© Rawpixel.com, Adobe Stock
<div class="theconversation-article-body">
<h4>About <a href="https://v8.australiancurriculum.edu.au/resources/student-diversity/meeting-the-needs-of-students-for-whom-english-is-an-additional-language-or-dialect/">one quarter</a> of Australian school students are learning English as an additional language or dialect.</h4>
<p>This means their first language or dialect is something other than English and they need extra support to develop proficiency in what we call <a href="https://v8.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/english/Glossary/?term=Standard+Australian+English">standard Australian English</a>.</p>
<p>This group of students includes immigrants and refugees from non-English speaking countries, children of migrant heritage where English is not spoken at home and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.</p>
<p>But the level and duration of support they receive varies across schools. This is an issue because these students risk underachieving or being labelled as having <a href="https://tesol.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Roadmap-for-English-as-an-additional-language-or-dialect-in-schools-ACTA-May-2022.pdf">learning difficulties</a> without adequate help.</p>
<p>Until now, little was known about how long these students take to learn English.</p>
<p>Our new <a href="https://www.edresearch.edu.au/research/projects/learning-english-while-learning-curriculum">research</a> published today by the Australian Education Research Organisation, found it can take many years for students to develop the English language skills they need. This suggests students need ongoing and targeted support to learn English as an additional language.</p>
<h2>Our study</h2>
<p>We looked at more than 110,000 primary and high school students in New South Wales public schools over a nine-year period.</p>
<p>The students were learning English as an additional language from 2014 to 2022. Our research used two methods.</p>
<p>First, we analysed how long it took these students to achieve the same scores in their NAPLAN reading and writing tests as their English-speaking peers with the same background characteristics. That is, students were matched for characteristics such as gender, student <a href="https://myschool.edu.au/media/1820/guide-to-understanding-icsea-values.pdf">socio-educational advantage</a> and school location.</p>
<p>Second, we analysed how long it took students learning English as an additional language to reach certain phases of language proficiency. There is a national <a href="https://docs.acara.edu.au/resources/EALD_Learning_Progression.pdf">learning progression</a> resource for schools supporting students learning English as an additional language. It has four phases: beginning, emerging, developing and consolidating.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/674419/original/file-20250616-56-xh7p91.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&;q=45&;auto=format&;w=1000&;fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/674419/original/file-20250616-56-xh7p91.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&;q=45&;auto=format&;w=754&;fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/674419/original/file-20250616-56-xh7p91.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&;q=45&;auto=format&;w=600&;h=277&;fit=crop&;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/674419/original/file-20250616-56-xh7p91.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&;q=30&;auto=format&;w=600&;h=277&;fit=crop&;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/674419/original/file-20250616-56-xh7p91.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&;q=15&;auto=format&;w=600&;h=277&;fit=crop&;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/674419/original/file-20250616-56-xh7p91.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&;q=45&;auto=format&;w=754&;h=348&;fit=crop&;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/674419/original/file-20250616-56-xh7p91.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&;q=30&;auto=format&;w=754&;h=348&;fit=crop&;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/674419/original/file-20250616-56-xh7p91.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&;q=15&;auto=format&;w=754&;h=348&;fit=crop&;dpr=3 2262w" alt="" /></a><figcaption><span class="attribution"><span class="source">Source: The EAL/D Learning Progression: Foundation to Year 10, ACARA, 2015.</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure>
<h2>It can take many years to learn English</h2>
<p>Combining both methods, we found students need considerable time to learn English as an additional language.</p>
<p>For students who were assessed as “beginning” when they started school, it takes an average of six years to reach the final “consolidating” phase.</p>
<p>This means those students starting in kindergarten (the first year of school in NSW) are likely to need English language support throughout primary school.</p>
<p>For “beginning” students who start in later years, they may need continued English language support in high school.</p>
<p>Students who started school at the “emerging” and “developing” phases take, on average, four and three years, respectively to have English skills on par with their peers.</p>
<h2>Learning English takes longer as you go along</h2>
<p>We also found as students learned English, each phase in their progression took longer to achieve than the one before:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>the average time from beginning to emerging was one year and one month</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>from emerging to developing was one year and eight months</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>from developing to consolidating was two years and seven months.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<h2>What can impact learning?</h2>
<p>But learning English is complex and can be impacted by many factors.</p>
<p>We found students with socio-educational disadvantage progressed 22% slower than advantaged students, students with refugee experiences progressed 14% slower than those without. Male students took 6% longer than their female peers.</p>
<p>We also found students starting school in kindergarten progressed about 9% slower, compared to starting school in Australia in later primary year levels.</p>
<p>But we found students who started school already at the final, “consolidating” phase of English outperformed monolingual peers in NAPLAN. This suggests these students, who are arguably bilingual, were at an educational advantage.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/674421/original/file-20250616-56-6eh3h.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&;q=45&;auto=format&;w=1000&;fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/674421/original/file-20250616-56-6eh3h.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&;q=45&;auto=format&;w=754&;fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/674421/original/file-20250616-56-6eh3h.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&;q=45&;auto=format&;w=600&;h=286&;fit=crop&;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/674421/original/file-20250616-56-6eh3h.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&;q=30&;auto=format&;w=600&;h=286&;fit=crop&;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/674421/original/file-20250616-56-6eh3h.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&;q=15&;auto=format&;w=600&;h=286&;fit=crop&;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/674421/original/file-20250616-56-6eh3h.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&;q=45&;auto=format&;w=754&;h=360&;fit=crop&;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/674421/original/file-20250616-56-6eh3h.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&;q=30&;auto=format&;w=754&;h=360&;fit=crop&;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/674421/original/file-20250616-56-6eh3h.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&;q=15&;auto=format&;w=754&;h=360&;fit=crop&;dpr=3 2262w" alt="" /></a><figcaption><span class="caption">Average NAPLAN reading performance of students learning English as an additional language and their matched peers.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Source: NSW Department of Education National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy 2014 to 2022</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure>
<h2>Targeted support is needed</h2>
<p>Our findings have a number of implications.</p>
<p>Firstly, they help us understand the nature and length of support needed for students learning English students in schools.</p>
<p>Secondly, they highlight the importance of <a href="https://v8.australiancurriculum.edu.au/resources/student-diversity/meeting-the-needs-of-students-for-whom-english-is-an-additional-language-or-dialect/">ongoing, targeted support</a> for students.</p>
<p>This also suggests we need to make effective professional support available for teachers working with students who are learning English as an additional language.</p>
<p>The academic advantage of bilingual students also points to a need to encourage and support students using and developing their first and other languages, alongside English.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/258819/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/lucy-lu-1383325">Lucy Lu</a>, Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Education and Social Work, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-sydney-841">University of Sydney</a></em> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/jennifer-hammond-2411881">Jennifer Hammond</a>, Honorary Professional Fellow, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-technology-sydney-936">University of Technology Sydney</a></em></p>
<p>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/some-students-learning-english-can-take-at-least-6-years-to-catch-up-to-their-peers-how-can-we-support-them-better-258819">original article</a>.</p>
</div>

The Indigenous Literacy Foundation (ILF) has announced that in 2025 Busking for Change is being…
Spending time in green spaces reduces cortisol levels, lowers heart rate, and positively impacts mood…
Social isolation, loneliness, bullying, and family breakdowns are now key causes of distress among young…
Busy, high-use areas, washrooms can use some extra attention to make sure students feel comfortable…
A study investigating the realities of out-of-field teachers is seeking participants for groundbreaking research.
The resources are designed to support teachers to make sure all students are engaged in…
This website uses cookies.