English as a Second Language (ESL) students
ESL is actually not the correct acronym to refer to students that come from other backgrounds other than English. In many situations, students who come from non-English speaking backgrounds actually speak more than one language, hence a more politically correct term to use is to refer to the ESL student as an English as an Additional Language (EAL) student.
Who is the EAL student?
The EAL student is also a student that requires additional support learning English because English is not their first language.
According to the ESL handbook produced by the Victorian Government in 2007, there are a range of EAL students and they could come from any number of situations. The following categories provide a guide to some defining characteristics of the EAL student and are taken from the handbook;
List of policies relevant to the EAL student:
From a national perspective Australia does not have an overarching policy that exclusively addresses language acquisition for non-English speaking students instead, According to Professor Ingram, Director at the Centre for Applied Linguistics in at Griffith University since 1996 Language policy has been reduced to a series of questionable assertions about literacy (Ingram, 2003). Although education is a state responsibility, the federal government does have responsibilities with regard to financing and administration of ESL programs because of immigration and trade are federal responsibilities.
Since 1991, most newly arrived immigrants and other people granted permanent residence have a right to access appropriate ESL programs at least to a proficiency level where their survival or vocational needs are met. With respect to adolescents, The EAL student can qualify for support under the State administered (but federally funded) English as an Additional Language Provision for New Arrivals policy. Under this policy/program it provides:
The problem with the federal language focus on literacy means that ESL additional needs often get crowded out because the focus is on programs dealing with just literacy, which are issues that are pertinent to both EAL and non-EAL students. The problem with a specific focus on just language development is that the EAL student might not get enough support in the acculturation process as well. Studies show that effective language acquisition occurs through acculturation where the school takes deliberate action to ensure that the student is fitting in and adjusting to the school process as well as providing the student with explicit language instruction. Acculturation and language development need to happen concurrently.
Another problem with the current approach to EAL support, particularly for new arrivals into Australia is that a one year intensive program is often not adequate to equip the student with language, literacy and numeracy levels that the students are already assumed to have developed in mainstream schools. The EAL student needs both language instruction, as well as literacy and numeracy support within a context of settlement programs that help them to adjust to a new way of life and not all schools are aware of this.
Characteristics of the special needs group which may impact on their ability to access the curriculum
The learning requirements of the ESL student will vary depending on pre-immigration experience, level of formal schooling experience, their age, their stage of English Language acquisition, when they came into the Victorian school system and their previous-access to ESL support programs.
The teacher needs to appreciate that for the EAL student they actually have to do more than is actually required to the immediate task at had. (Lock, 1983) Explains that the second language learner has to do three things as rapidly as possible;
Students often discuss English-language meaning and forms in their own language so they may learn the second langue more successfully if they are encouraged to maintain links with their first-language. The EAL student can also have a more in depth learning experience when they are able to make sense of the second language when it is related back into their first language.
The learner’s social motivations, attitude and personality as well as the attitudes of the host community are also strong factors that affect the EAL learner’s experience. EAL learners also have to learn English for academic purposes while they are still learning to speak informally, and this can add to the added pressure of the EAL learner (Ministry of Education, 1987, p.8).
Implications for classroom teachers of the findings of recent research about this area of special need
In research undertaken by Watts-Taffe and Truscott (2000) they drew on research undertaken by Donato, 1994 that found the interconnectedness of language development and cognitive development were almost inseparable. (Watts-Taffe, Truscott, 2000) found that the best way to educate ESL students was for teachers to adopt an integrated approach in the mainstream literacy classroom effectively embedding language development into daily literacy activities. In other words, just as for native English speaking students, English-language learning should take place in conjunction with the learning of academic content (Donato, 1994). This is theoretically what should be happening in Australian classrooms at the moment.
American Researcher (Curtain 2005) undertook studies drawing from ESL experiences of middle school Texas students. Her investigation looked at the optimal amount of time for students to master English language within a school setting. She found that like other second-language acquisition theorists cited in her article, that academic competency in a second language requires between 5-8 years of English Language support (Curtain, 2005). While many ESL students quickly acquire "Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills" before entering the mainstream classroom, they still need continuous English language support in order to achieve the higher "Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency" necessary to meet requirement at school.
