Introduction

In this chapter I address questions of what primary school teachers need to know primarily from the perspective of the needs of children for whom English is an additional language (EAL children). In addition, as I am located in Australia, the chapter is very much located within the Australian educational context and in relation to debates that are current in that context.

Australia, like the UK and other developed English-speaking countries, has significant numbers of established and more recently arrived immigrants within its population. General estimates are that around 20 to 25 per cent of children attending school in Australia are from non-English-speaking backgrounds, and significant numbers of these children need support with their development of spoken and written English. Such children tend to be clustered in large urban schools where factors such as poverty and social disruptions also frequently impact on the student populations. As the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development International Student Assessment (OECD PISA) results consistently show, there is a correlation between low educational achievement and factors such as socio-background, ethnicity and status as a second language learner (Lokan, Greenwood and Creswell 2000; Thompson and de Bortoli 2006). This is true in Australia, as elsewhere, and the result is that many children from linguistically and culturally diverse backgrounds in Australia do less well in school than their more socially and economically advantaged peers.