An information morning for parents at Panaga School

developing an understanding of EAL and MT

Some Languages at Panaga - can you spot yours?

Arabic, Indonesian,Bahasa Melayu,Tamil, Bengali, Spanish,Hindi,Urdu,Telugu,German, Dutch, English, Mandarin, Russian, French, Chinese, Marathi, Assamese, Visayan, Tagalog,Thai, Malayalam,Turkish,Konrani, Swahili, Yoruba,Norwegian,Polish,Kannada

Panaga School Nationalities

PANAGA SCHOOL NATIONALITY

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

AM

ER

ICA

N

AR

GE

NT

INA

AU

ST

RA

LIA

N

BR

AZ

ILIA

N

BR

ITIS

H

BE

LGIA

N

BE

LGIU

M

CA

NA

DIA

N

CH

INE

SE

CO

LOM

BIA

N

DU

TC

H

EG

YP

TIA

N

FIL

IPIN

O

FR

EN

CH

IND

IAN

IND

ON

ES

IAN

IRA

NIA

N

IRIS

H

JAM

AIC

AN

MA

LAY

SIA

N

ME

XIC

AN

N. Z

EA

LAN

DE

R

NIG

ER

IAN

GE

RM

AN

OM

AN

I

PA

KIS

TA

NI

PE

RU

VIA

N

PO

LIS

H

SC

OT

TIS

H

SIN

GA

PO

RE

AN

SW

ED

EN

SY

RIA

N

TU

RK

ISH

TR

INID

AD

VE

NE

ZU

ELA

N

ITA

LIA

N

RU

SS

IAN

TH

AIL

AN

D

NO

RW

EG

IAN

PO

RT

UG

UE

SE

NATIONALITIES

NO

. OF

CH

ILD

RE

N

Series1

Support your child’s mother tongue!

• What does ‘mother tongue’ mean to you?

Importance of Mother Tongue

• Part of the roots of your children; cultural identity

• Link to family, friends and country

• Necessary for children to reintegrate into their home country, national school or university

Role mother tongue plays in educational development?

There are 4 steps according to Prof. Jim Cummins, leading researcher in second language acquisition, Ontario University

1.Bilingual learners are the best learners!

• By learning two or more languages children gain a greater understanding of how language works

• Knowledge and skills transfer across two languages (review weekly learning targets)

• Develop greater flexibility in thinking skills across subjects, due to processing of information through 2 different languages.

2. A strong supported mother tongue does not hurt children learning English

• Parents worry that being bilingual will hinder their child’s progress but these fears are ungrounded.

• Sometimes they mix languages, but this gets sorted out later.

3.Developing literacy in your MT is an efficient means of developing literacy in

second language

• accelerates the development of reading ability in second language

• literacy in MT transfers into the second language, even when writing signs are different

• provides knowledge of the world and helps with school

How parents can support?

Mother Tongue at home: – Decide on a family language policy – Reading (have a diverse library), videos, games,

friends…aim to be biliterate not just bilingual– Visit home country for extended holidays– Have lots of visitors from home!– Use technology readily available to children such as:

Skype, Face time or Phone budget cards to practice having conversations in their MT not to practice their English skills

– Support IPC in MT with research and discussion

4.Mother tongue is fragile and easily lost in early years of school

• Children pick up ‘playground English’ really quickly

BUT• Children can lose their mother tongue just as

quickly• Extent and rapidity of language loss will vary

according to how much it is used• Can lose within 2-3 years of starting school-

retain receptive skills but respond in English to peers and parents

EAL at Panaga School

• Withdrawal and in-class support

• Develop survival language!

• Support with developing vocabulary linked to other school subjects

• Speaking and listening skills

• Development of literacy skills (reading and writing)

Early Language Development

• “Silent” period – up to a year

• Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS)

2 years - used in a context which provides clues to meaning.

• Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) 5-7years - context reduced, abstract, related to literacy, using vocabulary and structures which are not common in spoken language.

• When the first language is lost or fails to develop acquiring academic English may take 10 to 11 years.

Developing speaking and listening

with newer to English pupils.

Use of visual clues

visual timetables fans gestures props

objects artefacts photos video clips

practical experiences thinking maps

Opportunities to join in or echo language and play games with repetitive language

Greetings Answering the registerClosed questions with simple responses (yes/no)

Basic requests Circle games

Stories with repetitive phrases (Pie Corbett)

Lotto Track games Matching pairs games

Developing speaking and listening

with more advanced learners of English.

Scaffolding Talk

Provide scaffolding by:

• Using open questions to encourage more extended responses

• Questioning to clarify meaning

• Giving time for children to respond - “wait time”

• Giving the child opportunities to explain before

rewording/recasting.

Developing reading for pupils who are newer to English

PUNJABI PHONICSMatch the sound to the picture

What are the problems?

Developing Phonic Knowledge

• Don’t teach in isolation• Link to known objects• Link to a known object and known word

Remember :• Pupils may not be used to hearing and

articulating certain sounds

Choose books that:

• Provide good models of language

• Are related to the child’s experience

• Have pictures to support the text

• Have repetitive text

• Can be used to develop their writing

• Children literate in L1 can read books in L1

Differences between monolingual and EAL pupils

English speaker EAL Learner

• Uses picture cues • May not know the names of items in picture

• May read without pictures • Needs visual clues to understand

• Predicts based on semantic and syntactic information

• Insufficient language or cultural knowledge. Relies on grapho-phonic cues

• Can self correct if the text does not make sense

• Can’t tell if it makes sense.• Can’t self correct-May not

recognise a miscue or know how to correct

Developing writing for pupils who are newer to English

•Integrate Speaking and Listening, reading and writing•Oral rehearsal before writing is essential play vocabulary games, use speaking frames and sentence starters•Model the writing•Sequence pictures

• Use repeated sentence structures – either sentence starters and picture

word banks, bilingual dictionary• Use cut up sentences – match words to

model sentences, practise reordering with support and eventually reorder independently

see I wolf. can a big

see I wolf. said can’t a Dad big

big I said Mum can’t a wolf. see

Key Word Recognition

• Build up sight words from children’s own writing/reading

• Use a familiar sentence as a prompt

• Don’t teach in isolation

Literate in L1

How can you help your child at home

to develop their English skills?

Bilingual Dictionaries

Helping with EAL at home.

• Have a family rule of when to speak English (car, restaurant, shop, beach?)

• Radio, television, films, books, music and family games, online English games.

• Label everyday objects in both languages around home.

• Play dates – organise through parent representatives.

Talk for Writing

• Ensure your child understands and learns the story

• Translate the story

• Identify unfamiliar vocabulary and practice using these words in other contexts

• Use visuals from the internet or story books to reinforce understanding.

Useful Websites

• www.collaborativelearning.org• http://www.Communication4all.co.uk/• http://www.sparklebox.co.uk• www.britishcouncil.org/kids

Conclusion

Let’s work together to develop your child’s language learning.

We need you to support your child’s mother tongue and EAL!

References

• Bilingual Children’s Mother Tongue: Why is it important for Education

Children's Mother Tongue: Why Is It Important http://www.iteachilearn.com/cummins/mother.htm

• Krashen Stephen-http://www.sdkrashen.com/main.php3• Website with a large number of books on bilingualism

www.multilingual-matters• Pollock and Van Reken, (2001) Third Culture Kids• Cunningham-Andersson, (2008) Growing up with two

languages, a practical guide• Colin Baker, (2004)A parents’ and teachers’ guide to

bilingualism