These studies are useful to provide a context for examining the best strategies to use given that language development happens best when meta-language is taught explicitly within the academic context and this also benefits non-ESL students. It is also interesting to note that like with any skill, it needs to be developed and supported constantly over time and the success of language development happens when other ‘assumed’ skills are developed. As teachers we need to be aware of the other implicit skills that are actually required to complete the learning activities that are set. For example, we often forget to demonstrate to our students how to concentrate and pay attention.
Strategies, which would be beneficial to the student with this special need
The following strategies relate to teacher/student communication:
Strategies dealing with communication of student progress back to parents:
List of Support networks within the school and outside of the school
There are normally EAL teachers on staff at most mainstream schools. Most EAL teaching support happens through removing the EAL student from class from time to time and assisting the EAL student with mainstream learning tasks. As part of regular good practice, the mainstream teacher should liaise with the student and EAL teacher about the student’s progress.
There are many websites that provide scaffolding structures in the form of worksheets/ or how to guides for the teacher to provide the EAL student in assisting them to complete tasks using particular writing genres and structures to support them in organising work tasks. There are probably lots of these scaffolds available at schools already.
List of Support networks outside the community for students with this particular need
English as a Second Language Companion to the Victorian Essential Learning Standards
It is a useful guide for the mainstream classroom teacher because it sets standards that describe the expected learning standards that the student would be expected to achieve according to their VELS level.
http://vels.vcaa.vic.edu.au/support/esl/index.html
Translating and Interpreting Services is a Federally funded government service that could be useful for teachers that need to communicate to EAL parents with limited English
http://www.immi.gov.au/living-in-australia/help-with-english/help_with_translating/
Foundation House is a useful resource for refugee EAL students that provides counseling and other support services to assist in the settlement and acculturation process.
http://www.foundationhouse.org.au/home/index.htm
The following are a list of additional scaffolding supports outside of the school:
Melbourne Boys High school provides a comprehensive list of how to guides from how to structure a research report to how to write a persuasive essay writing an essay and planning for project based work. This would benefit non-ESL students as well.
http://libguides.mhs.vic.edu.au/writing?hs=a
Read write think is a great American website that provides options for teachers to build their own writing scaffolding worksheets to assist students in planning out and starting more extensive work tasks
http://www.readwritethink.org/
Bubble Us provides an online mind-mapping tool to help the EAL student plan and organise information relating to work tasks.
https://bubbl.us/
Wordle is an online visual tool that can help students to visualize key points relating to topics and is a great tool for all visual learners and a good way of building vocabulary
http://www.wordle.net/
Blabberize is a great tool for EAL students who don’t feel confident in speaking in front of the class in situations where the activity requires the student to demonstrate knowledge on a certain topic.
http://blabberize.com/
Superteacher tools is a website that provides options to create online games for revision of subject content. Games from Jeopardy to crosswords could be created
http://superteachertools.com/
Recommendations: Chris Davison (1990) provides the most succinct analysis of the type of supports the EAL student. He says that “In terms of the classroom procedures EAL leaners need more repetition and practice, more explicit instruction and concept-checking, more careful paraphrasing of difficult vocabulary, more demonstration and modelling, more highly structured and sensitive elicitation of existing knowledge, more opportunities for controlled teacher-student and student-student interaction and more time to absorb the rhythms and patterns of the target language. They need methodical, planned language development, not just opportunities for use”. Teachers should remember these points and endeavour to incorporate these considerations into the strategies when teaching the EAL student.
ESL is actually not the correct acronym to refer to students that come from other backgrounds other than English. In many situations, students who come from non-English speaking backgrounds actually speak more than one language, hence a more politically correct term to use is to refer to the ESL student as an English as an Additional Language (EAL) student.
Who is the EAL student?
The EAL student is also a student that requires additional support learning English because English is not their first language.
According to the ESL handbook produced by the Victorian Government in 2007, there are a range of EAL students and they could come from any number of situations. The following categories provide a guide to some defining characteristics of the EAL student and are taken from the handbook;
- Beginning school in Australia at any year level
- Born overseas or in Australia
- Beginning school with little, some or no exposure to English
- Not having experienced schooling equivalent to that received by their chronological peers
- With little or no previous formal schooling in any country, or with severely interrupted education in their first language
List of policies relevant to the EAL student:
From a national perspective Australia does not have an overarching policy that exclusively addresses language acquisition for non-English speaking students instead, According to Professor Ingram, Director at the Centre for Applied Linguistics in at Griffith University since 1996 Language policy has been reduced to a series of questionable assertions about literacy (Ingram, 2003). Although education is a state responsibility, the federal government does have responsibilities with regard to financing and administration of ESL programs because of immigration and trade are federal responsibilities.
