EMTAS Moodle

In Diary of an EAL Mum, Eva Molea shares the ups and downs of her experience of bringing up her daughter, Alice, in the UK. In this instalment, Eva attempts to prepare Alice for her Italian Heritage Language GCSE.

I know it is a cliché but: where does the time go??? It’s been one and a half years since my last chapter, and I apologise for starving you, my affectionate readers.

So, let’s see what happened since I last told you about my adventures navigating the education system in the UK.

After sending the GCSE options form to the school, we had to wait for what felt like an infinite time before Alice’s choices were confirmed at the end of Year 9: Spanish, History and Dance. And a very happy child in da house!

Year 10 started in the best possible way: fewer subjects that Alice didn’t enjoy, and many of her besties in her classes. What could go wrong?

Well, it turned out that now Alice would have traded her “non-negotiable” Spanish for Drama, had we allowed that, and that Dance was not as simple as it had been presented at the GCSE Options Evening. On top of that, there was the Italian Heritage Language GCSE looming over her, and the even more horrifying prospect of being prepared for it by her very own MAMMA…

Every year, since Year 7, I had asked the school to let Alice take her Italian GCSE in Year 10 and, worn out by my requests, the head of MFL, who had also been Alice’s Spanish teacher in KS3, had agreed to that, being confident in Alice’s skills in Italian and knowing that, given my role as a bilingual assistant for EMTAS, I would be able to prepare her for the exam. Now all I had to do was to have regular weekly sessions with my darling child to get her as ready as she could be.

I decided to leave it for September, so that Alice could find her feet in Year 10, and then started planning our sessions for the quiet Sunday afternoons, when we would have plenty of time to go through all the papers. Or so I thought.

Session 1: Sunday 5^th of October 2023, 3 pm, Reading paper, Higher Tier. Puffing like a steam train, Alice read the paper, answered all the questions, and left. Net working time: 40 minutes. Net upset time: the whole afternoon. When I told her that she had done really well with her first practice, my angel looked at me and spoke these words: “Mum, I am a native speaker, I told you it would be easy”. And that was it.

Session 2 was booked only in my diary; the other ones didn’t even make it there. I was completely defeated by my daughter’s silent dismissal. Despite my attempts, she found a whole lot of more interesting things to do rather than practise for her exam: meeting with her friends, reading a book, having to wash her Rapunzel hair, crosswords. Even homework! Really?? Her writing paper gathering dust on her desk, untouched… until a month before the speaking test, when I started to vocalise my anxiety about it.

Eventually, in the attempt to quieten me, the poor thing accepted to sit down and complete at least one listening and one reading past papers, as well as her writing one, and to practise the speaking test with me. And this is when we both learnt something.

Alice learnt that being a native speaker was not sufficient to pass the test with full marks because, despite her fluency in Italian and her very rich vocabulary, she was lacking exam technique. Alice was rather taken aback when, listening to the recording of her speaking test practice, she realised that she didn’t sound as fluent and confident as she thought she was. This epiphany shook her to the point that she willingly made room in her busy schedule for some Italian practice.

The lesson for me was that teenagers don’t want to learn with their parents. Let’s repeat it all together: TEENAGERS DON’T WANT TO LEARN WITH THEIR PARENTS!

It doesn’t matter if their parents are world experts in a given subject, children don’t want to learn with them, nor from them. I don’t know whether this is part of the generational conflict, or not wanting to be confronted with parents’ (high, in our case) expectations, but teenagers learn better with others rather than their parents. I know this might not be true for all children, but it certainly is for mine. And I should have known that because, even though my husband has taught Maths at college and Uni, Alice refuses categorically to be supported by Dad and so we have a Maths tutor.

The other challenge was that the Exam Officer at school asked me to find someone who could act as examiner for the Speaking Test, because the school didn’t have any members of staff who could do it, and obviously I couldn’t either because I was “known” to the student. Now, where we live, Italians are thin on the ground and finding a native speaker wasn’t so easy. Fortunately, one of my husband’s colleagues came to the rescue.

In the end, Alice passed her Italian GCSE with flying colours and got her so wished – read agonised – for 9, although she was very disappointed to have dropped some marks. If only she had gone through the vocabulary list I had printed out for her…

“All’s well that ends well” someone said, but do all families of students with EAL have a good experience with their Heritage Language GCSEs?

At the end of July, at a party, I happened to talk to two mums with EAL, whose girls (the same age as Alice) have also taken their Heritage Language GCSE in Year 10 in a maintained school. Two completely different experiences from ours.

