Creative Language for Pupils with ESL

I was so pleased to be invited by Famida Choudhary to speak on the Teachers’ Talk Radio podcast for the UAE last Saturday. Working with pupils with English as an additional language has long been my passion, initially sparked during my 17 years working in The Caribbean. Because 14 of those years were dedicated to isolated small communities where everyone spoke entirely in patois, the experience and issues for reading, writing and communication reflected those of second language learners.

I will never ever forget being met off the plane on our very first arrival from our first ever flight in 1970 by a gentleman who greeted us warmly but we could not understand one word that he said in the 36 plus mile journey to our community. By the time of our arrival we had grown an escort of a number of youths in the backs of open trucks, who joined in our induction to our new home – all speaking in a seemingly totally foreign tongue. I well remember our fear and bewilderment, and our frequent whispers to each other of ‘What did he say?’ and ‘What do you think they are talking about?’ as we attempted to smile and nod sagely.

That must be similar to but far less intimidating than the experience for a young child of arriving in a classroom where everyone is speaking in a language foreign to them and where no-one appears to speak their language. What would you and I do if we went to a class in a faraway community and found it was all delivered in an unknown tongue? If we had eachother we would say exactly what the ex-husband and I said to each other – ‘What do you think they are saying? What must we do?’ If we were alone – we would sit in silence, probably in some fear and trepidation.

The cruciality of sitting new pupils who do not yet speak English with others who do speak their first language, or with whom they share a second or third language, should be self-evident and yet many teachers, believing they are acting in a child’s best interests, will separate those very children so that they CANNOT communicate in anything but English. This is not just misguided, it is unwittingly cruel.

When a teacher has completed the taught input of a lesson – or at intervals throughout the input if it is lengthy – ALL children should be given time for focused talk to discuss and agree what they have learnt from that input. This is as beneficial and empowering for first language English speakers as it is for those learning through English as a second or additional language. If all children cannot repeat what was taught, we must respond and clarify or simplify the input. If they can repeat the content, they are starting the process of embedding it and of clarifying meaning for themselves.

Equally, following the instructions for what is to be done by the children in a lesson, they should ALL repeat and agree with each other what the task or activity is. Again, a lack of recall or understanding would show that there may be inhibitors to executing the instructions and further clarification may be required.

These focused talk sessions are key to success for all children. For children new to English, they should preferably be in first language or a shared language, with increasing additions in English as the days and weeks pass.

The interesting outcome of this approach is, that ANY time children are to learn new sentence structures, new vocabulary or new phraseology in order to either improve spoken or written communication, the same approaches should be involved. How does the baby learn its first words? How does the toddler learn its first phrases and then simple sentences? It is through repetition and frequent practise – and through being steeped in talk. In silent homes, language development is delayed. Isolated children who do not learn to talk by age seven will never learn to talk – unless the isolation was psychological rather than imposed.

We learnt our first simple sentences through listening and repeating – over and over again. We widen our language banks through listening and repeating. We widen our vocabulary through listening and repeating or through reading and repeating in speech or in writing. We develop a creative voice through hearing and repeating – we develop oratory through hearing and repeating – all with quality modelling, explanation and interpretation to support us. That is called TEACHING.

Some of us were lucky and we learnt to talk confidently – code switching between restricted conversational codes and elaborated codes with ease as we chose – in the home with a family of talkers who steeped our lives in language through discussion, debate, argument, explanation and so on. Others of us were equally lucky if we entered an Early Years setting that compensated for a lack of these pre-school opportunities by constant and rich, focused talk. Some of us were never so lucky…

Research tells us that the average adult knows around fifteen to twenty thousand words, while the highly educated adult may know up to fifty thousand, but a proportion of the adult population only knows around twelve thousand words despite not having a special need or a disability. This can have a significant impact on achievement and life opportunities.

Teaching new vocabulary, including rich and emotive words, not only increases opportunity and enables wider decoding and understanding of more advanced texts but also impacts on a pupil’s ability as a creative writer or powerful speaker. The overlap between the skills that empower an orator and those that underpin a successful writer, including a wide range of sentence structures and vocabulary that are enhanced by suave features as identified in our Talk:Write Programme, enable teachers to focus on the teaching of these features to ensure success across and within the curriculum at all levels.

So teach words and structures proactively, use focused talk activities to ensure full understanding and the ability to successfully achieve any task required, and then use a range of enjoyable and interesting ‘games’ and activities to embed the strategies in long term memory and to practise using these features in a wide range of contexts – both oral and written. And know that the ‘power’ word in the previous sentence is TEACH. Always remember, when considering the potential of your pupils, the enrichment of the curriculum and the diverse experiences you are making available, that teachers make the difference, ergo:

‘YOUR TEACHING makes the difference – OR NOT…’