English as an Additional Language (EAL)

This is a structured support class aimed primarily at meeting the specific language needs of EAL students, in order to facilitate effective access to the curriculum across all disciplines. Students will join this course on the recommendation of Student Support Services (SSS). The classes follow a differentiated workshop approach, and offer both support and development of language skills, depending on individual student need.  The course consists of sequential differentiated activities reflecting stages of development in language acquisition, and consequently tasks will be matched to individual student needs. Content-based tasks ensure that grammar and vocabulary are taught in context, with an emphasis on developing transferable academic language skills across the curriculum.

Aims/Objectives

To promote academic proficiency across all disciplines through:

• developing fluency in communication in English through problem solving activities involving listening, speaking, reading and writing.
• encouraging an awareness of the writing process, providing strategies for planning and organising writing tasks.
• Teaching the formalities of academic writing, enabling students to make informed linguistic choices.
• facilitating skills transfer of skills developed across the curriculum.
• providing sheltered instruction and literacy scaffolding in an apprentice-workshop environment, so that students become increasingly independent and responsible for evaluating their own work.

Skills

Differentiated course content serves as a foundation for following frames of instruction at each grade level:

• Introduction to Writing: through conferencing and interviews students work towards fluency in writing, increasing vocabulary and usage skills, gaining an understanding of the Writing Process.
• Aspects of Narrative: Elements of short story writing (point of view, characterisation, setting, dialogue, theme, style, irony etc.) are practiced and examined, serving to increase fluency, creative writing skills and analytical ability.
• Genres: Systematic linguistic genres (recount, report, persuasion, expository, discursive etc.) serve as a framework to introduce the functions of academic writing skills.
• Oracy: All students are provided with opportunities to develop oral skills through journals, speeches, plays, debates and small group discussions.

Assessment

A set of Formative and Summative tools will assess student learning. These tools are as follows:

• Conferencing
• Feedback
• Observation
• Quiz
• Test
• End-of -the-year Exam

Course Descriptions

Grades 6, 7 and 8: Through the framework of different linguistic genres, students will gain an understanding of how language is shaped by social purposes and audience. The linguistic genres that the students will be introduced to are as follow:

• Recount
• Argument/Persuasion
• Narratives
• Information Report
• Explanation
• Procedure
• Discussion

During the year, students will analyse various texts to recognize the distinct language features of each genre.