About one quarter of Australian school students are learning English as an additional language or dialect.

This means their first language or dialect is something other than English and they need extra support to develop proficiency in what we call standard Australian English.

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.

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 learning difficulties without adequate help.

Until now, little was known about how long these students take to learn English.

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