Positive Relationships: All in a day's work - English as an additional language
In our new monthly column Sian Nisbett, nursery director of Dizzy Ducks Day Nursery, which owns two settings in Essex, considers how her staff work with families who have English as an Additional Language.
Recently we have seen a steady increase in the number of children with English as an Additional Language (EAL) because a local employer has a current project requiring a lot of Turkish ex-pats to spend time in the UK. We are linked with this employer, so our nurseries are now attended by a number of children who can only speak Turkish.
It is important to take the right approach when dealing with families with EAL. It is crucial to remain sensitive to the needs of both the parents and the children. We enlisted the help of our local Early Years Team, who provided us with useful resources such as dual- language books, persona dolls (to help encourage shy children to participate), and ideas for using picture representation like that which is sometimes used for behaviour management. The picture representation worked really well and it benefited all the children in the setting as well as those with EAL.
We made a pictoral timeline, showing when different things happened in the nursery (snack time, garden time, home time) so children can understand and prepare themselves for what will happen next. The children also helped to make flashcards with commonly needed words, such as names for different resources. They really enjoyed teaching the staff the Turkish words for the items and asked them to repeat them back, which brought on many giggles at the staff's pronunciation. This proved a brilliant way to encourage the children to learn the English for the same card. As it was fun, the children learned much quicker!
We translated lots of the signs in nursery to Turkish and used the Babel Fish website to translate information for the parents, ensuring that the translations were correct. This was most useful when we had to explain to one father that his twins had contracted chickenpox. Doing this meant that parents felt included in the setting and helped them to feel welcome and comfortable in their surroundings.
After a few weeks we invited the Turkish parents into the nursery to hold a 'Turkish Day'. They helped out by cooking an authentic Turkish meal with our cook. The parents also sang songs with all the children and made Turkish flags. This helped strengthen the relationships between staff, parents and children, and we all learned some interesting things. It was such a success that we have since focused on the countries that our other EAL children originate from and have celebrated Spanish Day, Swedish Day and Russian Day.
