An Extra Radiator? Teachers’ Views of Support Teaching and Withdrawal in Developing the English of Bilingual Pupils

Summary This article, based on a series of semi‐structured interviews, explores the attitudes of a group of secondary school teachers towards withdrawal and mainstream support as ways of helping bilingual pupils develop their competence in English. The teachers interviewed were well aware of the value of support teaching and argued in favour of it on social and pedagogic grounds consonant with a series of reports from Bullock to Cox. On the other hand, they also saw merit in withdrawal, which they felt provided a secure working environment for pupils, especially beginning bilinguals, offered a good opportunity for follow‐up of mainstream lessons and allowed for specific language development activities more easily than mainstream support. Most worryingly, the teachers felt that support teaching in their own schools was hampered by poor organisation, unhelpful attitudes on the part of some colleagues and a general lack of status for teachers of English as a second language.