Understanding the Needs of EAL Learners in School X
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This report examines how staff at School X support and monitor the development of EAL learners in English, Maths, and Science. It discusses the challenges faced by EAL learners and explores strategies for improving their learning experiences.
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Running head: SCHOOL EXPERIENCE REPORT (SER) How Do Staff at School X Understand the Needs of EAL Learners and How Do TheySupport and Monitor the Development of TheseLearners in the Core Subjects of English, Maths & Science? School Experience Report (SER) Name of the Student: Name of the University: Author note:
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1SCHOOL EXPERIENCE REPORT (SER) Table of Contents Introduction................................................................................................................................2 Literature Review.......................................................................................................................3 EAL Interventions..................................................................................................................3 EAL support in Class.............................................................................................................4 EAL........................................................................................................................................6 References:.................................................................................................................................9
2SCHOOL EXPERIENCE REPORT (SER) Introduction Students who learn English as their additional language (EAL) share several different common characteristics with the other students whose first language is English. Most of their learning requirements are also similar to that of the other children. Notwithstanding this fact, these students also have different needs from them by virtue of fact that they are learning in and through an additional language while also learning that very language. With the same, they also come from different cultural backgrounds and the communities with diverse expectations and understandings of the education, learning and language. The population of United Kingdom is rapidly increasing and at the same time, the ever increasing immigration is outweighing the total emigration. This is bringing is diversity within the nation as the population belonging from diverse background is increasing in a fast pace. Therefore, increasing number of students are entering into the education system with other languages apart from English as their first language. This in turn is playing a very challenging role for the parts of the teachers in UK as well as the Department of Education to cater these population who still need access to same high standards of teaching and learning but might not be capable of cooperating in the classroom environment because of not knowing the very language. This paper is going to elaborate on providing a brief analysis of the EAL intervention that are put in place by school X for understanding the various different needs and requirements of the EAL learners as well as their development in the core subjects. It is to note that School X refers to the Harrow High School, which is a coeducational school in the borough of Harrow with a total of 1000 students on a roll. It has a large number of students who are classified as the EAL learners. 79.3% of the total students in this school are EAL learners. It is an inclusive school where the teachers value the achievements and the abilities of all the learners. It is a school for students aging 7 to 11 years with diverse population of
3SCHOOL EXPERIENCE REPORT (SER) about 18 different nationalities and home languages. However, this paper would also shed light on how the staffs of the School X support and monitor the development of these learners. With the same, the perceived effectiveness of the EAL intervention shall also be assessed in the following paper. It aims at determining some strategies which could be implemented in the practices of teaching in the school X over different subjects present in the curriculum, especially English, Mathematics and Science. Literature Review EAL Interventions School X has a clear policy on assessment, within which specific elements relate to AfL strategies and there are also references to AfL within the school’s teaching and learning policy.Within the assessment policy there is a strong emphasis on comment only marking across key stage 3 (p.12),which seems to draw directly from the original AfL research. Although there is no direct reference to UK government recommendations or policies around AfL within the school policy document,there are clear echoes of the government’s guidance documentin the section of the school’s policy that indicates how summative assessment may be used for formative purposes. The policies laid by UK government states that the students who are exposed to a particular language at their homes which is known or perceived to be other than English are referred to as EALs. It is to note that according to the recent study conducted by Cummins (1992), the national proportion of the students of secondary school who are classified as the EAL has continuously risen in the past ten years and at present, it stands at 16.2%. This rise has been very stead and is six years behind the percentage points of the EAL students belonging from the primary schools that at present stands at 20.6% (Siegel and Lipka 2017). This indicates that most of the students in primary school moved to the secondary school in United Kingdom and this further demonstrate that they have about six years of education with having English as their classroom language prior to their entry in the
