English is a tricky language to learn; the way we pronounce phonemes is not consistent, and we don’t have set rules. The H - / h sound is considered to be one of the most difficult to make. French speakers often omit it from words completely. I grew up speaking Estuary English, because I lived in ‘ayes, near ‘eathrow, in London, where h deletion was ‘ow you spoke. 

H- dropping causes words like harm, heat, and hold to become arm, eat and old. H is a voiceless vowel. It is not pronounced by pushing airflow over the tongue; it arrives by pushing air with the lungs and diaphragm without adding shape.

The ability to reproduce sounds and read fluently is an important skill that English language learners will need to master if they are to become successful language users. For the EAL learner, the process of learning English happens in school through subject learning.

The impact of limited English exposure

This can create problems, particularly if the learner also has SEN. There are two phases of learning ahead. The first is Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS), which is enough language to interact socially and to get by day-to-day and can be picked up by a learner who practices for between six months and two years.

The second is CALP, Classroom Academic Language Proficiency, and it takes much longer to embed. Research from Collier and Thomas (1995) indicates that with no prior instruction or support, it can take at least seven years to develop CALP. This is the academic language that the learner will need to use to decode exam questions and respond appropriately to achieve qualifications.

Barriers to progress can be a lack of exposure to spoken English at home and in social situations. In many schools, EAL learners often prefer to speak to friends in their home language, and this can delay the development of CALP.

SEN Difficulties that may not be initially obvious to a teacher working with an EAL learner, because language difficulties can mask SEN. Common problems can include hearing impairments, visual disturbance and dyslexia. Anxiety is not always visible, but it can make a learner very hesitant to participate in activities like reading aloud or speaking spontaneously.

Translation tools as a classroom essential

The potential for misunderstanding is high, and the impact can be long-lasting.  Fortunately, with the growth of the EdTech industry, teachers can now include assistive technology as part of the support package. Text-to-speech tools and word scanners like the Reader 2 and Reader3 can help to train the ear with clearly spoken words while simultaneously supporting reading with highlighted text.

The learning landscape is becoming more immersive, and multimodal techniques are helping teachers to develop new learning strategies for EAL learners. The need for translation tools is a high priority for many schools, particularly where many languages are spoken.

This is where Reader 3 levels the playing field. It is a scanning pen that is also a translation tool, supporting more than 40 languages when you connect online. Here is a full list of the current languages available: Afrikaans, Arabic, Basque, Bulgarian, Cantonese, Catalan, Czech, Danish, Dutch (Belgium), Dutch (Netherlands), English (Australia), English (India), English (United Kingdom), English (United States), Filipino, Finnish, French (Canada), French (France), Galician, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Kannada, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malay, Mandarin (China), Mandarin (Taiwan), Norwegian Bokmål, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Spanish (Spain), Spanish (United States), Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian. 

Reader 3, on-pen languages are English, French, Spanish, Italian, and German. These languages can translate to and from English – ow’s that for elpful!

If you would like to find out more about Lingo 3/ Reader3 and how it supports language learning and reading you may like to investigate our website and if you would like to see a primary school video case study for EAL and Reader Pen, click here to see Discovering a Love of Reading at Yardley Primary School: 

So, Reader 2 is great for developing language learning and Reader 3 gives you translation support and all the other great features of the Reader 2 only sleeker!  

Appy days.