‘Good practice’ for pupils with English as an additionallanguage: patterns in student teachers’ thinking

Student teachers construct ideas around how to support the learning of pupils with English as an additional language (EAL), basing these ideas on university- and school-based training, reading, dialogue and reflection. For the purposes of this piece of research, postgraduate student teachers training to teach pupils aged 3–11 were each asked to ‘picture’ one child with EAL encountered during blocks of school-based training, to categorise this child in terms of English fluency, to suggest the child’s specific needs and to identify effective strategies to support pupil progress. Student teachers’ responses are analysed to explore whether there are evident patterns in these student teachers’ identification of pupils with EAL, and the student teachers’ understanding of these pupils’ needs. Responses are aligned with current thinking about ‘good practice’. Points of congruence between student teacher responses and ‘good practice’ are identified. Where evidence of this congruence is lacking, implications for student teachers and for programme design are identified.