Like Alice, one of these girls has both parents with EAL and first language is spoken at home all the time, therefore she is a very fluent and confident speaker. On the other hand, having lived here most of her life and having been educated in the UK, her reading and writing skills in first language are not as good as her listening and speaking ones. Unfortunately, parents were not provided with guidance or practice papers, and were left to figure it out for themselves.

The other girl has one parent with EAL and an English one, which means that English is the means of communication at home. The mum decided not to even attempt to prepare her daughter for the exam, and found a tutor that would help with that. The girl attended her sessions with the tutor, and worked harder than she would have with her mum (have I already said that teenagers don’t want to learn with their parents?). In this case as well, had it not been for the tutor, parents would have lacked the resources to support their child adequately.

The benefits of taking heritage language GCSE for students with EAL is invaluable, especially if they have not been long in the UK or if they are finding learning a bit challenging. Not only does it break the ice with taking exams in a different education system, but usually its good result boosts their confidence and self-esteem, as well as gives them a sense of pride in their heritage and community and opens doors to future job opportunities. It could also benefit the school’s end of key stage averages.

So, what could schools do to support students with EAL and make the whole experience easier?

A common mistake is to assume that when first language is spoken at home, children with EAL are also literate in their language. This is true in the many cases where parents have found pockets of time and encouraged their children to read and write in first language and fostered relationships with other speakers of said language. But parents’ evaluation can be a bit iffy, and I can unashamedly say that parents of children with EAL are biased when evaluating their children’s first language skills (if our children are not fluent and literate in our first language, we feel like we are not doing our job well, and we are not honouring our heritages, and we are depriving our children of the opportunity of being “perfectly” bilingual, and…and… shame on us!).

Once established that the student is capable, and willing (there is no point in forcing students if they are not ready to commit – Alice didn’t have a choice, though), to take the Heritage Language GCSE, a member of the MFL Department could have an in-person meeting with the student and their parents/carers to explain what the exam entails, its grading for the different tiers, and provide as many past papers as possible (schools are best placed to access the latest resources from the examination boards’ websites).

Another thing to consider is that KS4 students have very busy schedules, and sometimes they can fall behind with additional work, so having an adult in school – a member of the MFL Department, who could also help with teaching exam technique, their tutor, their head of year – that checks in with them regularly and monitors that they are completing their practice papers could really help them stay on track. Liaising with the parents/carers would also be a great way to remind them to use first language at home all the time, especially in the run up to the exams, as well as allowing the students to do some practice papers in school, perhaps during tutor time, or looking for opportunities to group together students that speak the same language so that they can practise their speaking skills.

This year GCSE season is fast approaching, my usually delightful daughter has already turned into a prickly porcupine, and I have studied the exams timetable to figure out when it will all be over and serenity will reign over our house again. At the moment, it seems a very distant fantasy.

All I can say for now is: one down, ten to go!


Further information

More information about Heritage Language GCSEs and EMTAS support packages can be found on our website. The deadline for requests is the 1^st of March.

By the Hampshire EMTAS Specialist Teacher Advisors with the support of the wider EMTAS team 

In this first blog of the academic year the EMTAS team congratulate students on their fantastic GCSE results, share their new programme of network meetings and update readers on their work with the University of Reading. We conclude this blog with some introductions. 
 
Heritage Language GCSEs 

2023-24 was a bumper year for EMTAS with the Heritage Language GCSEs. 200 requests were made by 11 schools and 187 students were supported by EMTAS Bilingual Assistants in the speaking exam, whilst 70 students had support for reading and writing too. It was great to see so many schools celebrating multilingualism by offering Heritage Language GCSEs to their students. Polish was the most requested language with the largest number of candidates sitting the exam; our Polish Bilingual Assistants supported 38 students at one school alone. Results are in and we are pleased to report that 66% of the students supported by EMTAS Bilingual Assistants achieved the top Grade, 9, with a further 19% achieving an 8.     
 
EMTAS network meetings  

Starting this term, we are tailoring our online network meetings to best meet the needs of our schools. Before the summer, schools were sent a link to a form to complete, allowing us to schedule network meetings on the most popular topics and on the most popular days/times as advised by you. Our programme of network meetings for this term is now live on our website. We are starting on September 17th with a session focussing on the needs of learners who are new to English. Later this term you will have the opportunity to join sessions focussing on the needs of more advanced learners of EAL, a meeting exploring how to use first language as a tool for learning in the classroom and a session considering how to track progress in acquisition of English for learners of EAL. We look forward to seeing you online – book a network meeting now. 
 
