Page 60 - Languages Victoria December 2019

Languages on the National Scene
EAL Students in the Languages Class
By Elena Pirovano, PhD Candidate at the University of Melbourne and teacher of Italian
As our schools are becoming increasingly multicultural, it is more common to have multilingual students in our additional languages classes. Some of these students are multilinguals who speak one or more home languages and are fluent in English, whilst others are emergent multilinguals, in the process of learning English as the language of instruction at school and the majority language in the community in addition to their home languages.
These English as an Additional Language (EAL) students are therefore already learning English and questions that principals and teachers often raise include: should EAL students learn another additional language? Is it too demanding? Are they actually able to learn two languages at the same time? Is it even relevant for their education to learn an additional language which is not a community one?
In this brief article, I would like to offer some insights into the value of EAL students’ multilingualism as a resource for learning and the possible success of including and supporting them in the languages class, from research as well as teachers’ perspective. I will include some ways forward that would also address the concerns of principals and teachers.
Are EAL students competent language learners?
In my experience as an Italian teacher in primary schools in Victoria, I often perceived EAL students as competent learners of languages and effective participants in my lessons; they are often engaged in the Italian sessions, they demonstrate effort and motivation in making sense of the new language, they are good at picking up the sound and prosody of the new language, and are capable negotiators, curious and resilient when the communication becomes ambiguous.
Languages Victoria
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