Wearing her National Association for Language Development in the Curriculum (NALDIC) Exec hat and her IoE researcher hat, Dr. Naomi Flynn (Associate Professor of Primary English Education, University of Reading) was invited by The Bell Foundation to take part in an expert-panel webinar for teachers wanting advice about how to plan for the activities they send home for children with EAL during lockdown. EAL learners are vulnerable during school closure because they are removed from the classroom environment in which they are hearing English spoken, and because they and their parents may not have adequate proficiency in English to respond to the tasks their teachers set them.
The webinar, held on April 23rd, was a special event planned specifically to respond quickly to teachers’ needs by uniting experts from NALDIC and Bell – the two leading UK charities devoted to advocating for EAL learners, their families and their teachers. Drawing on her IoE supported research into teaching for EAL, Naomi fielded questions about how to support new arrivals with limited English, parents with limited English and homes where there is no access to online resources. She noted: “I was particularly lucky to be able to include reference to my current research with a school of 98% EAL learners, where the staff are doing amazing things, that go above and beyond, in their quest to support these potentially vulnerable children”.
With over 450 registrations to attend, both UK and international, Bell said that this was the most popular webinar they had staged to date and they have plans for a repeat event very soon.
More details can be found here.
To learn more about Dr. Flynn’s research interests, click here. She tweets at @naomiflynn61.