University of Reading with EMTAS: research project update 

Our joint research project with the University of Reading continues into this academic year. Naomi Flynn held interviews with the EAL or Traveller co-ordinators and Headteachers of fourteen schools from across the county before the summer. These were very helpful in establishing what schools currently do to support their multilingual, Traveller and Showmen pupils, what they find challenging, and what they would like to see in the new oracy-related training materials that will emerge from this project. Alongside the interviews, Naomi is meeting regularly with the EMTAS teacher team to establish what the principles driving the new materials will be and how we might ensure their accessibility and usefulness to schools. Early this term we will send out invitations for schools to take part in trialling the new resources for us from November 24 – February 25. We’d like to thank those schools who have already taken part; your input has been invaluable. If you have not yet taken part in an interview, and/or want to know more about the project, there is still time (contact Naomi on n.flynn@reading.ac.uk). Alternatively, do please send us your thoughts at this questionnaire link.  

Report on the impact of the Young Interpreter Scheme 

Supporters of the Young Interpreter Scheme and avid readers of the blog will be familiar with research carried out by Debra Page on the Young Interpreter Scheme as part of her PhD. We are delighted that Debra – now Dr Page – has completed her PhD and shared her findings with us. She concludes that  

Read Debra’s report now… 

EMTAS staffing  

Just before the summer break, the EMTAS Bilingual Assistant team welcomed Nyonde, who works with Fiona Calder as Achievement Project Officer for children of black and ethnic minority heritage. Lubna added Urdu to the languages we can cover, and Katya joined our Ukrainian team. Joining EMTAS in September, Anu brings Malayalam and Tamil to our offer to schools and Thibaut joins our teacher team; he’ll be covering schools in the New Forest. All look forward to working with you this academic year. 

Ethnic Minority and Traveller Achievement Service | Hampshire County Council (hants.gov.uk)

By the Hampshire EMTAS Specialist Teacher Advisors

In this first blog of the new academic year, the Hampshire EMTAS Teacher team share important news and highlights. There is much to look forward to!
 
Staffing

We are very pleased to welcome five new Bilingual Assistants (BAs) to our team:  Olena, Alex, Lana, Vlad and Kevin. Olena, Alex, Lana and Vlad speak Ukrainian and Russian (Lana speaks German too), and Kevin speaks Cantonese. Olena, Alex and Vlad will be joining Olha (who is also a Ukrainian and Russian-speaking BA) to act as B-ELSAs: bilingual ELSAs who, thanks to government funding, will be helping to support the emotional wellbeing of our refugees from Ukraine. We have also had an increase in referrals from Hong Kong and so Kevin will be joining Jenny and Catherine, our Cantonese-speaking BAs. This will help speed up response times for BA support for our Cantonese-speaking pupils.
 
GCSE results

September is always an exciting time of the year as we see results pour in for the Heritage Language GCSEs. This year EMTAS supported 152 candidates with 11 different languages and our Bilingual Assistants were delighted to meet so many talented bilingual or multilingual learners. As in previous years, the student success is spectacular! Results are still coming in, but so far more than 85% of students have achieved grade 7 or above.

Naturally it will soon be time to start the process all over again, so we are currently updating our training and processes to make everything run even more smoothly in 2024. We are grateful to all the schools who have given us useful feedback about their experience of EMTAS support and shared comments from the examiners’ reports. We look forward to achieving even more support requests for next summer when we relaunch our request form towards the end of the autumn term.
 
SEND/EAL news

After many years of operation, we closed the EMTAS EAL/SEND phoneline at the end of last academic year. However, we are still very much here to support colleagues in schools where there are concerns about a child for whom English is an Additional Language. Now, instead of waiting for Tuesday afternoon, you can phone us on our main office number at any time convenient to you during term time. A member of the team will either route your call through to the Specialist Teacher Advisor (STA) for your district OR take details from you so that your STA can phone you back. We hope that this will be a more direct, faster way of accessing support where you are working with children who are learning EAL and who may have additional needs.
 
Study Skills Programme

This academic year we are proud to be launching a new and innovative form of support for pupils in Years 5 and 6 and KS3/4 who are literate in their first language. The Study Skills Programme will be delivered to suitable pupils in withdrawal by EMTAS Bilingual Assistants. It aims to help pupils explore how they feel about their learning and their subjects and to equip them with different tools and strategies they can apply in their lessons and home learning. For example, pupils will learn to use Google Lens to create a glossary, have a go at using Immersive Reader to access a text and much more. The programme is being piloted this half-term with full roll-out planned for after the October break. To find out more about the programme and your role in ensuring it impacts classroom practice, sign up for our free network meeting on Monday 6 November at 9.30.
 
