EAL

“Do you know what a foreign accent is? It's a sign of bravery.” - Amy Chua

 

EAL Is...

EAL is a platform by which we enable students to express themselves and feel well equipped to access all subjects across the curriculum.  EAL empowers students to have a voice and engage with members of our school and the wider community.

Students develop their English language skills and become bilingual citizens. Targeted language development allows students to better access the wider curriculum and in turn become successful members of society. The EAL curriculum is developmental: dependent on the student’s language level when they enter the school. This ranges from the development of phonology, grammatical structures and vocabulary to the use of curriculum related texts. We empower our students with the language skills they need to fully partake in all aspects of their community. 

 

SEQUENCE OF LEARNING

EAL Stages / Skills

Listening

Speaking

Reading

Writing

Beginner






 

How can I begin to engage with my teachers and peers?

- limited response to teacher’s commands and peer talk

How can I use some basic words in a one- to- one conversation? 

- produce utterances in a basic one-to-one conversation

Can I recognise and understand simple words? 

- recognise letters of some simple words 

- read with first languages inference

Can I form letters and use upper and lower case letters effectively? 

- form letters

- write from left to right

- use upper and lower case

Stage 1






 

Can I understand basic instructions and respond to my peers?

-follow basic classroom instructions

-respond to simple peer talk

Can I answer questions using simple words and phrases and can I begin to take part in discussions?

-give answers using single words/simple sentences

-join in class discussion at a minor/passive role at this stage  

Can I read and understand texts at word/sentence level?

-read and understand text at word/sentence level

-able to spell some simple words

Can I construct simple sentences?

-write simple sentences unaided with some degree of accuracy





 

Stage 2





 

Can I understand the key ideas in instructions and discussions?

-identify main ideas from teacher’s instructions

-understand the gist of most peer talk/class discussion

Do I have the confidence to use my language skills to volunteer and contribute my ideas in discussions?

-speaking skills developing well

-join in class discussion in simple answers, willing to share ideas and express opinions

Can I understand and use a wider range of vocabulary?

Can I recognise intonation patterns?

-extract meaning at text level

-recognise wider range of vocabulary

-able to spell longer/complex words

-recognise intonation patterns in speech

Can I write a simple paragraph?

Can I understand grammatical structures?

Can I understand the key ideas in simple texts?

-write at paragraph level with some degree of accuracy

-demonstrate a better understanding of grammatical structures

e.g. agreement, tenses

-begin to extract meaning from elementary/pre-intermediate texts

Stage 3





 

Can I take part in most classroom tasks effectively?

-understand and respond to most classroom tasks

Can I contribute ideas in group tasks using longer phrases and a wider range of vocabulary?

-engage in group discussion, to initiate ideas

-speech is more coherent and complex

Can I decode longer and more complex materials?

-read longer and more complex material with more understanding

-make sensible strategies in decoding formal and informal context

Can I write in a variety of ways?

Handle a variety of written tasks reasonably well, some errors may exist

-write in narrative/personal style with ease

Stage 4





 

Can I understand complex conversations and decode them to make notes?

-listen to lengthy amount of teacher talk, TV, tape and take notes and extract meaning accurately

Can I understand complex conversations and decode them to make notes?

-join in discussion and express ideas and opinions freely

-has a range of repertoires in vocabulary

Can I understand complex texts?

-extract meaning from a wide range of texts from subject specific to narrative

Have I started to master the different writing styles?

Is my grammatical knowledge improving the accuracy in my written work?

-begin to master writing in argumentative/persuasive style

-produce appropriate types of writing to suit purposes

-demonstrate a higher grammatical accuracy in writing

GCSE: ESL IGCSE