Since 1991, most newly arrived immigrants and other people granted permanent residence have a right to access appropriate ESL programs at least to a proficiency level where their survival or vocational needs are met. With respect to adolescents, The EAL student can qualify for support under the State administered (but federally funded) English as an Additional Language Provision for New Arrivals policy. Under this policy/program it provides:
- Intensive English Language courses that are conducted at English Language Centres for 6-12 months
- Literacy programs for refugee students to assist in transition into mainstream schools
- ESL index funding to provide for ESL support that is provided to the school for up to five years. The school has discretion on how this is best spend the resources based on the requirements of the ESL student.
The problem with the federal language focus on literacy means that ESL additional needs often get crowded out because the focus is on programs dealing with just literacy, which are issues that are pertinent to both EAL and non-EAL students. The problem with a specific focus on just language development is that the EAL student might not get enough support in the acculturation process as well. Studies show that effective language acquisition occurs through acculturation where the school takes deliberate action to ensure that the student is fitting in and adjusting to the school process as well as providing the student with explicit language instruction. Acculturation and language development need to happen concurrently.
Another problem with the current approach to EAL support, particularly for new arrivals into Australia is that a one year intensive program is often not adequate to equip the student with language, literacy and numeracy levels that the students are already assumed to have developed in mainstream schools. The EAL student needs both language instruction, as well as literacy and numeracy support within a context of settlement programs that help them to adjust to a new way of life and not all schools are aware of this.
Characteristics of the special needs group which may impact on their ability to access the curriculum
The learning requirements of the ESL student will vary depending on pre-immigration experience, level of formal schooling experience, their age, their stage of English Language acquisition, when they came into the Victorian school system and their previous-access to ESL support programs.
The teacher needs to appreciate that for the EAL student they actually have to do more than is actually required to the immediate task at had. (Lock, 1983) Explains that the second language learner has to do three things as rapidly as possible;
- learn another language, that is learn how to use it to communicate what the learner needs;
- learn the second language through their first language ; and
- learn about the second language, how it works and how to apply it.
Students often discuss English-language meaning and forms in their own language so they may learn the second langue more successfully if they are encouraged to maintain links with their first-language. The EAL student can also have a more in depth learning experience when they are able to make sense of the second language when it is related back into their first language.
The learner’s social motivations, attitude and personality as well as the attitudes of the host community are also strong factors that affect the EAL learner’s experience. EAL learners also have to learn English for academic purposes while they are still learning to speak informally, and this can add to the added pressure of the EAL learner (Ministry of Education, 1987, p.8).
Implications for classroom teachers of the findings of recent research about this area of special need
In research undertaken by Watts-Taffe and Truscott (2000) they drew on research undertaken by Donato, 1994 that found the interconnectedness of language development and cognitive development were almost inseparable. (Watts-Taffe, Truscott, 2000) found that the best way to educate ESL students was for teachers to adopt an integrated approach in the mainstream literacy classroom effectively embedding language development into daily literacy activities. In other words, just as for native English speaking students, English-language learning should take place in conjunction with the learning of academic content (Donato, 1994). This is theoretically what should be happening in Australian classrooms at the moment.
American Researcher (Curtain 2005) undertook studies drawing from ESL experiences of middle school Texas students. Her investigation looked at the optimal amount of time for students to master English language within a school setting. She found that like other second-language acquisition theorists cited in her article, that academic competency in a second language requires between 5-8 years of English Language support (Curtain, 2005). While many ESL students quickly acquire "Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills" before entering the mainstream classroom, they still need continuous English language support in order to achieve the higher "Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency" necessary to meet requirement at school.
These studies are useful to provide a context for examining the best strategies to use given that language development happens best when meta-language is taught explicitly within the academic context and this also benefits non-ESL students. It is also interesting to note that like with any skill, it needs to be developed and supported constantly over time and the success of language development happens when other ‘assumed’ skills are developed. As teachers we need to be aware of the other implicit skills that are actually required to complete the learning activities that are set. For example, we often forget to demonstrate to our students how to concentrate and pay attention.
Strategies, which would be beneficial to the student with this special need
The following strategies relate to teacher/student communication:
- When it comes to presenting topic information, teachers should present tasks and information visually by demonstration, pictures, models and diagrams.
