[eal-bilingual] Article re literacy in early years

I'll be interested in what you find.  I think it depends on how far children 
understand what they're being taught. Ruth Miskin's phonic scheme was 
designed in a school with almost all children learning EAL, and has a 
phenomenal success rate because, I think, of its emphasis on understanding. 
Gateway Primary, Evening Standard School of the Year in 2006, does equally 
well with Jolly Phonics. The diagrams of brain activity in The Learning 
Brain, Blakemore and Frith, show links between brain cells as the foundation 
of learning. For me, these links are the physical manifestation of 
understanding. I won't accept the premise that phonic approaches are harder 
than other approaches without clear evidence.  John Bald, independent 
consultant (author, Using Phonics to Teach Reading and Spelling) 