Post by Admin on Jan 21, 2020 0:46:54 GMT
Considerations relating to EAL/D students and the school learning environment
For some EAL/D students, the school experience will be a new one; others might have had schooling experiences that are markedly different from Western Australian school contexts. Teachers must make explicit their expectations of classroom behaviours, while simultaneously being sensitive to the experiences of their EAL/D students.
Examples of differences in school behaviours and expectations include:
· Many students will have come from a schooling system where they were required to work individually rather than collaboratively. This means that group work skills need to be outlined explicitly and rewarded positively. Teachers should also be aware that there might be cultural sensitivities when assigning groups. While students will need to overcome these sensitivities in time, they may be deeply ingrained and it can be advantageous to pay attention to these in the first instance. A discreet conversation with the student/s before commencing group work activities will be useful in avoiding any issues (such as mixing boys and girls, certain ethnic groups, or different mobs). There may also be certain unseen cultural distinctions within students of the same cultural group, meaning that one student has more or less ‘power’ than another. This can also impact on group work.
· Students may not join the class on the mat with other students simply because it has not been their experience at school to sit on the floor, which may be considered dirty and demeaning. Other students may not join the class because their previous experiences have given them more autonomy regarding the events in which they choose to take part. Teachers should carefully explain the purpose of the activity and its connection to follow-up tasks so that students can see the benefit of joining in.
· It is important to explicitly teach class rules and parameters for engaging in discussions, active listening, and so on as not all cultures interact in the same way, and school experiences vary significantly.
· Speaking in front of groups may be challenging for EAL/D students. They may be more comfortable in one-to-one interactions. Students may be particularly conscious of their accents, and other students may find different accents amusing, thus exacerbating the self-consciousness of the EAL/D students. Teachers should give students a chance to present in smaller groups or take time out to practise their delivery.
· Teachers encourage self-correction in classrooms (for example, self-editing written work, or as a measure of comprehension when conducting Running Records). However, self-correction requires an innate sense of what sounds right in English and what makes sense. EAL/D students do not have this sense of the language and cannot easily self-correct. Teachers must be very explicit with these EAL/D students about their errors in pronunciation, grammar, expression and spelling, and how to correct these errors, so that the students can apply this new knowledge about English in other texts and utterances.
· Some EAL/D students will have alternative perspectives and experiences of historical events, scientific phenomena or mathematics strategies. Teachers can invite their contributions to class discussion, talk to them well before the class and ask for their contribution, thus giving them time to prepare (for example, EAL/D students with advanced mathematics skills or different calculation strategies can be invited to share their solutions and processes with the class, and thereby expand and confirm for all students the existence of multiple approaches and strategies).
· EAL/D students will have varying experiences with information and communication technologies (ICT), from no exposure to technology at all to sophisticated usage. Peer support can be provided for EAL/D students with no exposure to ICT, and EAL/D students experienced in ICT can provide ICT support to others even when their English language skills are still developing.
For some EAL/D students, the school experience will be a new one; others might have had schooling experiences that are markedly different from Western Australian school contexts. Teachers must make explicit their expectations of classroom behaviours, while simultaneously being sensitive to the experiences of their EAL/D students.
Examples of differences in school behaviours and expectations include:
· Many students will have come from a schooling system where they were required to work individually rather than collaboratively. This means that group work skills need to be outlined explicitly and rewarded positively. Teachers should also be aware that there might be cultural sensitivities when assigning groups. While students will need to overcome these sensitivities in time, they may be deeply ingrained and it can be advantageous to pay attention to these in the first instance. A discreet conversation with the student/s before commencing group work activities will be useful in avoiding any issues (such as mixing boys and girls, certain ethnic groups, or different mobs). There may also be certain unseen cultural distinctions within students of the same cultural group, meaning that one student has more or less ‘power’ than another. This can also impact on group work.
· Students may not join the class on the mat with other students simply because it has not been their experience at school to sit on the floor, which may be considered dirty and demeaning. Other students may not join the class because their previous experiences have given them more autonomy regarding the events in which they choose to take part. Teachers should carefully explain the purpose of the activity and its connection to follow-up tasks so that students can see the benefit of joining in.
· It is important to explicitly teach class rules and parameters for engaging in discussions, active listening, and so on as not all cultures interact in the same way, and school experiences vary significantly.
· Speaking in front of groups may be challenging for EAL/D students. They may be more comfortable in one-to-one interactions. Students may be particularly conscious of their accents, and other students may find different accents amusing, thus exacerbating the self-consciousness of the EAL/D students. Teachers should give students a chance to present in smaller groups or take time out to practise their delivery.
· Teachers encourage self-correction in classrooms (for example, self-editing written work, or as a measure of comprehension when conducting Running Records). However, self-correction requires an innate sense of what sounds right in English and what makes sense. EAL/D students do not have this sense of the language and cannot easily self-correct. Teachers must be very explicit with these EAL/D students about their errors in pronunciation, grammar, expression and spelling, and how to correct these errors, so that the students can apply this new knowledge about English in other texts and utterances.
· Some EAL/D students will have alternative perspectives and experiences of historical events, scientific phenomena or mathematics strategies. Teachers can invite their contributions to class discussion, talk to them well before the class and ask for their contribution, thus giving them time to prepare (for example, EAL/D students with advanced mathematics skills or different calculation strategies can be invited to share their solutions and processes with the class, and thereby expand and confirm for all students the existence of multiple approaches and strategies).
· EAL/D students will have varying experiences with information and communication technologies (ICT), from no exposure to technology at all to sophisticated usage. Peer support can be provided for EAL/D students with no exposure to ICT, and EAL/D students experienced in ICT can provide ICT support to others even when their English language skills are still developing.