PUPILS from across East Lancashire are helping to pilot a government project designed to help youngsters for whom English is not their first language.

But education chiefs say all children are set to benefit by learning more about other cultures.

Lancashire County Council has been chosen to trial the "English as an Additional Language" or EAL initiative - set up to help children who might not do as well at school because English is not their mother tongue.

Children representing 10 primary schools took part in the first in a series of forums in October to discuss how to get better results when speaking their first language in the classroom.

They also discussed with headteachers, teachers and county council advisers how they could find out more about different cultures by learning new languages. The career prospects of being bi-lingual was also a topic under discussion.

As part of the project, pupils in school had to tell stories which used as many of their mother tongues as possible, including Punjabi, Urdu, Gujarati, Pushto, Bengali, French, Spanish, Dutch, Arabic, Italian, Welsh, Norwegian and Portuguese.

In a language attitude survey around 58 per cent of pupils wanted more opportunities to speak in their mother tongue for learning and teaching and a similar percentage said that their mother tongue was their strongest language, but felt embarrassed about using it for learning and teaching. Lancashire, one of 21 local education authorities taking part, has received £84,900 to fund activities to encourage language development among bilingual learners.

Azra Butt, Lancashire County Council's EAL consultant, said: "The forum was an overwhelming success because all the pupils are so passionate about this particular theme and children could speak from their own experiences."

Headteacher at Blackburn's Audley Junior school in Queens Park Road, Adrian Woods, has always encouraged pupils to speak Gujarati and Punjabi in a bid to raise standards. "We have always said there is a place for the mother tongue. Raising achievement goes hand-in-hand with improving language skills," he said.

Schools taking part in the pilot project are Hyndburn Park Primary School, Woodnook Primary School and Spring Hill Primary in Accrington; Stoneyholme Community Primary School, Burnley; and Bradley Primary School, Lomeshaye Junior School, Walverden Primary School, Marsden Community Primary School, and Walter Street Primary School in Nelson.