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Watches carefully but may not speak |
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Uses gestures and/or single words to express immediate needs |
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Names some objects |
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Attends to what others are saying, and uses some courtesy formulae eg sorry, excuse me and key routine social words and short phrases |
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Uses other L1 speakers to help provide key words, or L1 dictionary to indicate words to express meaning |
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Uses L1 for variety of purposes and audiences, across the range of social and academic contexts applicable to current phase of schooling |
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Has highly developed registers in subjects which have been selected for special areas of study |
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Operates fluently in L1 within the range of registers experienced in L1 home, community and school life |
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Build a relationship with student
which boosts confidence and is conducive to risk-taking:
- acknowledge or reward any linguistic risk-taking behaviours as indicators of development
- acknowledge student’s L1 knowledge eg In English this is … In Chinese….?
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Allow time for processing language and formulating responses
– be patient and avoid jumping in on hesitations, and prompt, paraphrase, and rephrase statements and questions e.g., Do you mean …? request repetition politely, tease out meaning, model responses required and take initiative if communication breaks down
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Emphasise the importance of being willing to admit non-comprehension
- ‘What do you mean?’
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Challenge student intellectually
through concrete trans-disciplinary problem solving activities eg group reconstruction of geometric shapes (refer Kay’s ESL in M notes)
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Sustain interaction with student
by maintaining face to face communication e.g., though use of OHP
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Create simple scripted role-plays/ hands on activities
making use of pictures, labels, charts, and realia – junk mail, timetables, brochures etc. – first model simple language including appropriate levels of politeness e.g., in requests (‘please’) for student to repeat, then pair students to interact using language functions such as: a) enquiring about price (cents, dollars, change, coins, notes, each, total); purchasing; greeting and replying, leave-taking; thanking; explaining intentions; asking for directions; asking for things e.g., in catching public transport – purchasing a ticket, locating stops/stations, asking for bus number or shopping for personal belongings related to school eg stationery items, and uniforms (expressing quantity with ‘a’ ‘some’ or numbers) or purchasing food at tuckshop; and b) excusing/apologising, enquiring about others, giving information about self or others , making excuses , expressing lack of comprehension, asking for clarification or repetition, declining, confirming, denying, asking for help, asking for permission, complaining, asking for the time e.g., in engaging in classroom interactions – choosing a seat, handing work in, or in participating in sport- collecting equipment, turn-taking, or in meeting elementary needs by using basic vocabulary for actions (imperatives) – ‘take me to…’, ‘help me with…’, ‘stop...’
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Include correct version of student approximation during interaction
e.g., incorrect word order, errors in use of articles (a precedes consonant, an precedes vowel, the is pronounced th before consonant, and thee before vowel), relational verbs (is, are), plural ‘s’, attending primarily to meaning, while pointing out those errors which impede communication
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Model simple sentences in face to face interactions
for student to reciprocate, eg autobiographical details (birthdate, family/friends, address, country of birth, schools attended) likes/dislikes and abilities/inabilities – I /like/don’t like can/can’t e.g., with languages: ‘speak…’, music: ‘play…,’ sport: ‘play/ride…’, using pictures/symbols to represent each item of information - encourage student to extend utterances through use of basic conjunctions e.g., and, but, because-‘I like …and…’ ‘I like… but I don’t like…’, ‘I like… because…’; simple adjectives e.g., new/old, same/different – students then interview each other, using simple sentence starters e.g., ‘Tell me about…’ ‘What’s your…?
