How Assistive Tech Can Support EAL Learners
Language-learning isn’t easy. And English is often cited as one of the hardest to learn, whether you’re coming to it at the age of four, fourteen, or fifty-four.
As a lexical system, it features odd and antiquated grammatical systems and rules that aren’t found in that many world languages. It’s also fairly vocabulary-intensive, with around 170,000 words in the lexicon, compared to the 85,000 and 93,000 we’d commonly find in the Chinese or the Spanish dictionary respectively – so although it’s nowhere near the 500,000 we might find in Japanese or the staggering 1.1 million words that make up the Korean language, it’s still a lot for English learners to take in at any level. And this means that the students who come into a classroom with a different home language to the one they’re learning in might feel over-faced, disoriented and struggle to push through the learning language barrier despite the fact they’re immersed in English for most of the school day.
Fortunately, there’s some first-class tech support solutions on hand to make sure that EAL learners don’t feel shut out or left behind when it comes to learning – but first, let’s take a closer look at EAL learners and their educators in terms of what they might be dealing with to get a better picture of the learning landscape.
What ‘EAL’ Means
‘EAL’ means any student that comes to the classroom with English being the non-dominant language they’ve grown up with up until that point. It doesn’t mean that they only speak English and another language – indeed, a lot of EAL learners are bilingual (able to speak two languages) or multilingual (able to speak multiple languages) long before they ever come into contact with English as a language- but it means that English is a non-dominant language in their lives outside of school.
In real terms, this could mean a student who’s grown up in another country, or simply a student who’s grown up in a community where the precipitation of English isn’t that high. There are currently 11 widespread languages spoken in the UK in addition to standard English, with indigenous languages like Welsh having larger bodies, followed by languages such as Polish and Punjabi that have come to the UK with their speakers who have moved to the UK from abroad. This means that there a large number of students in the UK who don’t have English as their home language, or grow up surrounded by two languages - and supporting them needs to be a key concern in the modern classroom.
What Kind of Difficulties Can EAL Students Face?
It’s more than struggling to understand worksheets, or needing extra time to decode what’s being said in a conversation. A lot of the time, EAL students whose relationship with English isn’t as developed might…
· Have difficulty understanding instructions such as what to do, where to go, or how to participate
· Struggle in exams and assessments when language support isn’t on-hand
· Struggle moving up between book bands or when developing their reading age due to new words and more complex structures
· Have difficulty in forming social bonds with their peers
· Struggle to work in groups where communication and collaboration are required to complete a task
· Feel anxiety in the classroom and suffer from a lack of confidence
· Show disruptive or detached attitudes towards learning through feeling ‘shut out’
· Struggle to deviate from set learning patterns; i.e. when faced with a creative task or a spoken task if they’re used to worksheets
· Face difficulties in getting their neurodiversities identified as easily as a student with English as their first language might
What Does This Mean for Educators?
We don’t always have solid, standard methodologies it comes to EAL students – instruction that’s an accessible level for one isn’t necessarily going to be for the rest of the EAL students in a class or year group. The level of English somebody is comfortable with can vary based on factors such as their home language(s), how long they’ve been exposed to English, how long they’ve been education, how supported their English learning is at home, whether they have a lot of English-speaking social contact in their lives, whether they have Special Educational Needs (SEN), whether they’re neurodiverse, and even what their mental health is like too.
This means that there’s no one-size-fits all approach for EAL programmes and instruction, and it can sometimes leave educators feeling pulled in multiple directions. We’ll be running a blog on making sure that your EAL programme is accessible next week, so stay tuned – but there are some amazing tech supports available in 2022 that can make all the difference when it comes to opening the doors to education for EAL learners all over the world.
Part of great EAL provision is fostering a relationship with the English language in EAL learners that goes beyond the educational, and means they’re not only able to sit an exam in English, but they have the confidence to converse comfortably with their peers and access media in it too. But this is an intensive process that requires not only the dedication and expertise of educators, SENCOs and support staff, but support that students can use to support themselves, to foster independence and confidence in English in a way that they can carry through into every aspect of their lives.
How Dedicated EdTech Can Offer Support
There are lots of solutions that can support developing literacy and language acquisition – a ‘toolbox approach’ is often a great way to approach this, with high-tech solutions like screen readers underpinned with physical supports like reading support specialists, reading windows, Toobaloo phones, and motivational bookmarks. But when we look specifically at EAL students, there are a number of dedicated EdTech devices available that provide targeted support where language learners need it most.
Translation scanners like the LingoPen can help students become fluent, independent readers in the language of their choice. It seamlessly translates from the on-page language to English and vice versa, and provides multiple-language audio feedback via headphones so that learners can access multiple-language materials without external support. This means that they won’t feel singled out, or ‘on show’ in front of their peers – it’s discreet and intuitive to use, as well as extremely portable. It also includes built-in vocab look-up features, a word history function, and sound recorder.
The Top 5 Ways the LingoPen Can Support Language Learning
1. It can be accessed anywhere and at any time – and with no need for WiFi and a long battery life, it can be used to access English-language materials wherever, and promote the idea of independent reading as recreation.
2. It can be used at an individual pace – users can find a pace that works for them, independently and intelligently.
3. It’s incredibly versatile – The LingoPen can be used on its own to great effect, or it can be easily incorporated into existing learning strategies to further enhance their efficiency.
4. It promotes self-corrective technique – Using the sound recorder, users can monitor oral and written language production and employ self-corrective techniques or other resources.
5. It helps recognise a range of vocabulary – The LingoPen helps users recognise elements of English and other languages’ sound systems in newly-acquired vocabulary, such as long vowels, silent letters, and consonant clusters.
In-person immersion is a great way to accelerate language learning, because an individual is required to use the language to complete their daily tasks – but sometimes EAL learners need extra support. Learning English is difficult, and flexible, independent support options are not only the best way to help learners succeed in their language acquisition, but also to bust stress and beat language anxiety in the form of a reliable and portable multi-language device that they know will always be there.
You can also bolster this multi-language support with the use of a ReaderPen, a dedicated English-language pen-style text scanner that works in the same way and has been proven to help learners improve their reading age and read with fluency across the board. Its breakthrough text-to-speech technology is coupled with in-depth dictionary support and intuitive design that means it’s as simple as reading a word, scanning it using the pen-style end, and then having immediate access to audio feedback of the word and multiple dictionary definitions – all in a rechargeable and portable form. And with 8GB of audio storage as standard, it’s also a great way of encouraging EAL learners to record voice notes, conversations and lectures to study at home, as well as practice spoken skills too.
Assistive technology is one of the key mechanisms education today has at its disposal when it comes to making sure that EAL learners are making the progress they need to succeed; and whether those language learners are just starting out in nursery or reception or they’re coming to English at a university level, it can be a huge part of speeding up language acquisition and developing independent fluency.
Scanning Pens offers free trials of both the LingoPen and the ReaderPen at our website – please get in touch to find out more.