Closing the gap for advanced EAL Learners Graham Smith, July 2016

Introductions

A working definition from The EAL Academy EAL is an approach to school improvement rooted in the teaching of language for academic success and a thorough understanding of pupils’ prior learning

Assessment Manny Vasquez, NALDIC Conference 2015 EDCBAEDCBA

EAL Proficiency Codes Where ‘Proficiency in English’ is required, it is expected that schools will assess their EAL pupils against a five point scale of reading, writing and spoken language proficiency outlined below and make a ‘best fit’ judgement. New to English [Code ‘A’] Early acquisition [Code ‘B’] Developing competence [Code ‘C’] Competent [Code ‘D’] Fluent [Code ‘E’]

New to English [Code ‘A’]: May use first language for learning and other purposes. May remain completely silent in the classroom. May be copying/repeating some words or phrases. May understand some everyday expressions in English but may have minimal or no literacy in English. Needs a considerable amount of EAL support. Early acquisition [Code ‘B’]: May follow day to day social communication in English and participate in learning activities with support. Beginning to use spoken English for social purposes. May understand simple instructions and can follow narrative/accounts with visual support. May have developed some skills in reading and writing. May have become familiar with some subject specific vocabulary. Still needs a significant amount of EAL support to access the curriculum. Developing competence [Code ‘C’]: May participate in learning activities with increasing independence. Able to express self orally in English, but structural inaccuracies are still apparent. Literacy will require ongoing support, particularly for understanding text and writing. May be able to follow abstract concepts and more complex written English. Requires ongoing EAL support to access the curriculum fully. Competent [Code ‘D’]: Oral English will be developing well, enabling successful engagement in activities across the curriculum. Can read and understand a wide variety of texts. Written English may lack complexity and contain occasional evidence of errors in structure. Needs some support to access subtle nuances of meaning, to refine English usage, and to develop abstract vocabulary. Needs some/occasional EAL support to access complex curriculum material and tasks. Fluent [Code ‘E’]: Can operate across the curriculum to a level of competence equivalent to that of a pupil who uses English as his/her first language. Operates without EAL support across the curriculum.

Code A: beginners The Chinese scenario

Code D: competent “That little black dress” “My cute little red two-seater convertible sports car” Can we change the word order? How does SPAG explain the word order?

The continuum New to English and literacy High achievers with mysterious gaps

New arrivals We do pupils arrive in Years 4, 5 and 6 with little or no literacy in any language? In many countries school does not start until the age of six or seven Refugee camps often do not have schools Previous school’s language of instruction may not have been pupil’s mother tongue Experience of school may have been unsuccessful

Learning to read We only learn to read once. How much harder is it to do in a language we don’t understand very well? With resources designed for four year olds? And a sound system we don’t understand?

How did you learn to read?

The Reading Process Graphophonic - word level Syntactic - sentence level Semantic - text level Making sense of text (reading) requires activating three cueing systems:

Fast Track Literacy Appropriate texts One to one Little and often Mastery not performance

Mysterious gaps Difficult words photosynthesis go in on an do make would ideological

Why you never stop having EAL Kenneth Hyltenstam, NALDIC Conference 2014

Vocabulary Kenneth Hyltenstam, NALDIC Conferene 2014

Collocation Manny Vazquez, Beyond Key Words (NALDIC, 2010) Make an exam Death Die Expire Pass away Bite the dust Kick the bucket Give up the ghost For academic vocabulary look at er.htm

Key Stage 2 test scripts Lynne Cameron and Sharon Besser, Writing in English as an Additional Language at Key Stage 2 (DfES 2004) Analysed 264 scripts (138 by pupils with EAL) from thirteen schools in eight LAs EAL pupils had spent at least five years in UK schools and an average of just over seven years Significance of time spent in UK schools

Key Stage 2 test scripts Lynne Cameron and Sharon Besser, Writing in English as an Additional Language at Key Stage 2 (DfES 2004) The best writers at this age, using English as a mother tongue (EMT) or English as an additional language (EAL), were found to employ the resources of English - grammar, vocabulary, direct speech, punctuation, rhetorical features - with flexibility and adaptability to create strong story characters and plots, and effective persuasive writing. However, many EAL learners, even high achieving pupils, handle adaptation to a variety of genres less confidently than their EMT peers. Two features of language show statistically significant differences between EAL and EMT writing: the use of prepositions and the composition of short, fixed phrases.

Key Stage 2 test scripts Lynne Cameron and Sharon Besser, Writing in English as an Additional Language at Key Stage 2 (DfES 2004) EAL writing contains more errors in both features, which also caused difficulties in writing at KS4. EAL learners write stories that include more metaphors and similes than EMT stories, for pupils achieving both level 4 and level 5. EAL writing at level 5 used most figurative language, with animal metaphors and similes the most popular. Certain features of language are handled less confidently by lower achieving EAL writers. In particular: use of Adverbials, modal verbs, Subject-Verb agreement, verb tenses and endings, and subordinators to link clauses. In many ways, EAL writing at KS2 was more fluent and more accurate than the writing seen at KS4. These differences would seem to be linked to the teaching that the younger children have received through the National Literacy Strategy.

Context of culture Why? Genre Context of situation: Register What? Field Who? Tenor How? Mode Language Functional model of language Halliday MAK & Martin JR (1993)

The register continuum Mode (How) Spoken like _________________________________________ written like (adapted from Martin 1984) Tenor (Who) Informal, familiar ________________________________________ formal, unfamiliar Field (What) Everyday ________________________________________ technical

The register continuum most spoken like most written like _____________________________ (adapted from Martin 1984)

From describing events to explaining processes It was raining heavily. The rivers flooded. It rained heavily so the rivers flooded. The rivers flooded because of heavy rainfall. Heavy rainfall caused widespread flooding. Intense precipitation in surrounding hills caused widespread flooding over low-lying ground. ARE Y3 ARE Y5 KS3 ? Grade 9

The EAL teacher's role is very complex. The complexity of the EAL teacher`s role is considerable. Nominalisation

How well do 11 year olds EAL pupils perform in England?

Nottingham Academic Word List ocab/index.htm

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