Re: [EAL-Bilingual;2522] Digest for eal-bilingual@googlegroups.com - 7 Messages in 3 Topics

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Nora McKenna

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Apr 25, 2013, 1:21:59 PM4/25/13
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No time to send data etc but EAL pupils nationally achieve much better in MFL (where they are not taking their GCSEs in their first/home language).  Hence, the school may be doing the proverbial to spite their face :-), particularly in the case of the younger learners.  And yes, I do agree with what you say as well.

Nora

From: <eal-bi...@googlegroups.com>
Date: Thursday, 25 April 2013 17:34
To: Digest Recipients <eal-bi...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [EAL-Bilingual;2522] Digest for eal-bi...@googlegroups.com - 7 Messages in 3 Topics

Group: http://groups.google.com/group/eal-bilingual/topics

    Anwar Khan <anwar...@plumsteadmanor.com> Apr 25 02:16PM +0100  

    Dear Colleagues,
     
    I'm looking for some advice or references/quotes before submitting comments for our schools' curriculum review.
     
    Currently, new arrivals in KS3 are withdrawn from 1 Maths lesson per week to work in small groups to develop their literacy, oracy, social skills and confidence, until they no longer need the additional sessions.
     
    As a result of our curriculum review, its proposed that EAL learners/ other learners with low levels of literacy, be withdrawn from MFL (Modern Languages) to develop their literacy.
     
    My current understanding is that MFL supports learners overall language development, as it builds on what's common - CUP, Cummins' common underlying proficiency, and in this way benefits all subjects.
     
    Before I submit my comments, suggesting that its not the best subject from where we should withdraw our learners, I'd like to hear some other views/guidance.
     
    Many thanks for your time.
     
    Regards
    Anwar
     
     
     
     
    Anwar Khan
    Language Development Department
    Plumstead Manor School & Sixth Form
    Wickham Lane, London SE2 0XX
     
    Tel: 07807 677 771(mobile)
    Fax: 020 8320 5249
    www.plumsteadmanor.com<http://www.plumsteadmanor.com/>

     

    Ann Horton <aehor...@yahoo.com> Apr 25 07:41AM -0700  

    It depends on whether or not the new arrivals are mid-term entries. We withdraw EAL students from MFL if we have mid-term entries who have never done any of our languages on offer before, since they would then be having to catch up in another language as well as learning English.
     
    Many of our lower level EAL students who arrive at the normal time in year 7 do remain in MFL as well. We always discuss with parents what they and their child want to do, if the level of English is really low. Currently we have quite a lot of withdrawals even in year 7, but most of these did not arrive at the start of year 7, had NO English and will do a "home language" GCSE at some point in their school career.
     
    In general our school does withdraw low-literacy pupils from MFL - not a decision I was involved in.
     
    Ann
     
     
     
     
    ________________________________
    From: Anwar Khan <anwar...@plumsteadmanor.com>
    To: "eal-bi...@googlegroups.com" <eal-bi...@googlegroups.com>
    Sent: Thursday, April 25, 2013 2:16 PM
    Subject: [EAL-Bilingual;2520] Advice on curriculum review- withdrawal from MFL as oppposed to Maths for KS3 Literacy

     
     

    Dear Colleagues,
     
    I'm looking for some advice or references/quotes before submitting comments for our schools' curriculum review.
     
    Currently, new arrivals in KS3 are withdrawn from 1 Maths lesson per week to work in small groups to develop their literacy, oracy, social skills and confidence, until they no longer need the additional sessions.
     
    As a result of our curriculum review, its proposed that EAL learners/ other learners with low levels of literacy, be withdrawn from MFL (Modern Languages) to develop their literacy.
     
    My current understanding is that MFL supports learners overall language development, as it builds on what's common - CUP, Cummins' common underlying proficiency, and in this way benefits all subjects.
     
    Before I submit my comments, suggesting that its not the best subject from where we should withdraw our learners, I'd like to hear some other views/guidance.
     
