Teaching Emphases for English Proficiency Levels
Improving Teaching and Learning for ESL Students from Years 1 - 12
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Level: Middle/Upper Primary READING – Level 1

Language Capabilities	Teaching Emphases	Suggested Resources
Reads some words from familiar contexts, eg environmental print Recognises own name, and words related to immediate environment, eg name of school, familiar street names, classroom items Relies heavily on contextual cues, eg pictures, diagrams Follows with finger to assist in directionality	Create activities requiring student to sequence pictures, and match words/sentences to pictures Teach letter names, consistently using Qld script or similar (ensuring that letter formation corresponds to that taught in writing lessons, e.g., ‘a’ ‘g’ ‘z’ – identify letters in student’s name, in names of teacher, family, friends, on computer keyboard, in environmental print e.g., signs – school name, Police Station, stop signs; play letter-recognition games e.g., snap, with alphabet cards; match upper and lower case letters; teach common variations using initial sounds e.g. ant/ant, girl / girl Use the Language Experience approach i.e. provide shared experiences e.g., excursions, cooking, from which spoken language can be generated for use in creating teacher-scribed texts for reading – use photos of key segments to support text Expose students to environmental/functional texts in and around school and on excursions, such as labels (placed around classroom – window, table, chair), bulletin boards, signs etc – compile photographs of signs into caption books, e.g., photo of ‘Please shut the gate’ sign with caption ‘We have to shut the school gate.’ Recycle language by presenting various activities on one topic e.g., a single theme of Australian history/identity explored through simple factual writings, picture stories, written chants, raps and songs, in shared reading sessions, pointing to words while reading Make pocket reference books with coloured card bound or stapled together for each group of words student needs to recognise: days of week, months of year, colours, numbers, Become familiar with features and conventions of non-Romanised scripts where applicable and provide guidance in establishing those of English e.g., use pointer in shared reading to establish left to right directionality, model reading of punctuation as in statements/questions/exclamations and commands Allow students with non-Romanised L1 script to learn through focussing on whole word rather than parts initially, while common sight words are learned Develop and draw on student’s visual/spatial awareness to link content words to meaning by projecting picture onto screen/whiteboard and adding labels for student to ‘read’, then removing picture and asking student to ‘read’ words again – restore picture each time error is made until student can read target number of words – recycle words immediately, e.g., have student copy them into personal dictionary Develop student’s graphophonic awareness by gradually changing focus from recognition of whole word to recognition of phonemes (distinctive sounds) and graphemes (letters), common spelling patterns such as silent letters, split digraphs etc within familiar words – physically manipulate letters in activities that require insertion/deletion/re-ordering of letters to highlight e.g., word families – cat/hat, and letter patterns – blue/black Encourage phonemic awareness through introducing rhyming words accompanied by visuals Model simple phrases for expressing non-understanding of text, eg ‘What is…?’ ‘What does …mean?’ ‘I don’t understand this.’ Maximise transfer of student’s L1 reading skills through encouraging - use of L1 books for independent reading/reference and discussion with L1 peers - clarification of concepts and discussion of English reading in L1 with L1 peers - reference to bilingual or picture dictionary	Rainbow Readers Beginning ESL, Contrastive analysis chart Asian Language Notes – Some likely areas of difficulties for the foreign learner of English – Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese Jazz Chants THRASS New Oxford Picture Dictionary Bilingual dictionary Magnetic letters

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Authors: Kay Mc Namara & Esther Watt                  © Education Queensland 2004
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