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4SCHOOL EXPERIENCE REPORT (SER) secondary education level. Notwithstanding this fact, this conclusion cannot be immediately drawn from these provided statistics in any way. It is also to note that the number of EAL students are growing with a rapid pace. With the same, it is also imperative that the provisions are placed for ensuring that they can get an access to all the parts of the curriculum when it is presented in additional language (Leung 2018). When the students would not be too different from their peers or class mates, their learning experiences get contrasted. According to Cummins (1992), EAL is a very broad term. It comprise of students who have moved to the United Kingdom in recent years and also the ones who are new to the English language. With the same, they also include the students who have lived in the place their entire life and have several years of education in the English language. EAL support in Class As per the National Curriculum in England of 2014, all the teachers need to take an account of the needs of the students whose first language is not English. With the same, monitoring their progress should also be considered by the teachers as per the age of the students and the length of time they spend within the nation and at the same time, their earlier educational experiences as well as their potential in the other languages (Strand, Malmberg and Hall, 2015). Furthermore, the potential of the students for whom the language of English is an additional one for taking part in the national curriculum might be in advance of their skills of communication in the English language (Leung 2010). The staffs of School X are required to plan the teaching opportunities in order to help the students to develop their fluency in the English language and at the same time, they should also aim at providing proper support to the students that they require for taking part in every subjects. Furthermore, it is also to state that as one of the significant parts of the annual School Census, the EAL schools are required to provide a language proficiency grade on the scale A to E for every EAL student. However, it is also to mention that this is only necessary when
5SCHOOL EXPERIENCE REPORT (SER) the student in question states that his or her language is anything other than “English”. Leung and Street (2014) have defined the students as one among the aforementioned grades of fluency. This might be seen as negatively labelling it could assist the schools for focusing their attentions where it is necessary. Furthermore, it also assist the teachers in gaining a deep understanding about the students who need some extra attention all through their time that they spend in the classroom. If any student is assessed and is recorded as having the quality of being “fluent: as per the system of coding, then it no longer is required for the very student to be monitored for the improvement in the language. Notwithstanding this fact, a student who have grade in between A and D, needs an on-going assessment with an aim that each and every student is required to be eventually coded as fluent. As per the research conducted by Whiteside,GoochandNorbury(2017),thereisadifferenceinbetweenthetextual dimensions of the different forms of communication. This research study of his have showed indifferentfactorteststhatthesemanticstyleoftheone-to-oneconversationdiffer significantly from the academic prose and as well as some works of the fiction. Hence, it is to note that the system of grading that is employed at present by the DfE are required to make sure that it does not just test the BICS of a student from the one-to-one interview. It has been assumed that the English language speakers who have gained high level of accuracy and fluency in the day to day spoken English already have the corresponding proficiency in the academic language (Newton et al. 2018). It might help in avoiding seeking the children or students who possess this disparity as having some special educational requirements, when what they need is much more explicit academic literacy teaching. Such type of bilingual education is not at all feasible in the education system present in United Kingdom (Bowyer-Crane et al. 2017)). Notwithstanding this fact, in the case of School X, the first language of the EAL speakers was collectively English. In the United Kingdom today, the spread of different types of languages means that there is a very simple bilingual
6SCHOOL EXPERIENCE REPORT (SER) approach that would not be effective. For allowing the huge number of access of students to the curriculum, the education system need to attempt a much more generalised approach, rather than focusing on attempting a multilingual system. The EAL teachers can more often be at the fault for not possessing some high expectation for the EAL students. In the teacher’s standards that are implemented by the UK government, it has been stated that the teachers should possess a clear and in-depth understanding of the various requirements and needs of the students and at the same time, should also take into consideration the ones with English as additional language (Uccelli et al. 2018).There is a number of research studies into assessment for learning consider the impact of teacher questioning on student learning. Black’s research (1998) suggested that the quality of teacher questioning was one of the four key features of effective formative assessment. Another study with English teacherssimilarlypointed to ‘the improved quality of classroom work when teachers had planned questions to target at specific pupils in the lesson’. The main focus on the assessment for learning in the schools were really initiated by theInside the Black Box”.This meta study have examined the prevailing research evidence on the field of Afl for identifying the important features for enhancing the attainments of the students in the schools. EAL According to Rivers (2018), the term “First Language” refers to the language to which a student was initially exposed at the time of early development and at the same time, continuous to be exposed to this language in the home or in the community. The term “English as an Additional Language” (EAL) is basically used in the mainstream schools in United Kingdom, especially in England, for the learners who make use of the language or languages other than English at home as well as in their communities.Gibbons (2008)have defined EAL as a “is the specialist skills partner and awarding organisation for industry”.