    Many thanks for your time.
     
    Regards
    Anwar
     
     
     
     
                Anwar Khan
                    Language Development DepartmentPlumstead Manor School & Sixth Form
    Wickham Lane, London SE2 0XX
     
    Tel:  07807 677 771(mobile) 
    Fax: 020 8320 5249 
    www.plumsteadmanor.com 
     
     
     
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    Martyn Pendergast <martyn.p...@btinternet.com> Apr 24 09:04PM +0100  

    Colleagues will be interested in a report published by Ofsted today on the importance of literacy across the curriculum in secondary schools. The report can be found here: http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/improving-literacy-secondary-schools-shared-responsibility
     
    I have not read it in detail, but there is one case study on induction for new arrivals which outlines good principles, but is rather short on detail.
     
    Nevertheless, the overall thrust of the report could be a useful tool for persuading schools of the need to make all teachers literacy and language teachers.
     
    My thanks to Penny Travers who drew my attention to the report.
     
    Martyn

     

    Stuart Scott <stuart...@collaborativelearning.org> Apr 25 08:33AM +0100  

    I have looked at the case studies. Nothing new here and one is reminded
    of bears and woods, but any endorsement of writing floating on a sea of
    talk is valuable nowadays when rote learning, pub quiz history and
    naming of grammar parts are flavours of the month with a government
    that probably does not read or care much about Ofsted case studies.
     
     
    On a more cheerful note CLP has been experimenting with functional
    grammar activities - anyone is currently teaching Years 5 - 8 who would
    like to try them out and feed back please email me directly (not via
    eal bilingual) and I'll send them. Not for general consumption yet and
    you must feed back please.
     
    Stuart
     
    ----Original Message----
    From:
    martyn.p...@btinternet.com
    Date: Apr 24, 2013 21:04
    To: <EAl-
    bili...@googlegroups.com>
    Subj: [EAL-Bilingual;2515] Literacy across
    the curriculum
     
    Colleagues will be interested in a report published by
    Ofsted today on the importance of literacy across the curriculum in
    secondary schools. The report can be found here: http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/improving-literacy-secondary-schools-shared-responsibility
     
    I have not read it in detail, but there is one case study on
    induction for new arrivals which outlines good principles, but is
    rather short on detail.
     
    Nevertheless, the overall thrust of the report
    could be a useful tool for persuading schools of the need to make all
    teachers literacy and language teachers.
     
    My thanks to Penny Travers
    who drew my attention to the report.
     
    Martyn
     
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    Collaborative Learning Project, 17 Barford Street, London N1 0QB
    A network of teaching professionals developing and disseminating accessible talk-for-learning teaching materials in all subject areas and for all ages.
    Telephone: 0044 (0)207 226 8885
    Website:http://www.collaborativelearning.org

     

    Nicky Vangalis Stobbs <nick...@gmail.com> Apr 24 09:08PM +0100  

    Hello all! I'm new to EAL and I'm a coordinator starting in September. I've got a mandarin speaker in my class who is still making errors in her use of plurals, subject verb agreement and tense choices. I've taught her explicitly and in those kind of activities she understands, but in free flow writing she is reverting back. It's stopping her move to level four as she uses some beautiful vocabulary and some good sentence structures. Any other ideas, tips, activities or advice? Thanks
    Nicky
     
     
    Sent from my iPhone

     

    Eddie Carron <eddie...@btconnect.com> Apr 24 09:24PM +0100  

    She is definitely a candidate for perceptual learning. See the school video
    at http://youtu.be/d-wlbCFVzto
     
    If you want a copy of a short paper on Perceptual Learning, I will send it
    as an atttachment to anyone.
     
    If you would like a free trial copy of the PL resources used by the school
    in the video, just email me with your school address. No costs - no catch -
    no advertisements.
     
