English as an Additional Language

1. English as an Additional Language Welcome to today’s professional workshop

2. What is EAL EAL- English as an Additional Language The Australian Curriculum provides a large insight and helpful advice concerning EAL learners and what actions and procedures need to be in place when you are the teacher of EAL learners. This includes: • advise about areas of the curriculum that EAL students may find challenging and why • assist classroom teachers to identify where their EAL students are broadly positioned on a progression of English language learning • help teachers understand students’ cultural and linguistic diversity, and the ways this understanding can be used in the classroom • provide examples of teaching strategies supportive of EAL students • direct teachers to additional relevant and useful support for teaching EAL Students ( ACARA, 2014)

3. EAL • Punctuation • Text structures • Phrase verbs • Gestures and body language • Colour in text • phonemes (sounds) • Morphemic • Different languages • logographic languages e.g.- Chinese • Syllabic languages- Korean • Different alphabetic scripts- Russian These are all issues that EAL students struggle with and you as teachers need to be aware of these particularly within the English Content Descriptors (ACARA, 2014)

4. Socio-cultural knowledge As teachers it is critical that when we have EAL students in our classroom we research and understand their culture, respecting this culture and understanding that this child’s home life and upbringing can be different from our Australian culture. In other cultures there are different ways in which they live. For example: Vietnam- the males particularly the oldest male is the head of the house and the most important member They are superstitious particularly with funerals, marriages and moving to a new house the mother takes care of the children, cooking and cleaning. Parents choose who their child will marry Does anyone have or have had a EAL student in their class and faced some implications with socio-culture that they would like to share with us?

5. L1 and L2 L1 is known as Language 1, the dominate language spoken by an individual person. This is the most used language spoken therefore it is used and understood the most. L2 is the non-dominate language spoken by an individual. This is the language least spoken, for some students this may be English. These students are known as our EAL students

7. The Communicative Activity: Children are to work in pairs on the carpet. Every student is to have a clipboard with a ‘tent’ picture (landscape) on it with coloured pencils for each pair. Students are not to show each other their pictures until the end. Teacher to explain to student’s that to draw the picture they need to listen to what each other say. Each pair get a set of instructions on what to draw, students take it in turn to say instruction. Student A- Draw a tree behind the tent. Draw an esky near the entrance of the tent. Draw a fire in the bottom right hand corner. Student B- Draw a picnic bench on the right side of the tent. Draw two people sitting at the picnic bench. Draw a car on the left of the tent. Continue through instructions until picture is finished. To see how well this activity actually works, you as teachers are now going to partner up and see how you go. Think about how this might help EAL students or what might need to be changed to make it more suitable. Activity- Communicative

8. Theorists Vygotsky- • emphasised the importance of relationships and interactions between children and more knowledgeable peers and adults • Cognitive understanding grows when influenced by teacher/ parent • Students not seen as learning on their own, learn through social interactions through communication. • Language is a major influence in the development of a students thinking process • when students are actively involved in their own learning, their ability to communicate with others strengthens. Cognitive development therefore grows when language is developed through learning and teaching Piaget- • Explains the importance of an interactive environment that students are able to explore through their active learning Chomsky- • Shows that when students begin to hear the language around them, they are then able to understand after a time the structure of that language. • With more influence, hearing the language spoken more and more students are able to learn the language within the environment (Centre for Learning Innovation, 2006)

9. Strategies • When teaching EAL students strategies need to be in place that benefit the student. Every student will have different needs and different ways of learning so your resources as a teacher to help with their learning of English needs to be individual so that the best outcome occurs. • There are specialist EAL teachers that are available for EAL students. These support teachers work with the classroom teacher to assist EAL students transitioning to a new culture and language (Queensland Government, 2014). As a teacher it is important when teaching EAL students to: • Use gestures and facial expressions • Provide lots of hands on materials during learning • Speak clearly and pause • Write down key ideas so they are visible • Repeat key phrases in different ways • Ask if there are any questions or what they understand so far • (Williams, n.d) • Question: What strategies have you put in place that have helped one of your students?