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7SCHOOL EXPERIENCE REPORT (SER) These learners are also identified as the bilingual learners. Prevalence of two different languages can be defined as the “exposure to two languages; living in two languages”. It is a very inclusive definition that avoids the complicated one and in most of the time, is very hard for measuring the different aspects of use of language- proficiency, literacy, competency and fluency. The main reason behind its importance for the schools are many. Firstly, the notion of “living in two languages” allows the inclusion of different profiles of bilingual pupils and that of the EAL.As per Dennaoui et al. (2016), there is also a difference in between being fluent in the skills of communication as well as being fluent in the academic language of the classroom. This difference is more often regarded as the CALP (Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency) and BICS (Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills). They both can be very indicative of the inferior performance of the students in the academic non-verbal testing when they are compared to the communication skills and verbal reasoning. The BICS (Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills) refers to the surface skills of speaking, comprehension and that of listening which are typically gained quickly by most of the students, especially by the ones from the language backgrounds that are similar to the English language who spend most of their schooling time in getting interacted with the English speaking candidates. On the other hand, the CALP (Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency) as per Jefferies et al. (2018) is a very important component for the engagement with the academic task all over the curriculum. He have claimed that when most of the children try to develop a high degree of BICS within them and that too, within two years of the immersion in their target language- i.e., of English, it take about five to seven years for a student to be working at that expected degree as far as the academic language as well as the literacy are taken into consideration (Andrews 1989). The EAL teachers can more often be at the fault for not possessing some high expectation for the EAL students. In the teacher’s standards that are implemented by the UK government, it has been stated that the teachers
8SCHOOL EXPERIENCE REPORT (SER) should possess a clear and in-depth understanding of the various requirements and needs of the students and at the same time, should also take into consideration the ones with English as additionallanguage.Teacherscouldoftenbeatthefaultfornotpossessinghigher expectations from the students. For qualifying as a teacher, it is very important that they are able to adapting with the subject content and be well-aware of all the limitations that the EAL students would possess. Still, the teachers could qualify in the schools where the EAL is especially prominent and is entirely non-existent. Further investigations by the Riley and Pidgeon (2018) have shed light on the different stereotypes that the teachers hold. One of such stereotypes is that the EAL students misinterpret the reading tasks and instructions as well as a different cultural background might also be a very significant factor that inhibit them from aiding to the discussion in the classroom. With the same, the teachers also go on for discussion that they might misperceived the role they play with these students as to significantly monitor their spelling, grammar and the punctuations used in English language. This continuous regulation depicts that the content of what is written is often not looked through and are ignored. With the same, any positives that could be taken are also note mentioned. The EAL teachers can more often be at the fault for not possessing some high expectation for the EAL students. Summary As per the above literature review on the subject, there are several issues which are required to take into consideration in order to improve the fluency of the students. Two of the most notable issue are the ability of the students in communicating academically and the difference in between their spoken language. The EAL educators are required to make sure that the classrooms for these pupils are responsive in cultural manner for benefitting each and every students in the classroom. With the same, there are several techniques which could be
9SCHOOL EXPERIENCE REPORT (SER) used in the classroom settings for ensuring that there is a significant progress shown by the EAL students. It is very necessary to ensure that students are well-motivated towards enjoying their classroom environment. The formal aspects of classroom should be removed in order to help the EAL students to get engaged in friendly manner and easily grab the knowledge. The EAL educators should also be well-aware of these techniques by means of the Standardised teacher trainings implemented in UK. With the same,monitoring their progress should also be considered by the teachers as per the age of the students and the length of time they spend within the nation and at the same time, their earlier educational experiences as well as their potential in the other languages. The teachers should also aim at providing proper support to the students that they require for taking part in every subjects. Theyshould possess a clear and in-depth understanding of the various requirements and needs of the students and at the same time, should also take into consideration the ones with English as additional language. .
