Professional Reading
FAQs - Teachers of ESOL Students in Primary Schools Frequently Ask These Questions - Jannie van Hees gives the answers
Index
Where do we start?
The needs of new learners of English (NLsOE) vary of course, but for all
of them there is one truth......they have an enormous catch-up need. This
is not cognitively usually, but in the language which is the medium of learning
in our classrooms and in their understanding of contexts within a new culture.
This means there is a sense of urgency for all the students who come into
our classrooms as new learners of English. It does not mean panic. It does
mean we need to have the following:
- as clear an idea as possible of their strengths and gaps (and thus needs)
- language and otherwise... as early on as possible, so no time is wasted
before providing meaningful and relevant language and learning opportunities;
- based on the above, a clearly identified pathway for providing for these
needs in an organised and informed way.
The absolute musts at classroom level are:
- gathering comprehensive information on the students' background - linguistic,
social, cultural, educational;
- ensuring a supportive and informing welcome and start;
- familiarising family members with the class, the classroom topics, approaches
to learning and teaching and involving them where appropriate or possible;
- setting up social and academic buddying;
- creating a class commitment from the others to the new learner of English
- everybody doing their bit to assist in needed support and new learning;
- developing an understanding for all students that a new learner of English
brings in many strengths and talents from which they can learn;
- utilising first language knowledge and strengths as a needed, efficient
and effective bridge to English;
- being committed to ensuring as much supportive participation by the NLOE
as possible ..... without too big a challenge;
- assessing the language and learning strengths and gaps early on so necessary
provisions can be made;
- helping the NLOE learn the language of instructions and commands commonly
used in the classroom and school - oral and written (sharing this with the
family is most useful so it can also be explained and learned at home);
- building up a bank of English vocabulary in context - this is easiest
when there is the actual / visual support along with the oral and written
(such as labelling round the classroom, labelling pictures / photos);
- linking and building text from this established vocabulary (such as from
a one word label to a sense-giving language group, to a short sentence,
to a question or an imperative, and so on);
- establishing English language in all aspects of learning and curriculum
- this should include, for example, the language of maths, basic concept
areas such as shape, colours, family;
- ensuring phonological knowledge of English, along with the basics in literacy,
is taught early on;
- ensuring English language and learning occurs in a scaffolded way (learning
in bite-size pieces, that build and cement, brick on brick, to make a wall
of understanding and development;
- ensuring plenty of repetition and processing of materials;
- integrating the oral, visual and written elements of language and learning;
- recycling in ways that are both interesting and push the learner in manageable
steps forward;
- using contexts and topics that are part of the class plan so the NLOE
can link into these as much as possible;
- providing for small group work within the whole class setting and as
language intensives.
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How can I be sure the children understand
what I say when I don't know their language?
You can never be sure the NLOE understands what you are saying! Make absolutely
no assumptions .... then you are on safe grounds. You need to think of ways
that give them enough repetition of what you are saying, enough time to process
each snippet, and use ways of ascertaining their understanding and ability
to action what you say. Neither should you make the assumption that they cannot
understand, when in fact they might. Check it out, using more reliable methods
than "Do you understand?"
Of course, in the ideal world, an adult bilingual person would be available
to clarify, translate, explain.....there, beside the NLOE. In reality this
is usually not the case. Next best is a peer or older child who uses the same
first language and can act as a support. In non-sensitive areas, using first
language buddies helps immensely in ensuring the NLOE understands and can
get on with what you are asking of him/her.
Instructions could be written bilingually so that commands and instructions
that are essential are understood by the NLOE. Get help from those who speak
the child's first language.
If the teacher and the other children show, say and write down, with enough
repetition and body language to explain and confirm understanding, the NLOE
will understand and become independent faster.
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How can I understand the NLOE?
No doubt you have extensive experience in reading the signs of understanding
on students' faces and in their body language. Read these, while remembering
the learner is a complex individual. Affective factors, such as attitude,
personality, confidence, as well as his / her own cultural framework, make
each NLOE unique.
Be alert to the tiniest signs of what is going on inside the learner. If
there is little common oral or written language initially for you and the
NLOE to communicate with, then your full repertoire of other devices is needed.....gesture,
sign language, bilingual dictionaries, drawings, guiding by showing.