10. Inclusive Classroom Environment Generally other students in the class are amazing with helping out the EAL learners, however as teachers these following ideas will make for a wonderful inclusive environment: • Teach the whole class about your EAL students country and culture and even some of the basic language • An environment where the learner feels secure and are prepared to take risks • Support and value learners’ languages and cultures • Build on knowledge, skills and understandings that students bring to the learning context • Use themes and topics that interest the EAL learner • Expose EAL students to Australia culture and society • Have communicative activities that can be understood by EAL student • Teach the skills of listening, reading, speaking and writing • Have activities that require pair and group work • provide meaningful learning contexts • Use visual aide whenever possible • Have a word wall with meanings • Adapt assessment tasks to EAL students language abilities (Edublogs, 2014)

11. Classroom Setup For EAL students who are just beginning to learn English, a classroom that is set up with many visual clues will only enhance their learning. A classroom that: • Everything is clearly labelled with the word and picture- able to develop what the word is from the picture (e.g.- blocks, paper, glue etc) • Posters with numbers, shapes, alphabet and objects displayed all around the room • Quiet corner where EAL (or all students) can go to have some quiet, thinking time or to work individually without distraction

12. Literacy Aspects • One on one- explicit teaching taking place where the EAL student is provided with teacher understanding and guidance on meaning of story • Predictable books- encourage children responses, able to see the events of the story taking place and join in • Shared Reading- provides scaffolding to develop knowledge on how each page works to represent story • Small groups- able to ask questions, predict events and personal contributions without the whole class fear • Whole class reading- read books that rhyme, so students can see the sequencing of the rhyming and join in with the rest of class • Nursery Rhymes/ songs- so that EAL students learn a song/ nursery rhyme and with the rest of the class are able to join in and participate with these activities (Neuman & Roskos, Ch 3, 1993)

13. Four Phases of EAL As teachers with an EAL student it is crucial for them to acknowledge what level their English language is. These phases are not age defined, rather the students knowledge of language. These four language learning phases include: • Beginning English- of students 1st languagethey have limited literacy knowledge. • Limited Literacy Background (subsection)- behaviors of reading, writing and viewing to understand students that have little or no literacy knowledge in any language. • Emerging English-students with growing English competency of oral language and print literacy. • Developing English- English print literacy and oral language is developing • Consolidating English- academic language is growing and written and spoken English language is of a sound level (ACARA, 2011)

14. Useful Activities What makes activities useful for EAL students and how can we as teachers be sure that the students are benefitting from them. Colourful Pictures Not too many words Able to be clarified with a teacher Can work on their own, partners, small groups or whole class At the individual child's level Useful activities can include: Word/ picture bingo Matching game- word to picture Provided sentence to then draw- e.g. The black cat sat under the big tree. Fill in the gaps story- have the characters and setting etc blanked out for the EAL student to then fill in Flash cards Rhyming words activity Multiple choice activities (communicative) Layout of a shopping centre- students ask each other questions to work out where each shop is within the complex

15. Activity Alphabetic Bingo- teacher can say a word and students put counter on the first letter of that word. This activity can be used for EAL students early on in their English learning, however it could also be used in prep/ grade 1 with the whole class. This activity helps EAL students with sound to letter recognition. Alphabetic Flashcards- teacher can use these as letter/ picture to word knowledge. Show students card and ask what the picture is and what letter that is. Can modify flash cards to just letter, then ask students what letter it is and a word that then starts with this letter.

16. Online Activities For online activities make sure you EAL student has knowledge on how to word computers to be able to do the activities or teach them the skills necessary to work the programs. These following programs are great for EAL students: • ESL Games Plus • ESL Kid Stuff And programs that Teachers need to register for: • Skwirk • Letterland Although these websites are great resources and teaching tools for EAL students, each teacher needs to thoroughly go through the website and choose what activities they want their EAL students to complete. Some activities may or may not be relevant for the unit of work in which your class is studying or some activities might not be beneficial for the individual student.

17. Letterland ESL Program • This program in an Internationally used program specific for ESL or EAL students. This program teaches EAL students knowledge of shapes and sounds of the English language. It also teaches basic English vocabulary, listening and speaking skills. This program is designed to teach specifically English as a additional language. • This program contains the following resources: • ELT Teacher's Guide- It supports an activity and/or a book and CD approach to teaching, and useful activities that reinforce and extend vocabulary. • ELT Student Book and CD- brightly colouredpages to invite interactivity, with pronunciation models on CD. • ELT Handwriting Book - useful aid to handwriting practice as children progress from tracing to independent writing using this pictogram approach to letter formation. • ELT Workbook- includes pair work activities and games to make teaching more effective. • (EdSource, 2014) Letterland Program

