Speech and language: Being bilingual
English as an additional language (EAL)
Bilingual and EAL are terms that are often used interchangeably. Over half the population of the world speak two or more languages (bi-lingual/multi-lingual).
From a survey of bilingualism in Swindon (2018) it reported there would be at least five children in every class who were bi/multi-lingual.
All practitioners should understand how children learn another language and how best to support them and also be able to identify if any difficulties with learning language are due to english being an additional language or an underlying speech, language or communication difficulty.
Children who speak one or more languages are no more or less likely to also have speech and language difficulties.
There are many advantages to speaking one or more languages and parents should always be encouraged to use the language they are most comfortable speaking in. This helps build a strong foundation for their child’s language skills.
Resources for parents
- Talk to your child in your own language (PDF). A summary of information and advice for parents of bilingual children.
- Bilingual babies and speaking multiple languages at home. Short videos of advice from Tiny Happy People.
- Bilingual quick tips. Printable advice in different languages.
- Speak to your child in your own language. FAQs for parents from ‘Words for Life.’
Resources for practitioners
- Bilingualism- Key information (PDF). A summary of key information.
- Language map (PDF). This is a tool to help you build a picture of the languages the child or young person is exposed to.
- Documents having useful tables of how to support children at each stage of EAL acquisition:
- National Association for Language Development in the Curriculum website
- Supporting children learning english as an additional language (PDF)
- The National Literacy Trust website
How and when should I refer a child or young person who has EAL?
We offer a workshop on this topic for practitioners and hope to upload a short webinar here soon. Most importantly, you need to consider what the child or young person’s skills are in their first/home language.
This is the language you need to be thinking about when you are filling in referral forms. Remember not all communication skills are based on words and sentences- is the child’s attention, play and social interaction developing as expected?
If the child has speech, language or communication difficulties in their first/home language, then please refer them in the normal way, including completing a graduated response.
See how to refer a child or young person to speech and language therapy.