Remember, speak clearly, slowly, articulate well, look at the NLOE as you
speak, repeat and give lots of pauses. Use small chunks of language initially
and give time for processing.
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How do I begin to cater for a wide age range
of students?
When ESOL programmes are being planned and organised for students who are
NLsOE at different stages and ages, it is important to consider many factors.
If there are a number of students ranging from NE / J1 up to S4, for example,
grouping them into broad age groups is recommended. Students at NE - J3 have
different maturity and concentration spans, have different priorities and
skills regarding English, need different activities, input and practice from
older learners. If the number of students and teacher time allow, it is recommended
that the younger NLOE are targeted in a different small group to students
in the middle to upper end of the school. The latter are most usually literate
in their first language at their expected age equivalent level and will come
to English learning differently to children at the emergent literacy stage.
Working with multi-level groups of non-English-speaking-background students,
is both enhancing and exciting. However, a teacher needs to be skilled at
being able to cater for the individuals within the group, while at the same
time providing for what all students need. This is the skill of good teaching.
In the best of situations, children, who are never at the same stages really,
will complement and support each other immensely and teachers will find this
a considerable asset.
All groups of children need to develop English language in a scaffolded way,
within curriculum areas, so they can move back into the classroom mainstream
situation with just that little bit more independence.
To minimise a maturity / cultural gap arising in both text and content,
use a predominance of factual texts/ topics (such as butterflies, eggs, electricity,
people from different countries). Study the same parts of the curriculum that
are being studied in the syndicates or classrooms at that time. Factual contexts
are relevant to any learner. It is when there is a major use of fictional
/ story contexts that are culturally dependent, that one starts to encounter
wider gaps in interest, maturity levels and context understanding. (This is
not to suggest that fiction should not be used and enjoyed, but rather that
it is not the basis of the majority of contexts used within early learning
of English.)
All the basic principles of scaffolding for the learner are important and
applicable to all NLsOE, no matter what age.
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What advice can be given to classroom teachers
who want to be sure children are meaningfully engaged in classroom activities?
Firstly, there is no simple answer, nor text, nor one approach. However,
the student can be included in a great deal of what is going on..... if:
- effective buddying systems are set up in the classroom - particularly
in classes beyond juniors;
- the teacher implements the idea that we are all teachers and learners;
- all students feel / know it is their role to be alert to opportunities
to assist (in fact, the teacher needs to always look for ways to de-pressurise
her/ himself, yet still be able to provide meaningful learning for the NLOE;)
- the teacher works with small group learning situations within the class;
- the students have access to resource bags with tapes and texts and associated
activities, and make sure a buddy is available to work with;
- teachers implement the self-pacing boxes as early on as possible.
The NLOE needs time out. At times during the day, when the complexity and
overwhelming new language exposure and learning becomes too much for the NLOE,
time-out tasks / activities are important and useful. These should be devised
to give consolidation, yet a breathing space. Buddies are important to create
opportunities for shared language and input, in both L1 and L2.
A skilled teacher can use a common activity or topic task and develop it
to many levels, including that for the NLOE. Be innovative, creative and certainly
not a perfectionist. Use your other students. They are wonderful, but you
need to give them guidelines.
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Where can I find a good source of resources?
There is no simple satisfying answer to this. Have your eyes open all the
time. Keep your mind open to adapting and adjusting what is around. Never
be convinced that one or two key resources are the answer to all provisions
or needs. They are not! Use your critical head, your innovative mind, your
casting eye, to find what's around that is up-to-date and can meet or adjust
to the basic principles of scaffolded language learning.
Reality is that often there is not much around that the NLOE can work with
independently because considerable more English language understanding is
needed first. However, with a buddy or small group support and input, the
NLOE can often work extremely well without the classroom teacher there at
his / her side. Independent activities are usually best and manageable when
at the consolidation stage, while adding a little bit more if the learner
is ready and there is a buddy to work with.
Look out for well-scaffolded materials. Critique existing materials. Do
they follow a well-scaffolded framework or are there assumptions and leaps
that will mean the NLOE cannot cope with the next stage or step? The reality
is that much existing mainstream material is really superb and with some adjustments
and attention to scaffolding ,it will be effective and relevant to the NLOE.