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Record information about each student on audio-tape
- name , country of origin, nationality and language, providing written version to enable student to connect spoken and written forms - student listens for information entering it on a retrieval chart, then introduces him/herself to group – I am …. I come from Japan. I am Japanese. I speak Japanese – follow with ‘whip-around’,(see MUP) where each student must use chart to generate a sentence about self or peer – draw attention to syllabic stress e.g., China/Chinese, Vietnam/Vietnamese; endings - e.g., -ian: Bosnian, Indian; -ish: Turkish, Jewish -i: Iraqi, Pakistani; ese: Vietnamese, Chinese; remove charts and introduce short question/answer forms using ‘be’ and ‘do’ and appropriate intonation, for students to elicit information from peers - ‘Are you …? Do you speak/come from…?(upward intonation) Yes, I am/he/she is…/No, I’m not. I’m …. He/she isn’t…./Yes, I do/he/she does, No, I don’t/he/she doesn’t (downward intonation) – conclude with joint construction of text, which teacher writes on board e.g., There are …students in my class. … There are … girls and … boys. … comes from Iran. She is 15, and she speaks ….etc
| Name | Country | Nationality | Language |
| India | Indian | Hindi |
| China | Chinese | Chinese |
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Elicit extended utterances from student
by providing class map for student to locate country of origin – modelling statements, asking questions to prompt e.g., ‘I come from …’. ’It’s here’, ‘My country is (hot/cold/big/small etc)’
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Provide simple formulaic structures based on routine statement/enquiry-response exchanges
relating to personal information and immediate needs, drawing attention to interrogatives through placement of stress – ‘How are you?’/ ‘Fine thankyou.’ ‘Would you like…?’/ ‘yes please/no thankyou’ ‘Where is…?’/ ‘…is in the library.’ – give each student a written version of statement/enquiry or response to say aloud, in order to find the person who has the matching utterance
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Devise simple interactive tasks for pair or group work
e.g.,‘spot the difference’ pictures using school photos/pictures of target vocabulary items, for student to practise formulaic phrases and simple statements/questions ( e.g., expressions of sameness and difference) using both affirmative and negative forms in combination with basic vocabulary items - for naming objects such as personal belongings related to school – clothing, desk items ‘I have…’, ‘What’s this?’ ‘What’s this called in English?’ ‘What’s the name of this?’; relationships and roles (use of demonstrative pronouns –this, these, that, those) ‘Who’s this/that?’‘This is Mr…/Ms…/Dr…/my teacher, my brother’; for describing – have, with, there is, there are, is made of; as well as for food, travel, parts of the school
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Introduce games to practise vocabulary items and short sentence structures
– listening games, eg listen and repeat, bingo, card games (naming item on card) – snap, concentration, fish (Kay & Melody’s New Arrivals Program) e.g., four students are dealt seven cards each, pairs are placed on table, then turns are taken asking each other for cards to make further pairs and the player with the most pairs wins – model rules and language for turn-taking, interacting, and scoring, eg simple imperatives - ‘take a card’, ’throw the dice’, formulaic phrases – ‘may I have the…’, ‘you got … points’, ‘my turn/your turn’
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Encourage use of bilingual dictionary and/or consultation
with L1 speakers for key vocabulary to further interactions in both social and academic contexts as a way of becoming familiar with school culture and English learning
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Demonstrate the use of basic prepositions of place
(in, on, under, near, behind, in front of) - have student arrange desk items and ask partner to describe arrangement, or visa versa; motion (into, out of, to, from) use imperatives to instruct each other in moving the items,– ‘take the pencil out of the box’ – use in conjunction with directional vocabulary (left, right) while taking student on a tour of school/classroom to familiarise with vocabulary associated with: school areas - oval, library, tuckshop; subjects on timetable- maths; classroom items- pencil, calculator and to introduce to key personnel – principal, guidance officer, student services staff
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Model simple language for guiding
a) classroom procedures e.g., create roster for students to take turns directing other students in following routine classroom procedures e.g. ’go inside’, ‘sit down’ ’put the chairs up’; have students assist with marking the roll; exchange greeting and farewells e.g., ‘Hi’, ‘See you Monday’, ‘Have a good weekend’ and b) subject-specific procedures using interrogatives for informational exchanges e.g. when…? with basic temporal sequence markers - ‘first, then, next, now’, and phrases – ‘when you finish that’, ‘after that you have to…’; what…?with nouns/conjunctions to label/list items, and pronoun reference – beaker and Bunsen burner-it/them; where…? with prepositions/prepositional phrases ‘on the bench’ in structured activities such as science experiments, cooking, craft etc
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Create contexts for the use of symbolic communication
(as common in maths and science) which capitalise on logical/mathematical learning styles through using graphs, pie-charts, percentages and mathematical symbols/equations to scaffold student’s contributions to discourse e.g., in study of endangered species, while class is writing letter to a state representative recommending the strengthening of legislative action, student makes pie chart to show the ratio of endangered animals among the various classifications to later explain in small group context
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Familiarise students with clock time, days of week and daily routines
verb forms of habitual present tense e.g., through matching pictures, sequencing activities, bingo, after which a questionnaire is filled out, and information transferred to individual or class timetables – student then prepares questionnaire to use as basis for interviewing teacher/peer about daily or weekly routines using ‘wh’ question forms and prepositions of time (at 6 o’clock, in 2 hours) temporal sequence markers - before, after, then) and recording answers, then presents the information orally to group
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Collect background information to inform placement of student
e.g., assessments of L1 proficiency in various subjects or interruptions in L1 language and Literacy development. Low L1 background knowledge in a subject will hinder development in that same subject in L2, while students with high background knowledge in certain subject areas (eg L1 educational knowledge of Chinese students in Maths is often above that of native English speakers) will be advantaged if corresponding subjects are selected.
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Oxford Picture Dictionary |
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Bilingual dictionaries |
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Contrastive analysis chart |
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Asian Language Notes |
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Some Likely areas of difficulty for the foreign learner of English – Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese |
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Ship-Sheep |
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Word Ease card games |
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English on Your Own |
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Core Curriculum |
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