Any pupil who has been 'exposed to a language at home that is known or believed to be other than English' falls into the DfE's definition of having English as an additional language (EAL). EAL learners are an extremely diverse group, encompassing the full range of English language proficiency, from new to English to fluent. There are currently over 1.5 million EAL pupils in England (21.2 per cent of state-funded primary and 16.9 per cent of state-funded secondary school pupils; Department for Education, 2019), and the percentage of pupils recorded as speaking EAL in state-maintained primary and secondary schools has more than trebled since 1997. Teachers’ Standards (Department for Education, 2012) state that it is the responsibility of all teachers, whatever their subject, to ‘adapt their teaching to the strengths and needs of all pupils’ including those with English as an additional language. Yet research suggests that the majority of student teachers feel unprepared by their in
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