DEDICATED TO MY GOOD FRIEND AND COLLEAGUE
Margaret Dinallo
1960 – 2007
ESL Legend!
Australia says SORRY
On February 13, 2008, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd apologised for the hurt caused by decades of mistreatment of the Aboriginal people. You can hear the apology and view the emotional response from many Australians by going to this link – Sorry.
Successful Language Learners project….
See my February 09 post on my home page to get the background on this project! More soon!
Who are our ESL Learners?
Students requiring ESL assistance are those who are statistically characterised as coming from a language background other than English (LBOTE), whose first language is not English and who require, though may not be receiving ESL teaching.
The students:
- may be newly arrived in Australia who come from a language background other than English
- may have been born in Australia who enter school with little or no English
- have had some or all of their schooling in Australia and whose home background includes at least one language other than English
- may have low level language proficiency which masks their potential
Sydney Morning Herald 2009
ESL Phases
Phase 1
- students with minimal or no English
- communicate in English with limited proficiency
- Usually these ESL students will move beyond phase 1 after 3 terms of ESL instruction
Phase 2
- students whose understanding and production of written and spoken English is progressing but is still limited to familiar social and educational settings
- these students have transitional language proficiency and range from having a basic communicative repertoire to those who can communicate wth some degree of coherence
- generally these students will move beyond phase 2 after 3 years of ESL instruction
Phase 3
- generally these students function fluently in English but occasionally need assistance in meeting the particular language and literacy demands of the curriculum
- usually these students will move beyond Phase 3 after 7 years of ESL instruction
Process for Identifying ESL Learners
- Develop a whole school profile of both student’s language background and their language development.
- Information for their language background should include data on proficiency in English and in their first language.
- This profile will assist schools in determining student language needs, setting priorities, establishing target groups and organisation of teaching modes to best suit the student’s needs.
- This profile needs to be regularly updated in response to language assessment data collected over time.
Assessing English language needs
- Both mainstream and ESL specialists must collect and analyse assessment information collaboratively to determine the language needs of the students.
- Assessment can be gathered through a variety of oral and written tasks: retelling of a known story; writing samples; sequencing tasks….
Setting priorities
- While all students from a language background other than English may be entitled to assistance, priority groups need to be established by the ESL teacher/mainstream teacher.
- Priority 1: Students newly arrived in Australia with little or no English
- Priority 2: Students with limited English – been in Australia for less than 3 years and Kindergarten students new to English
- Priority 3: ESL Students who are relatively fluent in English but still struggle with literacy and oracy tasks of the curriculum. Students in this group may have been learning English for less than 7 years which means they have yet to fully acquire CALP language necessary for understanding of abstract curriculum concepts.
Remember, ESL programs are NOT remedial programs. They are programs aimed to support the development of English language proficiency.
Adapted from ESL in Action!, CEO Sydney
MY TOP 13 ESL SITES!!
Here’s a list of my Top 10 ESL sites. They are not in any particular order. However I do refer to them frequently when working with teachers K-6. Enjoy!
1. Cultural Diversity and Education – Early Childhood Association of Australia. A great site for the latest news and resources for those working with young children.
2.Everything ESL – Useful articles, resources, teaching tips and more.
3. ESL online – a great New Zealand site with a wealth of research, classroom units, teaching advice, resources and research.
4. Information for ESL teachers – another useful site full of great ideas on how to teach ESL students and also easy to read advice about ESL concepts. Great for mainstream teachers!
5.Neil Whitfield\’s blog – This Australian blog has a lot of up-to-date info on teaching ESL and Literacy. A great
6. Jim Cummins – As a world renown ESL researcher and educator, you can’t go past this site if you want to increase your own understanding about teaching ESL students.
7. English as a second language, Victorian Dept Ed – a comprehensive site for any ESL teacher in Australia (and beyond!) with some useful information and resources on teaching refugee students.
8. ATESOL NSW – Among other useful items, this site haslinks to teaching units matching NSW syllabus K-12.
9. Internet TESL Journal – internet journal that has great links, resources and general information about teaching ESL students.
