In this blog post I would like to raise a number of questions for the new government about English as an additional language in schools: What should the new Labour government do to reinstate the Ethnic Minority Achievement Grant that is used to support English as an additional language (EAL) and to introduce a national assessment system for EAL?

I would argue from the start that there is a lack of an EAL national assessment system in England. Teachers and policymakers have long been concerned with the best way to help pupils with English as an additional language to improve English proficiency to access the national curriculum (Demie, 2019). An estimated 350 different languages are spoken in the UK classroom, and 20 per cent of the school population is considered to be pupils with EAL (Demie, 2019; Strand & Lindorff, 2020). EAL learners are an extremely diverse group, encompassing the full range of English language proficiency, from new to English to fluent (DfE, 2024). In England, the government briefly introduced a requirement in 2016 for schools to assess and report the English proficiency stage of their EAL against a five-point stage of reading, writing and English language proficiency from ‘New to English’, ‘Early Acquisition’ and ‘Developing Competence’ to ‘Fluent’ (see Demie, 2019). These data were collected for three years, but the Department for Education scrapped the requirement with little explanation. England is now the only developed country without a national EAL assessment by stage of English proficiency (Demie, 2019). 

Research shows that proficiency in English is the most important factor that influences educational attainment. EAL children learning English as an additional language are often disadvantaged relative to their monolingual English-speaking peers. They face the dual challenge of learning English while still learning the language itself. Research suggests on average it may take more than six years to be fully fluent in English (Demie, 2013; Strand & Lindorff, 2020). However, standard English is positioned as the language of instruction and assessment in England, and EAL pupils who speak other languages are ignored in the curriculum. For EAL learners, this means that learning English as an additional language is wrongly understood to be the same process as learning English as a first language.

‘For EAL learners, learning English as an additional language is wrongly understood to be the same process as learning English as a first language.’

There is another concern that needs to be noted about the funding to support EAL pupils in schools in England. The biggest obstacles to funding are the ‘colour blind’ approach, which has put the group at a disadvantage, and the failure of the central government to fund EAL from the beginner stage until they are fully fluent in English. The previous Labour government used to support EAL pupils through ring-fenced funding in the form of the Ethnic Minority Achievement Grant (EMAG). This was abolished by the previous Conservative government in 2011. Due to the cut of EMAG budget schools do not have enough resources to employ EAL teachers to support them. Currently, the EAL funding is only available for three years, while from research we know it takes more than six years to be fully fluent in English. At present there is a huge funding gap for schools to support EAL pupils and employ EAL teachers. It is now an issue that there are not enough EAL teachers to support pupils within the classroom because of a lack of funding (Demie, 2019).

The recommendations from a number of research findings are that if England is serious about tackling inequality, policymakers need to recognise the importance of linguistic diversity and the need to support of EAL pupils in the classroom (Strand & Lindorff, 2020; Demie, 2013, 2019). There is also a need to provide funding for at least six years and develop a national assessment strategy that better meets the needs of EAL pupils in schools. Urgent policy changes are needed by the new government to reinstate EMAG funding to ensure that schools receive the funding support that EAL children need to improve their English proficiency. We also need the national EAL English proficiency assessment to monitor performance and track EAL pupils’ progress in the classroom.

References

Demie, F. (2013). English as an additional language: How long does it take to acquire English fluency? Language and Education, 27(1), 59–69. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500782.2012.682580

Demie, F. (2019). English language proficiency and attainment of EAL (English as a second language) pupils in England. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 39(7), 641–653. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2017.1420658

Department for Education [DfE]. (2024). School census. https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics

Strand S., & Lindorff, A. (2020). English as an additional language, proficiency in English and pupils’ educational achievement and rate of progression in English learning. The Bell Foundation. https://www.bell-foundation.org.uk/what-we-do/our-research/eal-research/english-as-an-additional-language-proficiency-in-english-educational-achievement-and-rate-of-progression-in-english-language-learning/