English as an additional language
Raymonde Sneddon
University of East London
Introduction
• What listening can teach you
• Group activity and discussion:
– first impressions: how does it feel?
– how do you know what the lesson is about?
– what helps you to understand?
– how do you learn to respond?
– How can you demonstrate what you have understood?
Why theory?
Baker: Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism
• Key issues that lead to underachievement:
• Misunderstandings about bilingualism leading to low expectations
• Establishing what pupils already know
• Assuming pupils are fully proficient when they can communicate in English
• Analysing the language demands of the curriculum
• Giving teachers long term strategies to meet individual needs in the context of changing
A theoretical framework
Jim Cummins
The Common Underlying Proficiency
• The surface features (phonology, syntax, vocabulary) are clearly distinct in L1 and L2 and learned in communicative
situations
• General cognitive skills that underpin
language operate from a central function – cognitive academic skills and concepts
transfer from one language to another.
Common Underlying Proficiency
Cummins, 1984
The Threshold model
Issues in bilingualism and cognition
• The CUP model doesn’t explain the
different achievement levels of, for ex.
Canadian English speakers immersed in French and Turkish speakers immersed in English in the UK.
• “the levels of proficiency bilingual children
attain in their two languages may be an
important intervening variable mediating
the effects of bilingualism on children’s
cognitive and academic development.”
The Threshold Model
Conversational Fluency
• Refers to the ability to carry on a
conversation in familiar face-to-face situations
• Involves high frequency words and simple grammatical constructions
• Second language learners generally
develop conversational fluency with a year
or two of exposure to the new language in
school or in the environment.
Academic Language Proficiency
• The ability to understand and produce
increasingly complex oral and written language
• Low frequency words (from Greek and Latin sources), complex syntax and abstract
expressions not used in everyday language
• Second language learners need a minimum of 5 (and commonly 7) years exposure to academic English to catch up with the moving target of native-speaker norms
The developmental interrelationship between language proficiency and
academic achievement
Additive and Subtractive Bilingualism
• Additive bilingualism is found in situations where both languages have high status in the pupil’s family and community and there is no danger of one language replacing another
• Subtractive bilingualism is more likely to occur in pupils from minority linguistic communities
where the first language is not valued in the
wider community, and may even be devalued by the family and the individuals concerned.
From Theory to Practice:
Applications in the Classroom
• A solid foundation in the first language is beneficial to the learning of a second
• Teachers very commonly overestimate pupils’
skills in English when they have acquired conversational language skills
• Support is needed to develop the academic
proficiency and this needs to be underpinned by a cognitively challenging speaking and listening curriculum and be strongly related to literacy (this has been a recent focus for Ofsted research and inspections)
Issues
• Current issues in English as an Additional Language: the EAL pilot
• The challenge of under achievement
• mainstreaming and withdrawal: current practices
• Assessment: QCA: A Language in Common
• The training of teachers and OFSTED
The EAL booklet
• Introduction: when and where to carry out the tasks
• Read p.3 in pairs
• Setting the tasks: discussing and sharing experience
• Using personal experience in the
classroom
EAL: personal audit
• In pairs:
• Read p. 4 of each other’s EAL audit
• Discuss in terms of what has been presented
• Discuss the target
Planning for EAL across the curriculum
• In groups of 5: using the EAL booklet and the notes on p. 9-10, choose a curriculum area (not English)
• Choose an age group and a lesson topic
• decide whether you will plan for beginners or advanced learners of EAL
• use the pro-forma in Appendix D or E as
appropriate to make your lesson accessible.
• Plenary: presentation and discussion
Using Multiverse and NALDIC websites
• www.multiverse.ac.uk /
www.naldic.org.uk/ITTSEAL2
• www.qca.org.uk/newarrivals
• EAL pedagogy
• Theoretical resources
• Policy: Aiming High documents
• Ofsted research and reports
• Specialist EAL material from the strategies: Supporting Pupils learning EAL – KS3 Access and Engagement
• Assessment: issues in assessment and the QCA’s A Language in Common
Theory / Practice: key issues
• Outlined in Appendix F in the EAL booklet
• communicative and academic language
• context embedded activities to support communicative language
• grouping of children to provide models for English and/or first language support
• analysing the language demands of a task and preparing children for them
• Partnership teaching: TAs, BAs & EMA teachers