Crisfield Educational Consulting

Educational Services

CEC provides broad spectrum and targeted language-related services for schools, including school audits, programme development, and professional development.

Languages at the Centre

In an increasingly globalised world, languages take centre stage. Numbers of bilingual/multilingual learners in state schools are on the rise, and numbers in international schools are at an all-time high. Schools have increasing complex language requirements that are crucial to meeting the needs of all their learners. The range of language-related training and programming that schools currently need spans the entire spectrum: from language learners (EAL/ELL or other), home languages to host country/foreign language teaching. These needs must be addressed across the curriculum, and across the whole school, from reception to secondary school. There is also a growing number of schools choosing for immersion/bilingual programmes that also need careful planning and structuring, to meet the content and language goals of the curriculum while providing a strong foundation for language growth. It's an exciting time, linguistically, in education!

The CEC Mandate

CEC is dedicated to being a bridge between the various stakeholders involved in raising bilingual/multilingual children. On the one side we have many dedicated academics doing vital and informative research that can inform the practices of schools and parents. On the other side we have those same schools and parents, who are at the forefront of supporting the development of bilingual learners, but may not have the time or expertise to be a consumer of that research knowledge. As an academic and a practitioner, I can keep one foot in each of those worlds, and make sense of the research in ways that schools and parents can apply. To do this, I remain an active member of several research organisations and maintain working partnerships with researchers doing work in key areas. I also stay involved with practice-based organisations to ensure that I keep up to date with the on-the-ground side of teaching and learning languages.

What's hot in international education right now?

Translanguaging

Translanguaging pedagogy is of growing interest in both national and international schools, as it allows multilingual students to use all their language competency for learning and language development. Research consistently shows a strong link between competence in the home language (often called mother tongue) and success in learning a new school language. Translanguaging provides a framework for schools to integrate this into their teaching. CEC has been at the forefront of integrating translanguaging pedagogy in schools and provides professional development and coaching for teachers and schools. For a full explanation see my video below.

Crisfield Educational Consulting

Every teacher is a language teacher

The new catchphrase in schools with high numbers of language learners is "Every teacher is a language teacher". Whether or not this is actually the case is debatable, and you can read my analysis the September issue of the IS International Schools magazine (page 5) by clicking below.

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