    Eddie Carron
    Retired head teacher turned researcher.
    ----- Original Message -----
    From: "Nicky Vangalis Stobbs" <nick...@gmail.com>
    To: <eal-bi...@googlegroups.com>
    Sent: Wednesday, April 24, 2013 9:08 PM
    Subject: [EAL-Bilingual;2516] Advice
     
     
    Hello all! I'm new to EAL and I'm a coordinator starting in September. I've
    got a mandarin speaker in my class who is still making errors in her use of
    plurals, subject verb agreement and tense choices. I've taught her
    explicitly and in those kind of activities she understands, but in free flow
    writing she is reverting back. It's stopping her move to level four as she
    uses some beautiful vocabulary and some good sentence structures. Any other
    ideas, tips, activities or advice? Thanks
    Nicky
     
     
    Sent from my iPhone
     
     
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James Luke Bazeley

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Apr 25, 2013, 1:42:28 PM4/25/13
to Nora McKenna, eal-bi...@googlegroups.com

The issue may be as much the joint withdrawal of SEN / EAL students - ( on what basis ? any taking into account of length of residence / Mother tongue literacy ? ) 

as to  whether MFL is the best thing to withdraw them from  ( though better than Maths !) 


Luke Bazeley




Eddie Carron

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Apr 25, 2013, 1:59:37 PM4/25/13
to James Luke Bazeley, Nora McKenna, eal-bi...@googlegroups.com
There are two issues becoming confused here - at least they're confusing me. The largest concentration of EAL pupils is in Wales and the need there is for the developement of literacy skills rather than language development which is more likely to be the case in schools with a mix of nationalities and languages. Expressive language and not reading is the fundamental literacy skill and this must influence the question of which subject to withdraw from to attend specific literacy skills boosting classes. Other than those which use perceptual learning strategies, most literacy skills programmes do not focus on language development which may well be the greater need. 
 
 
Eddie Carron

christiana Rose

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Apr 25, 2013, 3:05:25 PM4/25/13
to Eddie Carron, James Luke Bazeley, Nora McKenna, EAL bilingual
Here we have a battle with many schools who routinely expect new arrivals to take on two modern languages aswell as learning English! So we usually recommend one MFL, especially beginnng in Y7, then use the other time for extra literacy. I do think that it's a challenge for some new arrivals to cope with two new languages (including English) at once, especially if neither new language uses the same script.  I would never want to withdraw an EAL child from Maths, because that's often an area where they can more easily achieve a measure of success alongside their monolingual peers, and consequently it's often their favourite subject, gives confidence and status.
 
Christiana Rose
From: eddie...@btconnect.com
To: luke_b...@yahoo.co.uk; nor...@hotmail.co.uk
CC: eal-bi...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [EAL-Bilingual;2524] Digest for eal-bi...@googlegroups.com - 7 Messages in 3 Topics
Date: Thu, 25 Apr 2013 18:59:37 +0100

Jonathan Brentnall

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Apr 26, 2013, 5:10:51 AM4/26/13
to Eddie Carron, James Luke Bazeley, Nora McKenna, eal-bi...@googlegroups.com
Eddie,
 
You're confusing me too. The greatest concentration of EAL learners is not in Wales. Although we do have areas with substantial numbers and a handful of schools with large proportions of EAL learners, there are many parts of England, especially London and the West Midlands, where 'concentrations' are higher and much greater numbers are involved. If you're confusing Welsh-speaking children learning English in school with EAL, your terminology and understanding of the socio-political context is mistaken. The situation is quite different for English and Welsh Second Language learners compared to that of EAL/WAL learners. The bilingual context, public recognition, legal and social status, and provision for language support, are all quite different for English and Welsh either as a medium of education or as a curriculum subject and they differ markedly in relation to other minority languages spoken by Additional Language Learners. Best not to muddle them up.
 
