Drawing on linguistic and cultural capital to create positive learning cultures for EAL learners

A significant proportion of students in schools in the UK use English as an additional language (EAL). Latest figures show that EAL learners in England account for approximately one in five of the student population (DfE, 2018). Developing a learning culture that takes into account the specific characteristics and educational needs of this sizeable group is, therefore, unequivocally part of everyday practice for most teachers. The term EAL captures an extremely diverse group of learners, from students who have grown up in the UK in bilingual households with high levels of proficiency in two or more languages, to newly arrived students who may have little to no experience in learning English. All, however, have experiences of multilingualism, many of which are closely tied to their cultural identities, and which have important implications for supporting their learning. EAL students, or perhaps more usefully ‘multilingual learners’, bring learning experiences and linguistic skill