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10SCHOOL EXPERIENCE REPORT (SER) References: Andrews, R. 1989 ‘Teaching Poetry’ in Brindley, S. (ed.)Issues in English Teaching London: Routledge Bowyer-Crane, C., Fricke, S., Schaefer, B., Lervåg, A. and Hulme, C., 2017. Early literacy and comprehension skills in children learning English as an additional language and monolingual children with language weaknesses.Reading and writing,30(4), pp.771-790. Cummins, J. 1992. Language proficiency, bilingualism, and academic achievement. In P. A. Richard-Amato & M. A. Snow (Eds.), The multicultural classroom: readings for content-area teachers (pp. 16-26). New York: Longman. Dennaoui, K., Nicholls, R.J., O’Connor, M., Tarasuik, J., Kvalsvig, A. and Goldfeld, S., 2016. The English proficiency and academic language skills of Australian bilingual children during the primary school years.International journal of speech-language pathology,18(2), pp.157-165. Gibbons, S. 2008 ‘How L.A.T.E. is was, how L.A.T.E.’ inEnglish in Education39:1, pp. 11- 25 Jefferies, D., McNally, S., Roberts, K., Wallace, A., Stunden, A., D'Souza, S. and Glew, P., 2018. The importance of academic literacy for undergraduate nursing students and its relationship to future professional clinical practice: A systematic review.Nurse education today,60, pp.84-91. Leung, C. 2010. Communicative Language Teaching and EAL: Principles and Interpretations. In C. Leung & A. Creese (Eds.), English as an additional language: Approaches to teaching linguistic minority students (pp. 1-14). London: Sage, in association with the National Association for Language Development in the Curriculum.
11SCHOOL EXPERIENCE REPORT (SER) Leung, C. 2018. English as an additional language: challenges of ethnicity, language and subject identity in the contemporary classroom. In M. Maguire, K. Skilling, M. Glackin, S. Gibbons, & D. Pepper (Eds.), Becoming a teacher (pp. 221-236). Maidenhead, Berkshire: Open University Press, McGraw-Hill Education. Leung, C., & Street, B. 2014. Classroom constructions of language and literacy activity. In M. Prinsloo & C. Stroud (Eds.), Educating for language and literacy diversity: Mobile selves (pp. 23-44). Basingstoke, Hants: Palgrave Macmillan Newton, J.M., Ferris, D.R., Goh, C.C., Grabe, W., Stoller, F.L. and Vandergrift, L., 2018.Teaching English to Second Language Learners in Academic Contexts: Reading, Writing, Listening, and Speaking. Routledge. Riley, T. and Pidgeon, M., 2018. Australian teachers voice their perceptions of the influences of stereotypes, mindsets and school structure on teachers’ expectations of Indigenous students.Teaching Education, pp.1-22. Rivers, W.M., 2018.Teaching Foreign Language Skills Rev Ed. University of Chicago Press. Siegel, L. and Lipka, O., 2017. The influence of first language on learning English as an additional language.Developmental Perspectives in Written Language and Literacy: In honor of Ludo Verhoeven, p.183. Strand, S., Malmberg, L. and Hall, J., 2015. English as an Additional Language (EAL) and educational achievement in England: An analysis of the National Pupil Database. Uccelli, P., Demir‐Lira, Ö.E., Rowe, M.L., Levine, S. and Goldin‐Meadow, S., 2018. Children's Early Decontextualized Talk Predicts Academic Language Proficiency in Midadolescence.Child development.
12SCHOOL EXPERIENCE REPORT (SER) Whiteside, K.E., Gooch, D. and Norbury, C.F., 2017. English language proficiency and early school attainment among children learning English as an additional language.Child development,88(3), pp.812-827.