Your idea that what learners in Wales need is literacy skills rather than language development sounds odd to me. The development of productive literacy skills (i.e. not merely phonically decoding the sounds of words) depends upon understanding the meanings, learning common collocations, internalising underlying 'grammatical relationships' and making appropriate choices of sequenced words tailored to context. Compared to E1L learners who have much of this linguistic knowledge of English embedded through talk from early childhood, EAL learners are at a considerable disadvantage. What they need is language development and it takes longer than just a few months occasional withdrawal to 'catch up' with the amount of English that their E1L peers have learned since birth, particularly if they are in secondary school.
 
If you were suggesting that Welsh-speaking learners of English as a Second Language need better literacy skills in English to improve the national figures, I think the data actually indicate that, over time, learners in bilingual schools tend to do better than those in English-medium schools. (See Baker's and Thomas and Collier's work on bilingual education systems)
 
The question of lower Literacy scores in Wales as a whole compared to England or other nations on the PISA scale is a different issue entirely, partly a consequence of Wales not adopting any formal literacy strategies when England and other nations did, partly to do with large areas of social disadvantage with long-term unemployment and low educational aspirations after the mines closed and other businesses collapsed in the Valleys.
 
In the context of Wales, it is compulsory for all learners in schools here to learn Welsh as well as English and then a Modern Foreign Language in secondary school. Depending on school context, the emphasis may be more on Welsh than English as the education medium, or vice-versa. In some LAs, Welsh is the medium of education up to age 7, when English is introduced as a subject, but many children in those schools will already have learned a lot of English from TV, Radio, Music, friends and family. This is not necessarily the case for EAL/WAL learners who may not have the same exposure at home or in the community.
 
In relation to withdrawal, we face the same issues. Sometimes, Welsh or an MFL seems the most appropriate option when an EAL learner first arrives, but rotating between subjects is also useful as it means they don't consistently miss out on any single subject. I haven't checked any data recently, but the Additional Language Learners I worked with generally used to do better in both MFL and Welsh compared to their monolingual peers. The issue really is about quality of language development and that is a matter of methodology, support and encouraging strong parental involvement.
 
I had a look at the Youtube video you posted about 'perceptual learning'. It was lovely to see how positive the children on the video were about the impact of the project but there was very little about the actual strategies used or how 'perceptual learning' differs from other Reading Recovery or intensive, literacy-based programmes. More on that would be useful, so perhaps you could email me your paper (off-list).
 
Hope this clears up some of the confusion.
 
Regards
Jonathan Brentnall

Jonathan Brentnall

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Apr 27, 2013, 4:57:33 AM4/27/13
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A few more points on Welsh speakers to clarify matters.
 
If a child is brought up in a Welsh-speaking home in Wales, attends a Welsh-medium school, has little exposure to English in their social and academic lives and this child then moves out of Wales, for example into England or Scotland, their English language development is likely to be significantly behind that of their peers in their new school and social environment. Their needs both in terms of support for cultural identity and language would be quite similar (though not identical) to those of many minority ethnic EAL learners. In this situation, it would be perfectly acceptable, even desirable, to describe them as an English as an Additional Language learner because the social and educational context and the linguistic demands placed on the child have changed, and they would benefit from targeted EAL support.
 
In Wales, however, the social, political, legal and educational systems are set up in such a way that the above child should definitely not be classed as an English as an Additional Language learner when they started learning English as a Subject within the school curriculum or if they began to be taught the curriculum bilingually (e.g. 50-50) through Welsh and English. Even if this child were to move to another part of Wales, where much more English is spoken socially, and started attending an English-medium school, they would NOT be described as an EAL learner. They may be referred to as an English second language learner, simply as an English learner or, because of the way the bilingual education system operates, not given any 'label'.
 
