A mixed method approach to English as an additional language through understanding the specific linguistic features of students' writing

The proposed study aims to identify syntactic and lexical features of EAL students' academic writings and explore the relationships between the linguistic features of EAL students' academic writings, their socioeconomic status and other contextual features, and the students' performance in GCSE in four subjects (English, History, Maths and Physics, representing subjects of varying language demands). Data will be collected from multiple sources, including official GCSE exam scripts and scores, student characteristics (as in DfE databases, to be linked with GCSE results), 1000 mock GCSE exams from 10 case study schools in ethnically diverse boroughs of London, and focus-group interviews and questionnaires with students in the case study schools.