EAL support in Secondary: boosting our students’ English language skills to prepare them for IGCSE & IB

EAL support in Secondary: boosting our students’ English language skills to prepare them for IGCSE & IB English as an Additional Language (EAL) is a vital support system at BIS Hanoi. In order to support our students at BIS Hanoi, we have several EAL teachers who work with students of all abilities to help develop their English language skills, specifically: reading, writing, speaking and listening.

English as an Additional Language (EAL) is a vital support system at BIS Hanoi. Many of our students already speak two or even three languages, but as they are learning in English, it is extremely important that their English language skills are strong enough so that they can access the content across all their lessons. In order to support our students at BIS Hanoi, we have several EAL teachers who work with students of all abilities to help develop their English language skills, specifically: reading, writing, speaking and listening. 

In Secondary, there are two ways that we support EAL students. Firstly, we have timetabled EAL lessons in Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 with expert EAL teachers. In these lessons, students follow a curriculum designed especially for students at BIS Hanoi. We ensure to incorporate content that will support them in other lessons, as well as higher up the school at IGCSE or IB level. In fact, our EAL course is designed around IB themes, ensuring that we are challenging our students to be ambitious in their English language development.  

Secondly, this year we have introduced more in-class support for our EAL learners. This means that our EAL experts are attending Science, History and even Geography lessons to support students with their understanding of the content in these vocabulary-heavy subjects. This extra in-class support has proved to be extremely helpful for teachers who were concerned that the vocabulary required to succeed in their subjects is difficult for non-native speakers. We have also observed great improvements in our EAL students’ progress as a result of this in-class support. It has been fantastic to see the confidence of our EAL learners grow because of the support they receive here at BIS Hanoi. 

If you would like any more information about EAL support at BIS Hanoi, and how it could help your child, please do not hesitate to contact: secondaryoffice@bishanoi.com

Hannah Davis

English Teacher /  Assistant English Leader