Lifting Literacy Outcomes for Primary Aged EAL Students

It was wonderful to welcome Leah Myers to the Spellcaster Implementing Evidence Aligned Practice in Education webinar series. Leah is a literacy consultant, instructional coach, and critical friend to schools across Victoria. She has spent the last six years teaching in north-western Melbourne with high populations of English as Additional Language (EAL) learners, and recently completed her Master of Education specializing in language literacy.

Leah's presentation drew from both her lived experience as a teacher, her work across schools and her rigorous scoping review research conducted through La Trobe University, which examined how evidence-based literacy instruction can improve learning outcomes for all students, with a particular focus on multilingual learners in Australian contexts.

The Research Gap and NAPLAN Evidence

One of Leah's most critical findings was the complete absence of Australian research in this area. When conducting her scoping review using three educational databases and carefully selected search terms, she found 172 results but could only use ten that met her criteria - and none were from Australia.

This research gap is particularly striking given the diversity of Australian classrooms. As Leah shared from her own experience, in one Grade 4 class of 19 students, she identified 13 different home languages. This multilingual reality is far more complex than the Spanish-English bilingual contexts that dominate the international research literature.

Leah's passion for data-driven decision making shone through as she shared compelling NAPLAN results from schools she's worked with. Her analysis revealed marked differences between schools implementing science of learning principles and those that weren't - differences that weren't solely attributed to socioeconomic factors.

The most powerful example came from Marsden Road Public School in Sydney's western suburbs. With 90% EAL learners, many from refugee and high-trauma backgrounds, and 84% of students in the lowest socioeconomic band, the school achieved outstanding NAPLAN results across reading, writing, and numeracy. As Leah noted, this demonstrates that "the instruction we use with our EAL learners can have a huge impact on their learning" and "is not totally dependent on our socioeconomic background."

What Works: Evidence-Based Instruction for Multilingual Learners

One of Leah's core messages when it comes to high yield instruction for our EAL learners is that what works for monolingual learners also works for multilingual learners, but requires thoughtful implementation. Leah's review of the literature revealed several key findings:

Evidence-based instructional techniques that support literacy acquisition for monolingual learners are beneficial and recommended for all students. This includes systematic synthetic phonics, explicit instruction, and structured literacy approaches.

Direct instruction programs or explicit direct instruction approaches benefit all learners, especially students whose first language is not English.

Multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) and Response to Intervention (RTI) approaches yield the most beneficial outcomes for all learners, particularly in primary settings.

Phonological awareness and oral language development serve as crucial precursors for successful reading outcomes, regardless of how many languages a student speaks.

Core Components of Effective Literacy Instruction

Leah outlined the essential components that high-performing schools incorporate into their daily literacy instruction:

Foundational Skills Development:

• Phonemic awareness: Teaching students to blend, segment, and manipulate sounds
• Phonics instruction: Following a systematic synthetic phonics program
• Fluency practice: Using paired reading and repeated reading strategies
• Handwriting instruction: Handwriting support orthographic mapping

Language and Comprehension Development:

• Reading rich texts covering a variety of topics to enrich the learner's background knowledge
• Explicit vocabulary instruction: Systematically teaching Tier 2 and Tier 3 vocabulary
• Sentence-level instruction: Teaching grammar, syntax, and sentence structure
• Oral language development: Programs like Story Champs to develop narrative language skills

Oral Language and Story Champs

Leah highlighted Story Champs as "one of the best oral language programs I've ever come across." This multi-tiered language program helps educators promote academic language development in diverse student populations. Based on research foundations, Story Champs includes narrative language measures that help assess students' oral language and narrative understanding - particularly valuable for teachers working with multilingual learners.

The program's strength lies in its systematic approach to developing the oral language skills that underpin reading comprehension, especially critical as students transition from learning to read to reading to learn. For multilingual learners, robust oral language development is particularly crucial as it provides the foundation for vocabulary growth, sentence structure understanding, and the background knowledge necessary for comprehension across all academic areas.

Science of Learning Schools: Key Characteristics

Based on her extensive work with schools, Leah identified the hallmarks of effective science of learning implementation:

• Systematic, structured, and synthetic phonics programs following a clear scope and sequence
• Literacy blocks incorporating all National Reading Panel recommendations: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension
• Evidence-aligned programs like Story Champs, Spelling Mastery, and The Writing Revolution
• Strong scoping and sequencing across all subjects with daily review and spaced practice
• Knowledge-rich curriculum that teaches students about the world around them
• Explicit and responsive teaching across all subject areas
• Multi-tiered systems of support for students requiring additional intervention
• Significant investment in teacher professional learning and ongoing coaching

The Path Forward

Leah's work demonstrates that effective literacy instruction isn't about differing expectations for multilingual learners - it's about providing them with the systematic, explicit instruction they need to succeed. Her research shows that when schools implement evidence-based practices consistently and comprehensively, all students benefit, regardless of their linguistic or socioeconomic background.

Practically speaking, Leah's message is that we don't need different instructional approaches for multilingual learners. We need better implementation of what we know works, with careful attention to vocabulary development, oral language skills, and the systematic teaching of foundational literacy skills.

As Leah's data from Marsden Road Public School powerfully demonstrates, when we get the instruction right, our multilingual learners can achieve outstanding outcomes regardless of background.