LILAC (Language In Learning Across the Curriculum)

Intervention description

LILAC (Language in Learning Across the Curriculum) is an intervention that aims to improve the teaching and learning of language skills for EAL pupils. It is delivered as a training course which was developed by Australian linguistics experts and is widely used in Australia. The course breaks down the process of teaching language to pupils, and the aim is to change teachers’ classroom practice in a way that improves the academic English skills of EAL pupils, and possibly other struggling students. LILAC aims to help schools identify the language-related needs of EAL students and develop teaching practices which address their needs in a holistic and explicit manner. It also aims to develop teachers’ awareness of how to accommodate the cultural and linguistic diversity and experiences of EAL students, and to provide a positive context for teachers to trial suggested strategies and reflect critically and openly on their teaching.

Staffing requirements

LILAC trains non-specialist teachers in how to teach a functional approach to linguistics and grammar.

Professional development/training

LILAC is an accredited and intensive course, involving four non-consecutive days of face-to-face training for teachers, with substantial amounts of reading and suggestions of many strategies to practice in between training days.

Evidence Summary

The Education Endowment Foundation is currently running a project investigating the effectiveness of LILAC (Language Learning in the Curriculum).

Key research

The Education Endowment Foundation evaluation will look at the impact of the intervention on Key Stage 2 literacy outcomes, and the process evaluation will assess whether the intervention was effective at improving teachers' language knowledge. The results should be available in summer 2019.

https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/projects-and-evaluation/projects/integrating-english