Primary and early years
Many children in Bali’s international schools think in one language and learn in another. This guide explains what that means for reading, confidence and homework, and what genuinely helps.
A child learning in English as an additional language (EAL) is not behind; they are doing double work. They are learning English and learning in English at the same time, and the two develop on different clocks. Conversational fluency usually arrives within a year or two. The academic English that schoolwork demands, the vocabulary of science questions and written arguments, takes considerably longer.
This guide is for parents whose children study in English at a Bali international school while speaking another language at home. It explains what EAL means in school practice, the stages children typically pass through, why the home language deserves protection, and when one-to-one support makes a difference.
EAL stands for English as an additional language. It describes any pupil who speaks a language other than English at home and is learning through English at school. Most international schools in Bali run an EAL programme of some kind: a specialist teacher, in-class support, or withdrawal sessions for small groups.
EAL is a description of a learning situation, not a difficulty and not a diagnosis. A child receiving EAL support may be quick, slow or anywhere between; the label says nothing about ability. It tells the school how to teach, not what the child can become.
Schools vary in how much EAL provision they fund and how it is staffed. Ask the admissions office or your child’s year leader how support is organised, how progress is measured, and when a child typically exits the programme. A clear answer is a good sign.
Researchers describe a broad sequence, and children move through it at different speeds. Treat the stages below as a map, not a timetable; no two children keep the same pace, and none of the stages is a cause for alarm on its own.
The gap that matters most is between the third and fifth stages: a child who chats easily with friends can still struggle to write a science report. Parents and teachers sometimes mistake fluent speech for finished acquisition, and support is withdrawn just when the academic demands increase.
Older arrivals face a compressed version of the same journey. A child joining an English-medium school at thirteen must acquire academic English while the academic content itself is at its most demanding, which is why late arrivals need the most structured support and the most patient timetable.
Bali’s international schools hold an unusual range of home languages. Bahasa Indonesia, Russian, French, Korean, Mandarin, German, Japanese, Dutch and many others sit in the same classroom, and each language shapes early reading in English differently.
For parents, the practical point is simple. Difficulty with English reading in the first year or two often reflects the distance between the home language and English, not the child’s underlying ability.
How home languages shape early reading: Children whose home language uses the Latin alphabet, such as Bahasa Indonesia or French, often transfer letter-sound knowledge quickly, though spelling patterns differ. Children from non-Latin scripts, such as Russian, Korean, Mandarin or Japanese, are learning a writing system as well as a language, so early reading can look slower while handwriting and decoding catch up. This is descriptive, not statistical: individual children vary widely, and none of it predicts how well a child will eventually read in English.
The strongest gift you can give an EAL learner is a strong home language. First-language literacy gives children concepts, vocabulary and grammar to build on, and reading habits transfer across languages. A child who reads well in Korean or Indonesian brings that skill to English.
Keep reading aloud, talking and telling stories in your home language. If your child is old enough, encourage reading for pleasure in it. Some families worry that two languages will confuse a child; the research consensus and classroom experience point the other way. Dropping the home language to make room for English usually weakens both.
The home language is also where homework talk can happen. Explaining a science idea in the language your child thinks in is not cheating; it is teaching.
Small, regular habits outperform occasional big efforts. The following steps are ones any family can start this week:
Tutoring earns its place when a child needs more individual language practice than a classroom can provide, when academic English is holding back a subject the child understands, or when confidence has dipped and a child has stopped volunteering in class.
A good EAL-aware tutor builds vocabulary inside the child’s actual schoolwork: the words in this term’s maths problems, the sentence shapes a history essay needs. What tutoring cannot do is compress the years that full academic fluency naturally takes, and you should be cautious of anyone who promises otherwise.
If you are weighing up support, our English tutors page explains how we approach English as a subject and as a language of instruction, and our reading support page covers structured literacy for children whose decoding or fluency needs attention.
For the wider context of changing language environments, see our guide to moving from the national to an international curriculum and the article on reading fluency and comprehension.
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