Philosophy
The EAL department exists to provide students, whose first language is not English, with the facility to accelerate the learning of their new school language as rapidly as possible, in order to take full advantage of, not only the academic school curriculum, but also the social environment of ISL. It acknowledges that the language skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing are interrelated and interactive and the development of linguistic skills depends on an holistic approach, which incorporates all four elements.
The EAL Department recognises the importance of the development of the student's first language as being essential to cognitive growth, as well as enabling the student to retain cultural identity and emotional stability. The EAL Department considers itself a vital and integral force in promoting respect and appreciation of the linguistic and cultural diversity within the school, which is essential to its philosophy of internationalism.
The EAL room is designed to provide the student with an atmosphere which is friendly, reassuring and secure. It also creates an environment, which is stimulating and motivating, encouraging the EAL student to take risks and explore the possibilities of the English language.
Aims
The EAL department aims to:
- develop proficiency in English to enable the EAL student to effectively participate in mainstream academic activities,
- develop confidence and skills necessary for the EAL student to become fully integrated in the social life of the school,
- recognise, and provide support for, the social and emotional needs of the EAL student, especially during the first few weeks of school,
- liaise closely with class teachers in order to:
a) reinforce, support and extend class work,
b) provide information and discuss the specific needs of individual EAL students ,
- actively promote respect and appreciation of the languages and cultures represented by the EAL students and recognise their importance in the school community and in the development of international understanding.
Organisation
EAL lessons take place every day at the same time as French lessons. EAL groups remain small as this allows for individual attention to the diverse abilities found in class.
Year 1 |
Year 2 |
| Students: |
Students: |
*Follow a Foundation Course - various programmes
*Develop vocabulary to enable students to talk about themselves and their lives. This will include family, food, parts of body, toys, colours, clothes, classroom, home and school, activities, pets, etc.
*Develop language patterns appropriate to age and experience, through active participation in a wide variety of role plays and games
*Reinforce language introduced in mainstream class in maths, science and PYP units
*Develop listening skills. Particularly as they relate to short term memory and sequencing skills. Activities are designed to increase awareness of word structure, including the ability to discriminate onsets from rimes
*Reinforce the mainstream pre-reading and early reading activities with emphasis on phonetic knowledge and recognition of names captions and labels
*Learn to write own labels and captions for activity based work
*Enrich language through active participation with a wide variety of modern and traditional stories, songs and nursery rhymes
*Have ample opportunity to explore and extend their own linguistic knowledge through imaginative free play, drama-based activities and sharing |
*Follow a foundation course - Chatterbox
*Develop a vocabulary which enables the student to talk about themselves, their lives, and the world around them. In addition to the topics covered in Year 1 this will encompass a wider range of experiences such as own village or town, shape and size, transport and holidays
*Develop language patterns appropriate to age and experience, through active participation in a wide variety of tasks and games. This will include more complex language functions such as preferences, descriptions, comparisons and instructions
*Reinfoce the language introduced in mainstream class, in maths, science and social studies
*Develop listening skills; listening not only for general meaning but also for specific detail in order to complete a set task. Introduction of action games for following commands and instructions
*Reinforce mainstream reading activities, with an emphasis on alphabetic and phonetic knowledge, especially with regard to short and long vowels. Reading activities to include reading a wide variety of fiction and non-fiction books, (selcted according to interest level) re-reading own 'news' or stores, word games and reading captions and labels
*Learn to express their own news, views and ideas in spontaneous writing. Develop an understanding of grammar and punctuation in written work
*Blending and segmentation activities designed to reinforce spelling work done in mainstream class
*Enrich language through active participation with a wide variety of modern and traditional stories, fairy tales, poetry, songs and nursery rhymes
*Have ample opportunity to explore and extend their own linguistic knoweldge through imaginative free play, role-play and work with puppets |
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Years 3 and 4 |
Years 5 and 6 |
| Students: |
Students: |
*Follow a Foundation Course - Stepping Stones 2
*Develop a vocabulary which enables the student to talk about himself, his life and environment and the wider world, including more abstract ideas and subjects which may not have been experienced first hand. This will encompass different communities and cultures including our host country; discoveries, explorations and achievements, feelings and emotions and television
*Develop language appropriate to age and experience, through active participation in discussions and a wide variety of tasks and games including more complex language functions such as preferences, including more complex language functions such as preferences, superlatives
*Reinforce language introduced in mainstream class in maths, science and social studies. Relevant visual displays used as language prompts
*Develop listening skills; listening for general meaning, for specific detail in order to complete a set task and listening in order to recount with relevant detail or respond in an appropriate way
*Reinforce mainstream reading activities, with an emphasis on phonetic knowledge, including vowel and consonant digraphs, blends and syllable types. Reading activities to include reading a wide range of fiction and non-fiction books, (selected according to interest level) re-reading own 'news' or stories, word games and puzzles. Using a variety of strategies when decoding
*Reinforce mainstream writing activities; learning to write for a range of purposes and audiences. These will include chronological writing descriptions, lists, messages and story writing. Developing an understanding of grammar and punctuation in written work
*Develop an awareness of major spelling patterns, letter strings and rules governing the spelling of English words. Use of 'look, say, cover, write, check' strategy for learning spellings. Introduction of dictionary usage and compilation of student's own word book
*Enrich their language through involvement with a wide variety of modern and traditional stories, fairy tales, myths, legends, fables and poetry
*Be provided with opportunities to explore and extend their own linquistic knowledge through discussions, role play and work with puppets. |
*Follow a Foundation Coure - Stepping Stones 3 and 4
*Develop vocabulary which enables the student to talk about himself in relation to his own environment and more global issues. This will include abstract ideas and subjects which have not been experienced first hand. In addition to basic, daily vocabulary, the student will extend his lexicon in order to be able to discuss news items, local and global concerns and historical and predicted events
*Develop language patterns appropriate to age and experience, through active participation in discussions and a wide variety of tasks and games. This will include more complex language functions such as expressing an opinion, taking part in debates, conducting surveys and interviews, making predictions, expressing hypotheses and describing imaginary events
*Reinforce language introduced in mainstream class in maths, science and social studies
*Develop listening skills; listening for comprehension in order to identifiy main points and ask relevant questions. Development of critical listening skills requiring a personal opinion or response
*Reinforce mainstream reading activities, with an emphasis on using a variety of stategies to decode. Developing an awareness of common phrases, forms and patterns found in written English to enable students to improve their oral skills through reading. Reading texts to include novels, stories and poems from a wide variety of cultures and traditions; non-fiction texts to include biographies and autobiographies, journalistic, formal and persuasive writing, discussions and explanations, instructional and reference texts
*Reinforce mainstream writing activities; learning to write for a range of purposes and audiences. Students will examine the grammar, conventions and structures of standard English and develop the organisational skills to enable them to write coherent and cohesive compositions and reports, rewrite and paraphrase, write from ictation, write descriptions, narratives, comparisons, definitions and summaries and write from different points of view
*Develop an understanding of phonetics and major spelling rules and exceptions in English. Improve spelling strategies through building up spelling of syllabic parts, using prefixes, suffixes, common letter strings and knowledge of other known words. Use of dictionary and compilation of student's own word book.
*Enrich their language through involvement with novels and classic fiction from a variety of genres; myths, legends and fables from a range of cultures and traditions, a range of poetic forms including narrative poetry
*Be provided with opportunities to explore and extend their own linquistic knowledge through discussions, debates, role-play, and drama-based activities
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