麻豆淫院

As someone who has spent my academic career researching and working alongside teachers of multilingual pupils, I read England’s new (EIF) with a mixture of optimism and concern. Optimism, because of its stated commitment to inclusion and high-quality education for all; concern, because of how little it says explicitly about the one in five multilingual pupils in England who use English as an additional language (EAL). Drawing from research on oracy and multilingualism, this blog post calls for a more ambitious approach to inspection that celebrates multilingualism as an educational asset.

Policy context for EAL learners

Multilingual learners – those with a home language other than English – make up . They are a super-diverse pupil cohort speaking at least one of more than 300 languages, with differing levels of proficiency in English, and with hugely varying family circumstances and migration histories. However, they receive scant mention in either the existing national curriculum or the most recent , and they have been absent from the Ofsted inspection framework since 2019. Such has fostered multilingual learners’ invisibility in school development planning and teachers’ underpreparedness to meet their needs.

What the framework does say

So, seeking redress for past neglect, there are reasons to be cheerful about the EIF’s reference to learners with EAL in the . The text refers to teaching and learning practices which ‘secure strong foundations […] for pupils at the early stages of learning English as an additional language’. Inspectors are also guided to consider how well the curriculum supports all learners, including those at earlier stages of English acquisition (p. 20). These references are welcome, but they are brief and limited to beginner English learners. Guidance does not take account of the continuing provision required for pupils to develop levels of English proficiency needed to navigate the full curriculum, nor does it draw a picture of linguistically responsive teaching (Lucas & Villegas, 2013).

Why oracy matters for EAL learners

‘Without strong policy signals, multilingual pupils’ specific linguistic needs may be overlooked.’

In my research, I have encountered many teachers committed to their multilingual pupils but uncertain about how best to support them (Flynn, 2019). Without strong policy signals, these pupils’ specific linguistic needs may be overlooked.

If we are serious about supporting multilingual pupils to learn English, we must take spoken language seriously. Oracy education is foundational: it underpins literacy, understanding and participation. According to the , EAL learners need ‘sustained and systematic exposure to English in different contexts’ (p. 44) because talk is both the means through which learning happens and a key outcome of it.

Moreover, oracy education presents teachers, and Ofsted inspectors, with the opportunity to celebrate the rich diversity of languages in their classrooms. This genuinely inclusive practice can build the that is fundamental to supporting better educational outcomes for students from linguistically and culturally diverse backgrounds.

How might the framework look different?

In the multilingual classrooms I have observed, the . Pupils are given structured opportunities to speak, rehearse language and engage in meaningful interaction. Teachers scaffold this talk carefully, . They also celebrate and use pupils’ home languages as part of the learning process. Significantly, teaching in this way promotes better outcomes for all their pupils and is about a sustainable shift in a whole-class approach rather than short-term intervention for a specific group.

Such ‘humanising pedagogy’ (see del Carmen Salazar, 2013) is embodied particularly successfully at in Southampton. Working with 98 per cent EAL learners, staff have embedded oracy as a golden thread that drives learning and pupils’ agency across the curriculum. Moreover, they have established mutually enabling relationships at all levels of schools life and with parents and the wider community. These relationships go well beyond responding to only the basic language learning needs of new arrivals.

Finding EAL learners’ voices

The Ofsted framework presents potential but also missed opportunities. The principles of inclusion and equity are already present, but what is needed is a sharper articulation of how they apply to multilingual learners.

If we do not name multilingual learners and their needs explicitly, we risk overlooking and failing them. By placing oracy – and the broader principles of linguistically responsive teaching – at the centre of our thinking, we can ensure that EAL learners are not only visible in policy, but that their voices are heard in practice.

References

del Carmen Salazar, M. (2013). A humanizing pedagogy: Reinventing the principles and practice of education as a journey toward liberation. Review of Research in Education, 37, 121–148.

Flynn, N. (2019). Teachers and Polish children: Capturing changes in the linguistic field. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 40(1), 65–82.

Lucas, T., & Villegas, A. M. (2013). Preparing linguistically responsive teachers: Laying the foundation in preservice teacher education. Theory Into Practice, 52(2), 98–109.

Artificial intelligence declaration: The author used ChatGPT to suggest improvements to the flow of argument during the early stages of drafting this blog post. The author takes full responsibility for the accuracy and originality of this publication and complied with the terms of 麻豆淫院’s AI statement.