This learning English lark

Although it's not specifically part of my role I work a lot with students who come to our school who are learning English as a second language. As is often the case in schools, I kind of stumbled into this by accident. I initially volunteered to assist in the one-to-one tutoring of a Polish girl with very limited English who had recently arrived and had gone straight into year 11. This, in turn, led to her spending A LOT of hours in the library with us - both myself and my colleague, the learning mentor, working with her to develop her language skills. This experience, it seems, was enough to make me (& the learning mentor) the go-to people in school for any EAL students.

Whilst my educational background is predominantly languages (GCSE German, A level French and an undergraduate degree in Spanish with Business Management) I can't pretend to be an expert on teaching English to those who don't speak it. Yes, I spent a year out in Mallorca as an English language assistant in a high school years ago (hola, IES Joan Maria Thomas) which was brilliant, but I was a bit hesitant when it became apparent that I would be integrally involved in the development of these students' language skills, on which they would rely when taking their GCSE (& later) exams!

Now, unlike many schools, we don't have a lot of students who speak English as a second language - our student body being made up almost entirely of students from a white working class background. However, as each year came and went, so it would be that another student would spend time honing their English skills with us in the library.

It's been a great experience. Tough, but great. We've had support from Durham County Council's Ethnic Minority and Traveller Achievement Service (EMTAS) without which, at times, we would have really struggled. They provide a really useful induction pack of basic English resources that have served us incredibly well. They provide training for teaching staff regarding useful strategies to employ in the classroom when teaching EAL students, the main points of which are:

* give careful consideration to where EAL students are seated in class. Make sure they are near enough to the front to hear as much as possible, and so they can see you and the board.
* speak slowly and clearly.
* Repeat, repeat, repeat.
* Use pictures/visual aides that are specifically linked to the topic you are teaching.
* Make sure that EAL students have access to a dictionary that translates from English to their native language/an iPod or iPad with an app like iTranslate already installed (we provide our EAL students with an iPod touch to use in lessons)
* Try and provide EAL students with any keywords or reading materials in advance of your next lesson and get them to read through and translate before they come to that lesson.
* Pick out 10 or so keywords they will need to take from the lesson. Highlight them/get them to write them in their books and translate them.
* 'Buddy' EAL students with those English speaking students who will provide them with the best language learning opportunities. This will increase their confidence in and outside of class.
* When participating in group work encourage EAL students to feedback to the class. Allow the group to give EAL students a short sentence to read out after practising the words whilst working in the group first to avoid embarrassment.
...you get the idea.

In terms of the work I do with the students, I thought it might be an idea to include some of the websites that I've found to be useful, for worksheets, resources, teaching ideas etc. The websites listed below all offer free access to their resources. Here we go:

> Bogglesworld ESL US site, with a ton of worksheets grammar and some curriculum and more.
> ESL Flow Search by level of knowledge. Lots of links to activities and worksheets etc
> British Council's Learning English Sites for both adults and children learning English. Lots of high quality activities, podcasts, worksheets, online stories etc
> Super Teacher Worksheets US site. Resources are aimed at US elementary school children however some of the reading comprehensions, particularly the non-fiction are quite handy and can be used to help with certain areas of the curriculum.
> English for Everyone Another US site, so some spelling issues if you are teaching British English (like me) but a range of grammatical, writing, reading and other activities.
> Skills Workshop Huge bank of ESOL, literacy and numeracy resources.
> BBC Skills Wise Although this is a site aimed at English and maths for adults there are some excellent resources that work well for EAL students.
> BBC Learning English The BBC World Service's website for English language learners. Not suitable for beginners, puts English language learning in a more 'newsy' context.
> ESL Tower Printable and online activitie, plus lots of language games that appeal to younger learners.

There's a lot more I could say about this subject, but I'm going to sign off for now. Please email me if you'd like any more information. Or you could tweet me @HemBem.

Satisfactory resolution?

Is it me (Oh Lord, I sound like Terry Wogan), but do popular children's/ YA books have to be part of a series nowadays?

Harry Potter and Twilight are probably the most obvious that spring to mind but then there's Alex Rider (OK, I realise these have come to an end now), The Mortal Instruments, Casson Family, Spooks, Saga of Darren Shan, Demonata series, Shiver, Beautiful Dead, Chaos Walking (loved it), Charlie Higson's The Enemy (loved even more) and I could go on...

I mean, don't get me wrong, I love a good cliffhanger as much as the next person but sometimes I just want to read a jolly good book and come to the final page and for it just to be, well, the end. Plot-lines tied up (not necessarily in 'it all comes good in the end' kind of way though). Story arc resolved. Finished. End of. Full stop.

I'm not saying that series are a bad idea - no siree - simply that I sometimes like my books to be less like an ongoing soap opera and more like a classy one-off BBC drama.