Abstract

How do newly-arrived students with EAL progress in their English language proficiency, academic achievement and social integration during the months following arrival at secondary school? What are the key strategies used by teachers to support them and what are the implications for professional knowledge and pedagogy? How can parents be further encouraged by schools to support their children’s educational progress? This talk will present key findings from a recently completed research project, completed by researchers at Cambridge University and Anglia Ruskin University and funded by the Bell Foundation, which focuses on the experience of newly-arrived EAL students in secondary schools in the East of England. The study consists of a longitudinal analysis of the social, linguistic and educational experiences of EAL students at two case study schools as well as of a survey EAL provision in secondary schools in the region.

Research team

Cambridge: Michael Evans (co-director), Madeleine Arnot, Linda Fisher, Karen Forbes, Yongcan Liu

Anglia Ruskin: Claudia Schneider (co-director), Mei Hu