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How can I provide adequate support for children
who have varying language needs?
That a NLOE is expected to be independent, if you examine the idea, is an
amazing expectation! Language is the carrier of meaning and so if the language
is English, the NLOE, despite his / her cognitive capacity, may not be able
to carry out the task in English unless given support in and through first
language or his / her strongest language. However, what some teachers are
expressing is understandable...I can't attend to him/her all the time, so
what can she/he do without me that is still useful? Help!!!!
As much as possible, having an activity to work on with a buddy is most useful
to the NLOE. It gives another opportunity for oral input and interaction.
It means there is someone to access for assistance.
Here are some suggestions. Give the new learner of English:
- a plastic bag with: an appropriately easy text, vocabulary cards to place
and match, a tape of the words and text, a bilingual dictionary to check
meaning in first language (if literate), an activity matching or manipulating
text pieces/ sentences activity;
- large coloured, laminated pictures or photos, with word bags for matching
vocabulary with the pictures, and with simple sentences to find and match
up with words;
- teacher-made games which give important language input around a topic
area in an essential area of knowledge; You will find it useful to train
a small group of capable, independent children in the class to give dictation.
Teach them:
- how to choose simple, appropriate text;
- what learning of vocabulary might be needed beforehand and how to do this;
- to discuss context before beginning;
- how to give dictation (read slowly in very short and meaningful chunks,
repeat);
- how to get the NLOE to be his/her own checker (the model text is enlarged
and the enlarged text is put behind a piece of paper where the learner writes
and which he/she can lift up to check and edit what he / she has written
- to put the dictated text on tape.
Train a group to write co-operatively with a NLOE.
Train a group to work with a NLOE using pictures and words in a given topic
area, providing repetition, oral and written.
No one resource or material in a book will be the answer. In the end, what
the teacher generates out of what is current in the classroom at the time
and using as her / his major teaching resource, together with the help of
the other children, will be a large part of the answer.
In-class effective learning opportunities are most important. Small group
work with a trained and effective teacher, focussing specifically on the content
and language within the topics and contexts of classroom work, (in well-scaffolded
steps), is also important.
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What can I do to keep children anchored
in the classroom and involved in the programme?
Some further points:
As much as possible, incorporate the child's prior experiences and knowledge.
You may not be able to establish this by questioning, but rather need to use
prompts that draw out this information and allows you to see what the learner
knows and can do. Inevitably, if the NLOE sees relevance in what is being
worked with and can link from his / her own perspectives to the new, there
is likely to be involvement and anchoring.
Any specialist ESOL time should primarily be focused on the curriculum topics
/ areas being studied in the classroom. Thus, if a student is in a small group
situation for some school time, he / she will be motivated and participatory
if:
- there are links to the students' previous learning;
- there are links to what is being taught and learnt in the mainstream;
- what is going on is understandable;
- the teacher uses materials that the student needs to process in order
to carry out the task;
- he / she sees why this particular learning and context is relevant and
useful;
- he / she knows or learns it will make a difference to the next learning
challenge in the classroom i.e. is support towards more independence.
On return to the large group or classroom, the NLOE will be able to make
more sense of the contexts and content, the activities and tasks. The alternative
of a non-mainstream curriculum focus being the basis of a specialist English
provision, is that the NLOE cannot make the links to what is going on the
mainstream classroom, or is learning something that has little direct relevance
to their immediate needs for understanding and participation at school.
There are a range of techniques, approaches and methodologies that all teachers
need to incorporate in every classroom in order to cater for the multi-level
nature of any group. Effective techniques, approaches and methodologies for
NLsOE are also just as important for all learners.
Unpacking the learning in bite-size pieces, along with effective formative
assessment, are key tools of teaching and should never be overlooked, especially
when working with NLsOE.
A skilled teacher has the ability to increase or decrease the learning demand
according to the various levels of each member of a group. If whole class
teaching is the most usual approach to teaching and learning in your classroom,
you can be almost sure the NLOE will miss out and become frustrated and bored.
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When there is a very wide range of abilities
and only a certain amount of time, how does a teacher cater for the different
levels - from those with absolutely no English to those with some or a great
deal?
