to the home page of the Hampshire Services’ Young Interpreter Scheme, an award winning initiative set up over a decade ago and still going strong. The scheme provides training for 5-16 year old learners to develop the skills needed to help new arrivals with English as an Additional Language. By its own admission the scheme is “stunningly simple”, but greatly effective, and has me eager to learn more.
The barriers removed through peer mentoring and learning are well known; equally, the benefits to mentors as well as learners of taking part. While there are always opportunities for learners to volunteer in schools, this seems a real possibility to enhance the provision for EAL learners through a more formal commitment to volunteering in the school community specifically to mentor learners with EAL.
