As we begin a new school year, it’s important not to lose the momentum that the National Year of Reading has brought into schools, giving reading a much-needed renewed focus.
With that in mind, here are some of our most popular resources that provide practical tips and advice to put into your classroom practice to support reading development for multilingual learners.
Blog: Creating inclusive multilingual reading spaces
This blog from Karen Warwick, Learning Designer and Educator, highlights the importance of providing multilingual reading spaces, with tips for how to create these spaces. She also explains why sourcing culturally relevant books boosts reading engagement and how to use multilingual reading spaces effectively.
Guidance: Teaching EAL Learners in English Literacy, English, and English Literature
This guidance helps you to understand the challenges for EAL learners in English and English literature lessons and how teachers can break down these barriers to help multilingual learners meet the demands of these subjects. The guidance gives practical examples of activities, as well as guidance on how to make a fair assessment of EAL learners progress and attainment.
Great Idea: Dual language books
How can working with dual language books help to develop literacy? In this Great Idea you’ll discover how dual language books help teachers create relatable, fun, and meaningful encounters with text. You’ll also learn why dual language books are beneficial for EAL learners and find examples of ways to use them effectively.
Tips From an EAL Trainer: Three Engaging DARTs Activities to Support EAL Learners’ Reading
In this video from Emily Curran, Learning Designer and Educator, you will learn how DARTs (Directed Activities Related to Texts) are a helpful way to assess and enhance reading comprehension. In this video, she gives three example activities to help EAL learners develop their reading skills.
Webinar: National Year of Reading: what does it mean for multilingual learners?
We ‘Go All In’ on reading with this webinar, where expert guests share how schools can celebrate and strengthen multilingual learners’ reading in all the languages they use, to build engaged, confident, lifelong readers. You will also learn more about the National Year of Reading and how The Bell Foundation is taking part in the national reading celebrations.
Resource: Macbeth Act 1
Texts from the likes of Shakespeare can present additional challenge for multilingual learners, given the complex and dated language. This resource enables you to break down barriers for key stage 3-4 EAL learners by providing useful scaffolds and activities to develop their understanding of the plot, themes, and characters (and their motivations) for the first act of the play.
(You will also find links to resources for the other acts on the same page)
Guest blog: Paired reading
This guest blog explores how Meadow Park School and Coventry City Council launched a pair reading programme that has strengthened the literacy skills and confidence of EAL leaners. Alexandra and Marilena describe how their programme works, give practical considerations for implementing a paired reading intervention, and share insights into how students feel being part of their programme.
Great Idea: Early Literacy Word Work
Wanting to support EAL learners who are learning to read and write for the first time? This Great Idea shares word-level tasks that can support leaners who are the new to English to develop their literacy skills within the context of the curriculum. You will find examples of activities and guidance on how early literacy world-level activities work.
Webinar: National Year of Reading: exploring "spaces" for multilingualism
Rewatch our webinar here where we welcomed Professor Sabine Little, to look at her research on multilingual reading, and how the positioning of school as a monolingual or multilingual space affects the child's ability to bring their whole plurilingual selves to their reading development.
Resource: Rosie’s Walk (Part 1)
Through Rosie’s Walk This interactive and visual resource for key stage 1 helps EAL students to develop meaningful vocabulary and to become familiar with identifying and using the past simple tense and prepositions. Students also learn about a farm environment and its key physical features.
(You will also find a link to Rosie’s Walk (Part 2) on the same page)
Keen to know more? Look at our National Year of Reading 2026(opens in new tab) page which has more free resources, expert insights, and practical strategies.