Any group of learners is diverse and multi-levelled. The key to catering
for this wide range is to layer in the possibility of choice in the learning
activities. This means that in preparing and planning, make sure there are
different levels within the materials, so that within the overall bits of
the scaffolded learning sequence, the student gets chances to access the simple
to the more challenging, in pieces that are understandable and manageable
for him / her.
At every step along the way, a skilled teacher is able to gauge where each
learner is and push just that little bit further. This is the true meaning
of scaffolded learning.....where the learner gets a bit more input but is
still supported so there is not a fall of any disastrous proportions!
This can be accomplished through various techniques. Some suggestions:
- get those with readiness to be teachers;
- build up to the more complex;
- give lots of repetition followed by making more demands on the learner
to be independent e.g. hiding a text or the visuals.....allowing some to
view again, while challenging learners at readiness to not access that support;
- by forcing self-checking;
- using text models where needed;
- by insisting on interaction / sharing between children in a focused way
(one asks the question and the other points, one says the word and the other
makes a sentence, one reads a sentence or text and the other writes what
is called out, one manipulates and shifts and the other matches and reads
the sentences);
- by encouraging the literate NLOE to use a bilingual dictionary and talk
with a buddy with the same first language
- making all the materials within any learning sequence as interestingly
repetitive as possible, so there is in-built challenge.
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What language activities can be provided
that are worthwhile, not just fill-ins, especially when you have 32+ others
in the class?
Learning in the topic and curriculum areas of the current studies in your
classroom is most important for NLsOE. This should not ignore some important
basics - the instructional language of your classroom, coming to grips with
literacy basics in English,(alphabet, phonics, blends, basic sight words,
basic sentence structure....)and key English language around basic concept
areas.
Use the necessary principles so far examined that make the best of learning
activities and apply these to as much of what is provided for the NLOE as
possible.But be cunning! You don't have to prepare it all....you don't have
to teach it all....in fact, often the other children are indeed the most effective
teachers ......if they are given guidance and know what to do and how to do
it.
De-pressurise yourself and be switched into the people resource in your classroom.
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When can the written language begin?
From the beginning! Remember, no matter how old the NLOE, he / she has years
of catch-up in both oral and written exposure to the English language in order
to get towards the competency and performance level in English of their English
speaking background peers. To concentrate only on oral makes learning in a
new language single-moded and often much more difficult. Oral alone relies
so much on memorising words and structures only heard or spoken. By layering
in words and sentences on card and paper and using them in repetitive and
interesting ways alongside visual / actual materials and talk, the learner
has multi-moded support and input and a much better chance of retention.
It is most important that NLsOE are handling print - how else can they come
to written text with strength and understanding? An integrated approach of
the modes makes sense and is in fact what has occurred for children whose
first language is English who have readiness for coming to literacy in English.
Go back to what adults do in a first language situation for young children.
They do not keep books out of the child's world till they think he/ she has
acquired enough oral English. No, the effective adult knows / believes in
exposure to and integration in language, with plenty of repetition.
Although there is a recognised threshold of initial oral language that seems
to be pivotal to establishing a base for the new language before a 'zoom'
period can occur, no one really knows how much and what this is. So, it is
senseless to try to pinpoint when and a NLOE has enough oral to come easily
to written English language. It is a little like telling someone he / she
is still too cold and needs to put on many more clothes, even when the only
person who actually can gauge this accurately, is the person him/ herself.
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Am I preparing the student for academic
English language study?
To acquire formal English language competency is no easy task if English
is not the first language. Although acquisition of social and communicative
English is relatively quick for most NLsOE - 1 to 3 years, being able to cope
with the complexities and subtleties of English as is expected and demanded
within formal and academic learning, requires at least 5 - 7 years of well-structured
learning and teaching. In response to the question, realistically the answer
is no, you are probably never able to provide for all that the learner needs
and requires....merely because you will never be able to predict, nor cover,
all that the student has to cope with in the curriculum. What you can do,
however, is:
- make no assumptions;
- use formative assessment constantly;
- look for areas where there are commonalities across subject / topic areas;
- build on what has been established;
- get the learner to be constantly taking responsibility for self-checking;
- teach learning-to-learn strategies;
- teach students to push their own boundaries, searching for what they have
previously learned, to hook new learning onto old.
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