10. Multicultural Australia – a site specifically designed for teachers and students with many links, resources, multimedia and information facts about our diverse country.
11.Exploratree
is a free web resource where you can download, use and make your own interactive graphic organisers/thinking guides. Highly recommend for ESL students.
12. British Council – Learn English for Kids is MASSIVE!! Great links and resources for writing, vocabulary development, online stories, games and more. Highly Recommended!
13. ESL search engine – I tried it and loved it!! Designed specifically for ESL teachers.
Helping ESL students understand….
what they read
To be successful readers, students must be able to locate, comprehend and extract information from a range of texts. Teachers need to explicitly teach students specific reading skills. It is essential that the texts we present to students are accessible to them. Just because students can read the words does not mean they can comprehend and use the text. Here are some useful links:
1. Jim Cummins on effective reading for ESL students
2. My Read – teaching reading to Australian students in Yrs 4-9
3. Reading and the L2 learner – Tina Sharpe
4. Reading Factual Texts Stage 3 – Curriculum Support NSW
5. ELLA Support Material – Yr 7 NSW
6. Reading Comprehension Strategies – New Zealand Sydney Morning Herald
7. Graphic Organisers – Teaching Strategies, Victoria
Want to know more about ESL?
Read these!!
1. Myths about second language acquisition
4. How long does it take to learn English?
5. Language acquisition: True or False? Always good to try out on your colleagues!!
6. Glossary of ESL terminology
7. Learning a second language – looks at different theorists views on second language acquisition
8. So what is special about an ESL teacher? Tina Sharpe
9. Literacy Benchmarks and the ESL learner – TESOL
10. Learning in 2 languages – Scotland
11. Language for life – Scotland
Photo: BBC News in Pictures
Supporting Refugee students
Jim Cummins argues that “Linguistic and cultural diversity is a resource to be developed by all students, and not a problem that minority students must overcome in order to participate and achieve at school”.
1. Resources for working with Refugee students – DET NSW
2. The Refugee Handbook for Schools – NZ
3. Teacher resources: Refugees – Uniya Jesuit Social Justice Centre
4. Teaching Resources: Refugees and Migrants – HREOC
5. Resources for supporting transitions for young refugee students – DIAC
6. Planning the learning environment for refugee students – PETA PEN
Online games for young ESL learners
Here’s an interesting site for teachers of ES1 and S1 ESL students. Communicative games have been developed online by teachers in Queensland. Worth a look!
The dangers of “teaching to the test!!”
With Naplan testing just around the corner, it was interesting to read Jim Cummins latest thoughts on standardised testing and the effects on education for ESL learners. He has always maintained that such testing has many negative ramifications, particularly for poorer students from a Language Background Other Than English (LBOTE). His main criticism is while there remains an emphasis on standardised testing, teachers will feel compelled to “teach to the test” because schools literacy performance will often be judged by this one factor. Nothing new there!!
While his comments are situated within the American educational context, his points certainly have relevance here in Australia. Cummins advocates a different approach for literacy attainment.
Such engagement requires participation, and effective participation requires that student identity is affirmed, which means first language learning should not be discouraged because “new understandings are constructed on a foundation of existing understandings and experiences.”
His alternative focuses on a four-element approach: scaffolding meaning, activating prior knowledge and building background knowledge, affirming student identity and extending language in a way that uses the students’ first language.
This correlates nicely with John Hattie’s research into what has the greatest effect on student achievement. Where does testing fit in? It’s way down the list. So what has the greatest effect? Teachers of course!
Helen(I’m guessing)! Was just doing some research for uni on some social justice issues and I came across this webpage. Intrigued by the ESL stuff I was clicking away and next thing I see a dedication to my beautiful mummy! What a lovely surprise!
Anyway I hope all is well!
xxxx Alissa
Dear Rampantred,
Please can you send me an email, I have a quick question about your blog?
Thanks
Lloyd
Thank you for all of the great links and information. I am hoping to do some volunteers abroad teaching English so I’ve been doing as much research as possible. Your blog is so useful.
Thanks again
Jack
Thanks Jack. Much appreciated.