LEGO® Education offers schools free tools for EAL learners

Activities for children with English as an additional language (EAL) available in all curriculum areas

Posted by Stephanie Broad | July 23, 2016 | Teaching

• #lego-education
• #eal
• #curriculum
• #language-skills
• #teaching

LEGO® Education recently announced the launch of its free hands on activities, designed to help additional language learners to develop language competences in a motivating and playful environment. The activities improve pupils’ communicative abilities, cultural knowledge, and 21st century skills through hands-on learning.  

Based on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR level A2) developed by the Council of Europe, the five creative activities develop language and literacy through narrative experiences. The activities are free to download from LEGOeducation.co.uk/StoryStarter.

Jessica Clifton, marketing manager, at LEGO Education said: “These activities provide additional language teachers with ideas and inspiration for their first lessons with EAL pupils. Flexibility was the foundation for the activities’ design; they cover a range of language topics and competencies and can easily be adapted to fit any curriculum by adjusting the objectives or context. While the activities are based on StoryStarter, (LEGO Education’s literacy resource for key stages one and two) schools have the freedom to implement the activities with any LEGO bricks.

“Most schools support children from all over the world with English as an additional language. Over recent months, the need for more teachers to receive help with engaging these children into the learning environment and supporting their developmental needs, has become increasingly important. The activities are an ideal resource for enabling all second language pupils to integrate into a new country and classroom, and they support teachers who are facilitating that.”

Each activity can be used in connection with any existing curriculum and at different stages of the language learning process; they can also be extended to focus on, for example, vocabulary and writing skills.

Download the activity pack at: education.lego.com/en-gb/lesi/elementary/storystarter/ss-additional-language-learning