18. Important things to remember • Keep records and know how your EAL child’s learning is developing and what extra measures can be done • Introduce new activities that are engaging and help the individual student- find out what this child is interested in and base some activities around this • Try to know what is going on at home, keep the parents up to date (if their English ability permits this). • Try to learn a few words from your EAL student’s 1st language (L1), just to show that you care about them and are interested in them

19. As a teacher, every lesson needs to be accommodated for all your students- the highflyers, those struggling and also your EAL students. Our country is rapidly changing and people are coming to live in Australia from all over the world, there is bound to be an EAL student come through your classroom at one time or another, it is critical to know and understand how to teach these students so they are able to learn. Thank you so much for listening and I hope you gained some knowledge on EAL learners today. Conclusion

20. Reference List • ACARA (2011). English as an Additional Language or Dialect: Teacher Resource. Retrieved from http://www.acara.edu.au/verve/_resources/EALD_Resource_-_EALD_Learning_Progression.pdf • Briggs, F., & Potter, G. (1999). The Early Years of School: Teaching and Learning(3rd ed.). Addison Wesley Longman. • Edublogs (2014). Learning & Teaching in an ESL Inclusive Classroom. Retrieved from eslintheclassroom.edublogs.org/ • English as an Additional Language or Dialect Teacher Resource. Annotated Content Descriptions English Foundation to Year 10. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.acara.edu.au/verve/_resources/EALD_Learning_Area_Annotations_English_Revised_February_2014.pdf • ACARAEnglish as an Additional Language or Dialect Teacher Resource. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.acara.edu.au/verve/_resources/EALD_Overview_and_Advice_revised_February_2014.pdf • EdSource (2014). Letterland - Letterland ESL Programme Resources. Retrieved from http://www.letterland.com.au/Teachers/ESLEFL-Teaching/Letterland-ESL-Programme-Resources • English as an Additional Language or Dialect: Teacher Resource (EAL/D) | ACARA. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.acara.edu.au/curriculum/eald_teacher_resource/eald_teacher_resource.html • ESL Games + (n.d.). ESL Spelling Games, ESL Hangman Games, Drag and Drop Spelling Activities, Online, Interactive, English, Spelling Exercises. Retrieved from http://www.eslgamesplus.com/spelling-games/ • ESL Kid Stuff (n.d.). ESL Kids Online Learning Games. Retrieved from http://www.eslkidstuff.com/OnlineGamesMain.htm#.U0dJTYaQacw • Groundwater, S., Cusworth, R., & Dobbins, R. (1998). Teaching Challenges and Dilemmas. Harcourt Brace & Company. • Neuman, S. B., & Roskos, K. (1993). Language and literacy learning in the early years: An integrated approach. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. • New Foundland Labrador, Education (2009). Classroom Accommodations for ESL and ELD Students. Retrieved from http://www.ed.gov.nl.ca/edu/k12/curriculum/guides/esl/classroom_accommodations.pdf • Promoting Cultural Sensitivity: Vietnamese Guide. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/tb/publications/guidestoolkits/ethnographicguides/vietnam/chapters/chapter2.pdf • Queensland Government, Education Queensland (2014). Supporting students with additional education needs. Retrieved from http://education.qld.gov.au/schools/about/support.html#english • Ramsay, N. (2014). ESL-Kids - Flashcards, Worksheets, Games and Songs. Retrieved from http://esl-kids.com/ • SIL International (n.d.). First Language-based education for non-dominant language speakers: Issues and challengers. Retrieved from http://www.rnld.org/sites/default/files/K_Kosonen_Oct_09_Presentation_AUSIL.pdf • Skwirk Online Education (2013). Retrieved from http://www.skwirk.com.au/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=teaching&Network=Search&kw=teaching%20activities&SiteTarget=&utm_nooverride=1 • State of New South Wales, Department of Education and Training, Centre for Learning Innovation (2006). A basic introduction to child development theories. Retrieved from http://lrrpublic.cli.det.nsw.edu.au/lrrSecure/Sites/LRRView/7401/documents/theories_outline.pdf • Vietnamese Customs. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.vietnam-culture.com/zones-3-1/Vietnamese-Customs.aspx • Williams, M., (n.d.). Supporting ESL Students in Inclusive Classrooms. Retrieved from https://suite.io/margaret-m-williams/22v32at