This will help you to establish how settled an education the pupil has experienced: some pupils may have moved several times, within and between countries, and therefore have 'gaps' in their subject knowledge and literacy skills in their first language.

Some pupils will have witnessed some disturbing scenes owing to political upheavals in their home country and this should be borne in mind when planning programmes of work.

Where the education is more conservative and formal as for example in some African countries, there will be subjects which have not been studied in the first language e.g. physical geography, practical science and information technology.

Where the education system is less interactive than in England, pupils will not be used to asking questions or taking part in discussions; they may also be nervous of answering questions in class for fear of giving the 'wrong' answer. Any questioning of the teacher by the pupil might be perceived as extremely rude. This is often the case, for example, with Japanese pupils where the teaching style does not encourage interaction between teacher and pupil beyond giving the 'correct' response.

Where practical science investigations have not been followed the subject-specific vocabulary will be missing in the first language. Similarly where IT has not been formally taught basic PC skills such as saving, editing, touch typing, internet access, and so forth will not have been covered and yet by KS3 it is assumed that pupils have acquired such skills.

This is useful to know, as it will help you to develop positive marking and make constructive comments. For example in Chinese there is no subject-verb agreement e.g. She run fast. Nor are definite or indefinite articles used. It would be helpful to the pupil if written comments acknowledged successful use of such language features and these are used to set short term objectives which are made known to all staff.

First language skills are transferable to the acquisition of any subsequent language:

• Recognise and reward mother tongue skills and provide opportunities for pupils to operate bilingually e.g. planning and drafting in the stronger language.
  
  
• Encourage pupils to maintain their reading skills in their first language; direct the pupil to resources available in their first language.
  
  
• Give credit for bilingual pupils' achievements in language awareness; they switch codes according to context and are very aware of register /audience.
  
  

Many EAL learners speak other languages apart from English. Knowing which languages they speak and to what level may allow for more diverse support:

• pairing with a speaker of one of the known languages;
  
  
• cultural references;
  
  
• provision of other dual language texts if not available in the pupil's first language;
  
  
• opportunities to follow appropriate language course at GCSE or A level.
  
  

Being aware of the level of English spoken at home will allow for better school/home liaison in terms of both the information sent home and the type of pre-teaching and homework activities that may be followed by the pupil. If no one at home speaks English find out if the family has a bilingual friend or relative so that contact may be established between the school and parents/guardians.