EAL Profile of Competence
Aspects of English as an Additional Language Development
Most learners of EAL will have age-appropriate language skills in their home language when they
start education in Scotland.
Productive and Receptive skills
As with all language acquisition, the receptive skills (listening and reading) develop before the
productive skills (talking and writing). Learners of EAL need to be exposed to good models of
English (spoken and written) in a safe and secure environment for language development to take
place. Beginners may remain silent for 6+ months before starting to speak. During this time,
most learners will be actively engaged in trying to understand what they are hearing or reading
and beginning to makes sense of words, language patterns and the contexts in which they are
used. Teachers can provide the language environment for this by building frequent opportunities
for pairwork and groupwork into lessons. Talk is key to learning and language development.
Phonology
Learning a new language involves learning some (or many) new sounds and new ways of
combining sounds. EAL learners may find it difficult to pronounce sounds which are not part of
the phonology of their home language. When learning to read in English, learners also need to
learn a new set of sound-symbol correspondences.
Vocabulary (words)
Acquisition of vocabulary is critical for understanding (listening and reading) and expression
(talking and writing) and all learners will benefit from attention to words. It is helpful to
distinguish 3 different types of vocabulary:
Basic: everyday, common words
Mature: some mature words are used less frequently; some are more abstract. Often a basic
word will have a ‘mature’ equivalent. If this is the case, the learner of EAL will usually acquire
the basic word first.
Subject-specific: often technical words which are only used in specific subject areas.
Basic
box
sun
red
big
need
make
many
Mature
cube
sphere
vermillion
gigantic
require
create
an abundance
Subject-specific
species
photosynthesis
velocity
morain
cytoplasm
fartlek (training)
A number of strategies can be used to promote active acquisition of vocabulary:
• visuals
• checking for comprehension using a variety of question types
• paraphrase
• examples of the word used in different sentences and contexts
• definition
• translation
Syntax (putting words together to make sentences)
Language learners need to learn the patterns and rules of the language. The order in which they
acquire these patterns and rules will be similar to the order in which they are acquired by
children learning English as a first language. The patterns and rules include: word order, use of
articles, plurals, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, tenses.
CEC EAL Service/Profile of Competence/Language Development/Feb2012