Vocabulary · Tier 1: everyday words
Home language bridging
Invite students to think, plan and check their understanding in their home language, then bridge into English. Students learn more of the content, and their English grows from what they already know.
- Bands
- 1 to 3
- Stages
- Early Years, Lower elementary, Upper elementary, Middle school and High school
- Settings
- Mainstream class, Push-in support, Pull-out support, Small group and At home
- Prep
- No prep
How to do it
- Find out each student’s home language, and whether they read and write it.
- Let students discuss a task in their home language with a same language classmate before working in English.
- Allow notes and plans in any language, with the final version in English.
- Build the bridge by asking “How do you say that in English?” and writing the English next to their notes.
- Tell families that using the home language at home supports learning English.
In a lesson
History (middle school)
Before writing about the causes of a war, two Korean-speaking students list reasons in Korean. The teacher asks them to choose their strongest three, and together they find the English: competition for land, new alliances, an assassination. They then write their paragraph in English.
What commonly goes wrong
- Home languages are discouraged in class.
- The whole task happens in the home language, with no bridge back to English.
- Staff assume that students of the same nationality share a language.
Adapting it
For a lower band
Use the home language for most of the thinking, with a short, clear piece of English at the end.
For a higher band
Use the home language for planning only, and speak and write in English.