Great Idea: Planning for Language

What is planning for language?      

Planning for language involves identifying the language learners will need to engage successfully in a challenging classroom curriculum as part of regular lesson planning. It also involves planning how learners will encounter and use this language meaningfully in the lesson, along with support that is responsive to individual learner needs and levels of English language proficiency.

Planning for language is central to making informed decisions about what language to focus on during the lesson and what scaffolds to use. 

What language to prioritise? 

Identifying the linguistic resources a learner will need begins by considering what learners are being asked to think about and communicate. Different tasks, such as describing, explaining, comparing, etc., require different kinds of language (Halliday, 1993). For example, consider the Roman invasion of Britain below. Although the curriculum topic remains the same, the purpose of the task determines the language learners need to express their understanding. 

Identifying key vocabulary is an important part of planning for language. However, effective language planning extends beyond vocabulary alone. It also involves identifying the purpose of the text, considering how texts – whether spoken, written, or multimodal – are organised (text level), how ideas are connected within and across sentences (sentence level), and how key words and phrases are chosen to convey precise meaning (word level) (Derewianka, 2016). 

For example, when planning for learners to read the science text below, it would help to identify its purpose (an explanation of how rainbows are formed), how it is organised (as a sequence of stages), and how language is used to connect the sequence of those stages at the sentence level. Planning for how you will explicitly highlight these language features during reading can support learners' comprehension while also helping them to use similar patterns when they come to discuss or write explanations on their own. 

The framework below provides some examples of language features at the text, sentence, and word-level language typically associated with common curriculum genres, or purposes, across different subject areas.  

	Purpose	Text level	Sentence level	Word level
Science	Explain    e.g. explain how water changes state	Introduce the phenomenon  Explain how/why it happens  Present stages in logical sequence   Conclude / summarise	Sequencing; first, then, next, finally  Passive voice; is heated, is changed  Cause and effect; as a result, therefore  Generalisations; water changes state when…	Technical vocabulary; evaporation, condensation  Tier 2 words; process, change, occur  Key words and phrases
History	Recount / Evaluate    e.g. recount the events and discuss their impact	Introduce event or question  Describe chronological sequence of events  Explain causes and consequences  Conclude by summarising significance or impact	Time relationships; first, during, by the end  Past tense verbs and adverbs  Modal verbs; might, may, could  Comparison; in contrast, whereas   Evaluation; this suggests, demonstrates	Subject vocabulary; invasion, treaty, empire  Tier 2 words; impact, consequence, significance, evidence  Key words and phrases
Maths	Justify / Reason    e.g. tell me how you solved the problem	State the problem/question  Explain the methods/steps  Show reasoning  Conclude/check	Logical connectives: since, so, because  Conditional language; if then  Comparison: greater than, fewer than	Mathematical vocabulary; equal, denominator  Tier 2 words; estimate, calculate  Phrases; is equal to, the same as
English	Persuade / Argue    e.g. write a persuasive argument	State the position  Present reasons  Provide evidence/ examples  Counter-argument (optional)  Conclude	Opinion language; I believe, in my opinion  Connectors; moreover, in addition  Conditionals; if we…then  Complex sentences with clauses	Subject vocabulary; sustainability, environment  Tier 2 words; evidence, reliable  Persuasive phrases; clearly, without a doubt

Language develops progressively through repeated opportunities to use and extend it in meaningful curriculum contexts (Cummins, 2021). For this reason, planning for language is not about teaching every language feature in every lesson, that would be impossible. Rather, it involves selecting those language features that best support learners' participation in the lesson. Depending upon the activity, this could involve: 

• unpacking a complex sentence for meaning;  

• exploring how a long noun phrase condenses information;  

• drawing attention to the use of passive voice, multiple meaning words, or grammatical features such as past tense;  

• making comparisons between English and a learner’s home language; 

• exploring how nominalisation is used to express an abstract idea. 

How does planning for language work?

A useful way to plan for language development is to work through five key questions in Pauline Gibbons’ planning framework alongside regular unit or lesson planning (Gibbons, 2015).   

Another planning framework adapts the Teaching and Learning Cycle (Derewianka, 2016) by highlighting key planning considerations at each stage. 

A typical lesson may focus on one or two language features that will help learners engage successfully with the task. Those features might include: 

• a small, manageable set of essential vocabulary (e.g. 4-5 words or phrases); 

• one or two useful sentence structures; 

• a way of using language for a specific purpose at the text level (e.g. organising an information report); 

• one grammatical pattern learners will need to use. 

The specific focus will depend on the lesson purpose, the learners’ needs and their English proficiency. To see how this can be put into practice, explore the activities on the Great Ideas page, Integrating Content and Language, or visit other support strategies from our Great Ideas collection. 

Top Tips:

Make planning for language manageable:  

• Start small: Focus first on lessons where language is central to success, such as those requiring learners to describe, retell, interpret evidence, or produce extended writing. 

• Look for patterns: Many curriculum tasks involve similar language demands. Once these patterns are recognised, successful approaches, and resources can be adapted across lessons and subjects. 

• Plan collaboratively: Sharing language analyses, models, and scaffolds across teams reduces workload and supports consistency. 

• Build a bank of effective scaffolds: visual supports, barrier games, conversation prompts, writing and speaking frames, etc. can be adapted and reused rather than recreated. 

• Use AI to help identify language demands. Use prompts such as ‘identify the purpose of this text and its language demands at the text, sentence, and word level’. Either paste the text being used or describe the task. 

Why is planning for language a good idea for EAL learners?

Planning for language development is important because it makes visible the language that learners need to participate successfully in classroom learning. Gibbons (2015) argues that academic language is rarely acquired simply through exposure to curriculum content alone. Instead, by identifying the language demands of a lesson alongside learners' English language proficiency during planning, teachers can create clear links between the language learners need and the support they receive as they engage with challenging tasks (Hammond and Gibbons, 2005). 

Without this planning, language support is more likely to be reactive than intentional, relying on in-the-moment strategies such as simplifying tasks or reducing explanations. While these strategies may be useful in the moment, they can unintentionally limit opportunities for learners to engage with challenging curriculum and develop school-based language (Walqui, 2006). 

Although particularly important for multilingual learners acquiring English, making the language of the curriculum explicit benefits all learners by supporting access to subject knowledge and enabling everyone to engage with the distinctive ways of meaning making in each unique subject area. 

References   

Cummins, J. (2021). Rethinking the education of multilingual learners: A critical analysis of theoretical concepts. Multilingual Matters.  

Derewianka, B. and Jones, P. (2016). Teaching Language in Context. 2nd ed. Melbourne: Oxford University Press. 

Gibbons, P. (2015). Scaffolding Language, Scaffolding Learning: Teaching English Language Learners in the Mainstream Classroom (2nd ed.). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. 

Halliday, M.A.K. (1993) Towards a language-based theory of learning, Linguistics and Education, 5(2), pp. 93–116. 

Hammond, J., & Gibbons, P. (2005). Putting scaffolding to work: The contribution of scaffolding in articulating ESL education. Prospect, 20(1), 6–30. 

Walqui, A. (2006). Scaffolding instruction for English language learners: A conceptual framework. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 9(2), 159–180.