- Teachers need to give clear unambiguous instructions and might need to repeat instructions using different language.
- Teachers should be conscious of how they use their voice, use tonne and intonation to communicate key points of what the student is expected to achieve with respect to learning tasks given.
- For EAL students that might be struggling to understand tasks, where possible the teacher could provide a translation of the activity if it is available, or another perspective on the issue that is being presented.
- For students who are have less advanced language acquisition, teachers could endeavour to structure work groups with EAL students that speak the same language so that they can help in explaining the task.
- Teachers should encourage all students to work together and EAL students are not socially isolated or repeatedly put into the same groups. This is important for making the EAL student feel a sense of belonging and reduce feelings of isolation.
- To cater for the different learning preferences teachers should use a combination of instructional approaches that draw from natural acquisition, traditional and communicative instructional approaches appropriate to the EAL students.
- Teachers should use culturally appropriate resources that highlight multi-cultural perspectives on issues/topics covered in class. This is important for all students developing an awareness of the cultural background of the EAL student thereby building an environment of tolerance.
- It is vitally important that the teacher provides enough time to complete tasks, and adjust wait time responses to questions addressed to EAL students.
- Teachers need to be aware of what the learning outcome of the task is and provide a variety of options for all students including the EAL student to demonstrate achievement of the learning outcome according to a format that they are confident in using.
Strategies dealing with communication of student progress back to parents:
- In terms of communicating student progress back to EAL parents the teacher might need to engage an interpreter Translating and Interpreting Services are available through the Federal Government Immigration website.
List of Support networks within the school and outside of the school
There are normally EAL teachers on staff at most mainstream schools. Most EAL teaching support happens through removing the EAL student from class from time to time and assisting the EAL student with mainstream learning tasks. As part of regular good practice, the mainstream teacher should liaise with the student and EAL teacher about the student’s progress.
There are many websites that provide scaffolding structures in the form of worksheets/ or how to guides for the teacher to provide the EAL student in assisting them to complete tasks using particular writing genres and structures to support them in organising work tasks. There are probably lots of these scaffolds available at schools already.
List of Support networks outside the community for students with this particular need
English as a Second Language Companion to the Victorian Essential Learning Standards
It is a useful guide for the mainstream classroom teacher because it sets standards that describe the expected learning standards that the student would be expected to achieve according to their VELS level.
http://vels.vcaa.vic.edu.au/support/esl/index.html
Translating and Interpreting Services is a Federally funded government service that could be useful for teachers that need to communicate to EAL parents with limited English
http://www.immi.gov.au/living-in-australia/help-with-english/help_with_translating/
Foundation House is a useful resource for refugee EAL students that provides counseling and other support services to assist in the settlement and acculturation process.
http://www.foundationhouse.org.au/home/index.htm
The following are a list of additional scaffolding supports outside of the school:
Melbourne Boys High school provides a comprehensive list of how to guides from how to structure a research report to how to write a persuasive essay writing an essay and planning for project based work. This would benefit non-ESL students as well.
http://libguides.mhs.vic.edu.au/writing?hs=a
Read write think is a great American website that provides options for teachers to build their own writing scaffolding worksheets to assist students in planning out and starting more extensive work tasks
http://www.readwritethink.org/
Bubble Us provides an online mind-mapping tool to help the EAL student plan and organise information relating to work tasks.
https://bubbl.us/
Wordle is an online visual tool that can help students to visualize key points relating to topics and is a great tool for all visual learners and a good way of building vocabulary
http://www.wordle.net/
Blabberize is a great tool for EAL students who don’t feel confident in speaking in front of the class in situations where the activity requires the student to demonstrate knowledge on a certain topic.
http://blabberize.com/
Superteacher tools is a website that provides options to create online games for revision of subject content. Games from Jeopardy to crosswords could be created
http://superteachertools.com/
Recommendations: Chris Davison (1990) provides the most succinct analysis of the type of supports the EAL student. He says that “In terms of the classroom procedures EAL leaners need more repetition and practice, more explicit instruction and concept-checking, more careful paraphrasing of difficult vocabulary, more demonstration and modelling, more highly structured and sensitive elicitation of existing knowledge, more opportunities for controlled teacher-student and student-student interaction and more time to absorb the rhythms and patterns of the target language. They need methodical, planned language development, not just opportunities for use”. Teachers should remember these points and endeavour to incorporate these considerations into the strategies when teaching the EAL student.