Professor Naomi Flynn (Professor of Multilingual Education) and Aniqa Leena (a PhD in Education student), both at the University of Reading, presented preliminary findings from their Talk Rich Teaching project at the 30th NALDIC conference earlier this month. NALDIC is the National Association for Language Development in the Curriculum and its membership spans practitioners, advisors and academics who have an interest in the teaching of students learning English as an additional language in UK educational settings. Professor Flynn serves on NALDIC’s Executive Committee and currently chairs their Events Committee.
The Talk Rich Teaching project combines Aniqa’s PhD research project with Professor Flynn’s research bringing a US-designed approach to teaching multilingual learners to the UK. From January to July 2022, Professor Flynn delivered whole staff professional learning opportunities using this approach in three inner-city linguistically diverse schools.
In essence, the approach demands that teachers talk less and plan opportunities to talk more. Alongside Professor Flynn’s professional development sequence, Aniqa designed bespoke tests to measure whether any changes in teaching supported multilingual pupils’ development of English language and literacy. In their presentation, Aniqa’s early findings suggest a positive impact of the teaching approach on multilingual children’s speaking and listening in English. The team will be reporting in a blog on their website soon but, in the meantime, you can find out more about the Talk Rich Teaching project here.
To learn more about Professor Flynn’s research interests, click here. She tweets at @naomiflynn61.
To learn more about Aniqa’s research project, click here. She tweets at @aniqaleena.