Crucial 'official' differences relate to PLASC data collection and funding. Schools are required to record the EAL Stage of all EAL learners, using the All Wales 5 stage model, in their SIMS and these data are drawn down centrally for PLASC. Similarly for First Language data: the questions about children's first language distinguish between those whose first language is 'English and/or Welsh' and those whose first languages are 'not English and/or Welsh'.
"Since there is already bilingual educational provision in Wales for pupils whose first language is English and/or Welsh, the primary focus of this data collection is to gather and collate information about the other first languages of pupils in Wales. The data will complement the existing information collected by the Welsh Assembly Government via PLASC on pupils’ ethnic backgrounds and levels of English language acquisition of pupils for whom English is an additional language (EAL)."
 
Minority ethnic additional language learners are also entitled to support via the Minority Ethnic Achievement Grant, which LAs are allocated on the basis of submitted figures. This grant "reimburses local authorities for expenditure on educational services in support of children and young people from minority ethnic backgrounds the majority of whom are learning English, or Welsh, as an additional language. The grant also reimburses local authorities for expenditure on educational services to improve standards of achievement for children from minority ethnic backgrounds who are underachieving, or at risk of underachieving."
 
Classing all Welsh first language speakers in the Welsh education system as EAL would make a nonsense of the PLASC data and create considerable confusion in relation to the MEAG. In fact, in the early stages of implementation, these confusions did occur and have taken some time to clear up because teachers and headteachers were not clear about the differences.
 
In 'personal and educational' terms, if the above pupil did move to an English-medium context, some of their language development needs in English would be very similar to those of EAL learners, and they would benefit from targeted support to help them develop their English. However, they would be at a considerable advantage compared to many of their peers in relation to Welsh language. Their first language would still be taught as part of the curriculum, used around school, supported at home, in the media and in all official documentation. From what we know of research into bilingualism, as long as their first language continues to be supported and developed, they are likely to catch up in English and attain high levels of proficiency more successfully than learners whose first languages are not similarly supported. In terms of identity, their Welshness would have status and be positively supported within the school and in other areas of public society. They may, of course, encounter prejudice and bullying simply for being from a different part of Wales or speaking in a different accent and may experience social exclusion in some forms, which would have to be dealt with as effectively as we would expect incidents of racial prejudice and discrimination to be dealt with, but the situation would not be the same as if they moved out of Wales.
 
To summarise, if in Wales 'not EAL'. If moving into England, Scotland or Northern Ireland, yes 'EAL'. 
 
I hope that clarifies any misunderstandings.
 
Jonathan

Eddie Carron

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Apr 27, 2013, 6:16:21 AM4/27/13
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I'm afraid it only succeeds in confusing me further - it sounds like an administrator's paradise and a teacher's nightmare if they felt it important to sort it out although I suspect most wouldn't be bothered.
I think most teachers would think if you are a non-English-speaking child from a non-English-speaking home attending a school which in which all teaching is in your own native, non-English language and you are required to learn English, then you are learning English as an additional language. The fine distinctions which engage administrators do not as a rule, engage teachers so quite much. 
 
Of course such children will have many advantages over many other EAL children because of the cultural similarities and identical TV and other electronic media will mean that they already have a good receptive English vocabulary. Their main difficulty will lie in the areas of expressive vocabulary - spoken and written - hence my belief that the needs of those who encounter difficulties in English literacy will be less in language development and more in literacy skills development. And that is indeed my experience.
 
The experience of the school I mentioned in Llangefni, is that when the perceptual learning approach to confronting this problem is used and (Phonics Workshops are abandoned),  literacy skills in both langauges are very significantly enhanced and in a relatively short space of time. I should add that this is not the only school in Wales which is experiencing this phenomenon. There are three and all three will be reporting in July at the end of the current academic year. The Llangefni school will produce a video of PL in action.
 
A number of other schools with high proportions of Asian immigrant children have also adopted a pereceptual learning approach and will report in July on Senco forum. About four followers on this thread have requested and been sent free copies of the same resources that are being used by the schools in the project. It will be interesting to see how they respond.
 
My main focus is in the use of PL for children who experiencing difficulty in acquiring literacy skills whatever the underlying reason or cause and not exclusively in EAL childen as will be most of those who follow this thread.
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