GTRSB attendance project

Some of our Traveller students have persistently poor attendance, and this inevitably impacts on their learning, progress and attainment. This academic year the EMTAS Traveller Team is going to be working in collaboration with four schools to pilot an Attendance Project. The aim of the pilot is to support school staff, Traveller parents and students to collaborate with the aim of improving the students’ attendance. It will involve regular monitoring of individual Traveller student’s attendance, regular communication with parents, coffee events and promotion of the EMTAS Traveller Excellence Award. It is hoped that this will result in a marked improvement in the attendance of the targeted students, and will also positively impact their academic progress.

 
Training offer

We have been overwhelmed by the positive uptake and wonderful feedback from our training sessions over the years. We're keen to maintain this momentum, so why not join us and ensure you feel confident, knowledgeable and equipped with how best to support our learners of EAL? There are several different training opportunities for you to take part in which include our pan-Hampshire network meetings. Our next network meeting takes place on 11^th October 3.30-4.30pm with a focus on using ICT to support learners of EAL. Don't worry if you can't make it as we will revisit these sessions throughout the year. View all our training dates via our website.

In addition to our network meetings, we are once again offering SEAL training. This course is the ideal starting point for teachers and TAs, particularly those who are taking on the role of EAL lead within their school. The course consists of 6 full days spread over 2 years, allowing plenty of time to slowly embed best practice within your school. More information about the SEAL course can be found on our website.

We are almost at capacity for our EMTAS Conference which takes place on 12^th October 2023.  It's set to be an incredible event with guest speakers Jonathan Bifield and Sarah Coles along with Jacob Parvin and Jack Hill. If you'd like to grab one of the last spaces, please follow this link for more information.
 
Finally...

Stay up to date with EMTAS news – sign up for the bulletin.

By Hampshire EMTAS Specialist Teacher Advisor Jamie Earnshaw

A huge congratulations to all students who achieved a GCSE in a Heritage Language this summer! EMTAS supported 48 students with GCSEs in Arabic, Chinese Mandarin, German, Greek, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and Turkish.

Here are all the fantastic results achieved by students we supported:

GCSEs graded 9-4

GCSEs graded A*-C

As you can see, students did extremely well this summer. Many students achieved the top grades and there were individual stories of success across the board too, including one student who did really well who was previously referred to EMTAS when in primary school and was later diagnosed with SEND with difficulties in reading and writing. Even with an uneven profile of skills across Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, with support and hard work, students can still succeed and achieve a grade at GCSE. Also do note that we offer an initial one session package of assessment to help determine if a student is ready for the GCSE.

Many of the students we supported this year were in Year 11 - we wish those students good luck with their next steps! No doubt the Heritage Language GCSE will be a bonus for those students to show to future colleges or employers. Do bear in mind though it is not necessary to wait until a student is in Year 11 to enter them for a Heritage Language GCSE but sometimes the themes of the exams are better-suited to older students (so perhaps most suitable for students in Year 9 onwards).

Visit the GCSE page on our website for more information about the GCSE packages of support we offer to help prepare students for Heritage Language GCSEs. When you have decided which package you want, ask your Exams Officer to complete the GCSE Support Request and GCSE Agreement forms and return them both to Rekha Gupta using the address details provided on the GCSE Support Request form (by the deadline of the 1st March 2020).

We look forward to working on Heritage Language GCSEs with you and your students this academic year!

By Hampshire EMTAS Specialist Teacher Advisor Jamie Earnshaw

The early morning birdsong, lighter evenings and even maybe some sunshine peeping out from behind the clouds…this can only mean one thing: exam season is upon us.

This academic year, EMTAS Bilingual Assistants have supported over 50 EAL students in schools across Hampshire, and the Isle of Wight, to help them to prepare for their Heritage Language GCSEs. We have supported students who speak Arabic, Cantonese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and Turkish, to name just a few. I’m sure that both staff and students will sigh a breath of relief to get to the end of the exam season this year!

Whilst we all know how stressful the exam season can be, upon receiving their results, many EAL students are given such a boost of confidence. It may well be an EAL student’s first experience of exams in this country and what better way than to acclimatise to the anomalous experience of sitting in an exam room than doing so in a subject they know well.

Nevertheless, just because a EAL student has grown up in an environment in which their first language has always been spoken, or they have had formal education in their home country, it is so important that we do not take for granted that students necessarily have the skillset to be able to take a GCSE exam in a Heritage Language without support. Do students have the skills across all aspects of the exam, speaking, listening, reading and writing, in order to be able to access the exam with confidence?

