Media & Recommended Resources

Below can be found various blogs and podcasts which Eowyn has been a part of…

Podcasts

Eowyn talks to Cate Hamilton about a bilingual education roadmap – what parents need to know about bilingual education.

Eowyn discusses what parents-to-be might plan for a bilingual baby!  She discusses how best to go about using two languages in the home, and family language planning.

Eowyn has written a number of well-received blogs
for Pearson International Schools.

The titles and links can be found below:

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• Translanguaging – what is it and how do you plan for it? Frequently Asked Questions.
   

• Translanguaging – what is it and how do you plan for it?
   

• Home languages in school – why are they important?
   

• Multilingual students in the classroom: Your questions answered.
   

• Getting literacy right in international schools.
   

• Debunking the ‘immersion only’ myth.
   

• Is there a potential pandemic of language loss in international schools?
   

• Promoting home language use: How do we make a difference?

Use of L1 in EMI: Understanding why and moving to how

Webinars

• Translanguaging – what is it and how do you plan for it?
   

• Multilingual students in the classroom – what every teacher needs to know

Recommended Resources

Welcome to CEC's recommended resource section.  Here you will find any publications and media not our own, which we recommend to friends and clients as being of extremely high value.

This is the gold standard for helpful books for schools and families. Baker has a clear and concise writing style that manages to convey complex, research-based information in 1-2 pages answers for each of your questions. The range of topics covered is exhaustive and many have links to further reading. The short-answer format also means it's easy to share a critical question and answer with colleagues, administrators, or parents.

This book is so popular that it is now in its sixth edition. If you enjoyed A Parents' and Teachers' Guide but are looking for something more substantive and in-depth, this is the book for you. It is essentially an undergraduate course on bilingualism in one text, and gives teachers (and leadership!) a strong grounding in bilingual theory. I think this should be required reading for every teacher working in a language-diverse school!

Carder's classic book is getting on in years, but it's still a valuable starting point for schools that are in the early phases of building language provisions, and he makes a strong case for the structured support that an EAL/ESL departments provides in an era when many schools are trying to do away with formal EAL/ESL arrangements. For international schools, Carder speaks specifically to both the unique circumstances and the needs of international schools in terms of policy and practice for languages.

This is the second edition of Gibbons' much read book on scaffolding. Although there are many books written about scaffolding in education, this one stands out due to its clear focus on bilingual learners in mainstream classrooms. It is skill-based, so expect to see the "four skills" addressed as separate entities, although linked in planning. Gibbons' techniques work best if the whole school agrees to take them on board and plan consistently.

This complex volume is not a beginner-level text, but it's extremely useful for language and literacy specialists. In particular, it covers all permutations of language learning in schools, from students learning a new language through the curriculum to standard language teaching. It is divided by age (early, middle years, adolescents), and gives a comprehensive overview by age of normal language development, as well as difficulties in both first and subsequent language acquisition. It links closely to literacy development in school and offers some input on supportive strategies, although this is not the main focus of the book.