Differentiation is key to meeting teaching and learning objectives at school. Some students need extra help to reach required achievement standards, others are exceeding expectations and need to be extended, and still others need a different way of thinking about achievement standards altogether.
English-as-an–additional-language (EAL) students in Australia are generally labelled as EAL because they are considered to need some kind of additional language support. It can be difficult for them to achieve - and/or display their understanding of - the relevant standards. They benefit from the scaffolding and recycling of English and also explicit language instruction.
Language-sensitive teaching strategies are very useful to all students. However, it is fair to say that non-EAL students commonly know their way around conversational English and know how to build and put together English sentences even if they cannot express this knowledge. We mostly differentiate for EAL students in order to simplify language and teach functional English across mainstream classrooms.
Differentiated instruction can include adapting (1) the content of lessons, (2) the way the content is taught, and (3) what students are required to produce. This is important for EAL students, both for teaching them new material and also building on what they already know.
However, when it comes to language diversity, if we solely focus on EAL differentiation, we miss ways to engage and extend the learning of the whole class, including the EAL students.
Focusing on language in a broader sense by differentiating students’ knowledge but not differentiating instruction can be a powerful tool for teaching and learning.
When considering what this might look like in the classroom, it can help to think of language use in relation to two dimensions:
Student engagement
Learning content
Enabling student engagement requires thinking of learning activities that allow different kinds of language knowledge into the classroom - and also thinking how this knowledge might overlap (or not) with English and other languages.
For example, students might be able to write in languages that share a script (English and Spanish) or aspects of a ‘script’ (Chinese and Japanese), or not share a script at all (English and Japanese). Some might speak a language but not write it and some might understand what family members are saying but reply in English. Some students might be learning Italian at school and others might be learning Japanese.
Ways that students can bring their language knowledge to class and share it with their peers and with the teacher will depend on the type of class and the educational setting in general.
Learning content then requires thinking about student engagement – their language practices and experiences. Content can be introduced or revised in a different, fun way by inviting students’ language practices in class, and also collaborating with other teachers, such as language teachers.
Maybe this includes reading Italian or Spanish and finding cognates that are similar to English, or using Chinese characters to ‘see’ English words in different ways - the characters can be translated back into English in a way that helps to understand more opaque English word (i.e. the term organism in Science is easier to understand through Chinese characters 生物 that mean ‘life-thing’).
Introducing and revising content is one way to think about meaningful use of different language practices for the whole class.
Another way is to think about extending students by providing opportunities to integrate a language they use at home with their class-based learning. This kind of integration can also be extended to students learning a language at school, in collaboration with the language teacher.
A broad approach to language diversity that works with different kinds of language practices can help EAL students to engage positively in class while they learn the English they need to do well academically. Allowing home languages to enter the classroom (and valuing those languages) is beneficial to the students’ sense of belonging and language development as a whole.
Considering the diverse language practices of students or the language of their language classes at school can be a fun learning opportunity for everyone, and can be applied gradually. Neither the teacher nor all the students need to know a particular language in order for it to enter the classroom.
Creating an atmosphere that is open to learning is most important. There are plenty of resources that can help you to understand, both human and otherwise. Language teachers, bi/multilingual teachers, parents, not to mention AI resources that are improving by-the-minute.
And the best resource is the students themselves. Exploring and extending what they know is a wonderful place to start.
Related reading
Turner, M. (2019). Multilingualism as a resource and a goal: Using and learning languages in mainstream schools. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave MacMillan.