Having been brought up in the UK, where I spoke exclusively English, it was not just enough for me to turn up to the exam hall and proclaim my readiness for the English Language exam. In fact, I had 4 lessons each week, during my GCSE schooling years, in which I developed, improved and focused my language skills across speaking, listening, reading and writing. There was also the need to learn how to tackle the exams. How am I expected to answer the questions? Which skills do I need to display? What am I being assessed for?

It is essential for EAL students to have the same opportunity to have those niggling questions answered and to receive appropriate support when completing a Heritage Language GCSE. Attempting and receiving feedback on past papers and rehearsal opportunities for the speaking test are vital. It is also worth remembering that the papers are designed for non-native speakers, so the tasks are set in English. Therefore, for a newly arrived student with very little English, time might be needed to develop skills in English to a level in which they are able to access the questions or, at the very least, get used to the target question vocabulary used in the papers.

Once these initial hurdles have been crossed, the benefits for students really are immeasurable. Often, pupils achieve very good grades in their Heritage Language GCSEs and this can be a bonus when they are applying for college places or apprenticeships. It also gives students that experience of completing a GCSE examination, which, if they do earlier than Year 11, will help to ease any worries about what the experience of sitting an exam is actually like when it comes to perhaps those more daunting subjects like English, Maths and Science.

Visit the GCSE page on our website for more information about the EMTAS GCSE packages of support available to help prepare pupils for Heritage Language GCSEs. When you have decided which package you want, ask your Exams Officer to complete the GCSE Support Request and GCSE Agreement forms and return them both to Rekha Gupta using the address details provided on the GCSE Support Request form (by 1st March 2020).

Good luck to all those students (and staff) anticipating GCSE results this summer!

A review by Jamie Earnshaw, Hampshire EMTAS Teacher Adviser.

                                        © Copyright Hampshire EMTAS 2018

As a monolingual teacher of English as an additional language, I often find myself working with students I do not share a first language with. I tend to work with students in the secondary phase of their education, the majority of whom are working on GCSEs. This often involves having to read and use texts full of more complex, academic language, usually based on more abstract concepts. I work with students from a variety of backgrounds; some fully literate in their first language, others not able to read or write but are fully competent in speaking and listening. Therefore, the way I help students to access unfamiliar texts very much depends on the individual student. The C-Pen was quite the breakthrough for me in supporting in my role.

The C-Pen is simple to use for those who are not tech savvy. Just plug it in to charge and before long, it’s ready to use. The simple menu screen makes it easy to select the target language. Then, as easy as it sounds, the tool is ready to be used. The tool works by the user highlighting the target text using the pen, either in print or on screen, and then it provides a translation of the word in the selected other language, along with a definition of the word. So, the C-Pen can be used by students working in English who want to know what particular words are, and their meaning, in their first language. Alternatively, students using first language texts to support their understanding of key concepts can use the pen to check the definition of any words in their first language they are not familiar with, keeping in mind that higher level texts may well have advanced language students have not even learnt in first language.

The pen will read out the target word and provide a definition of the word, in the two languages selected, on the screen of the pen. For those students not secure in reading, the fact that the pen reads out the target language overcomes this possible barrier. Nevertheless, this audio functionality is of course beneficial for all EAL learners; the importance of students hearing target language modelled is a fundamental principle of good practice for supporting students who are learning English as an additional language.

Often lessons are so fast paced, it can be difficult for students to use a traditional bilingual dictionary to look up individual words. With the C-Pen, it is much easier for students to look up words in fast succession as the tool works instantaneously. And, another real benefit of the pen, is it allows students to store texts and words they have looked up in files on the pen, so students can easily go back and look at any text they have looked up during their day and they can then download the files to their computer. They can therefore easily go over any texts or words, to recap their learning. They can even use the pen to audio record any ideas or thoughts they have.

The C-Pen very much encourages students to develop their independence in accessing and understanding unfamiliar texts. Students are easily able to use the pen without support from others. Nevertheless, it is of course a great tool for students to use collaboratively with others students too. Students who speak different languages, working on the same text, can use the pen to easily switch between definitions in different languages when focused on particular words/text.

Whilst it is important for students to be able to understand language at word level, it is also essential that students are able to use the language in context. The C-Pen supports with this. As well as giving a definition of the text, it also provides a sentence, in both English and the other language selected, in which the target word is used.

The C-Pen functions in English, Italian, German, Russian, Spanish and French. It really is a must have for all learners of English as additional language. 

More strategies for KS3 and KS4 can be found on the Hampshire EMTAS website.