Use of Makaton with children for whom English is an Additional Language

[sarah....@hants.gov.uk]

I am trying to find research that has been carried out into the use of Makaton with EAL learners.  This is a strategy I sometimes come across being used with early-stage EAL learners in Year R classrooms.  Whilst I agree that some use of non-verbal gestures can be helpful, especially for communicating basic needs when a child is in the early stages of acquiring English, I recently came across a TA using full-blown Makaton with a newly-arrived Year R Russian-speaker. This seemed a bit distracting to the child, who didn't seem to know where to direct his attention and who was the only one with whom Makaton was being used in this way. 

Does anyone know of any research in this area?

Any thoughts/suggestion most welcome.

Sarah

 

[Judith Evans]

Hi Sarah,

Makaton, even full blown, is only a couple of hundred signs used to support spoken English.

Many settings use Makaton as part of their daily work, and children usually benefit from the addition of gesture rather than suffer.

I am surprised that it was causing confusion since usually when using signed communication the hands and face are in frame. In BSL many signs are distinguished by the facial expression.

I was involved in a project to deliver science in BSL and English to a yr 2 class in conjunction with a deaf group. The children gained more secure science concepts than the classes not involved. This was not written up as full research because I never had the time. Similarly in the days when schools could choose how to teach phonics, Jolly Phonics was often used in largely EAL schools because it added gesture and kinaesthetic learning to the mix. The Jolly Phonics site had some research on this.

The TA may have been unable to help themselves, I move between signed and non signed environments mid week, and find myself adding BSL to my teaching by accident.

Makaton is not a language, it is not sign language, it does not provide enough linguistic structures, vocabulary and concept development to be useful for the deaf population.

It is, however, helpful for students who will struggle to develop language. It is also, in my experience, not unhelpful with younger children, and can enable younger EAL learners to understand class routines, when used as part of whole class practice.

I cannot see singling out one child to use it as at all helpful, as it clearly will not support peer interaction which is essential. So I would say get the teacher to build into whole class practice, especially round routines, stop teaching it to one child, add in some Russian, and provide comprehensible input and meaningful interaction in spoken English instead.

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[J. R.]

It's been a while since you posted, but hopefully it's still relevant. I've taken some Makaton courses and I'm learning BSL recreationally and I slowly started incorporating signing into my practice with EAL learners. I've found that most kids find it really cool and some kids won't even notice I'm doing it. Of the ones that do notice, some want to learn that instead of English! That's always a danger but fingerspelling is extremely useful with EAL learners who are also dyslexic. I've a kid who's become fairly fluent in spoken English but regularly mispels HFWs and he'll check with me using signs (mostly 'i' and 'e' since the sounds are inverted in Polish), in a noisy classroom, it comes in handy not to have to interrupt the teacher every time he has a spelling question. I also use it while reading with them to remind them of the meaning of words (ie. for "aid" I'll sign 'help' to remind them).

In conclusion, it really depends on the kid, both their attitude and how suited they are to learning sign languages, but for some being able to remember the gesture with the word it's invaluable since kinetic memory is their forte.

Regarding whole classroom interaction... I mostly use sign while talking so that it enhances and doesn't replace speech, so unless they've an additional issue, it's unlikely they'll pick up the sign and not the words after a few repetitions. Even if they did pick up only the sign, it's still positive that they are able to communicate with the adult and while most bilingualism delays language acquisition slightly, the long-term benefits are myriad so it's hardly the end of the world.