This article highlights
practices that address the development of ATL skills—communication and
social—in an EAL lesson.
In our school context EAL (English as an additional language) refers
to students who require support with the school’s language of instruction. We
determine whether students need support in two ways. The first is through an
exam called the W-APT. This exam measures a students listening, speaking,
reading and writing proficiency at grade level.
The second way we determine if EAL support is required is through observation. Students are pulled-out of class for EAL lessons and the EAL teacher
also pushes-in to classes to support the students learning.
According to the IBO
(2008), language development is a process of constructing meaning in which
there are three phases: learning language, learning through language and
learning about language. Cummings (1979) speaks of two phases of language
development: basic interpersonal
communicative skills (BICS) and cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP).
BICS is the social language a child needs to communicate with his/her peers and
teachers. Students may function at this level within two years, in their second
language. CALP is the phase when learning through language is taking place. Attaining
this level can take up to seven years. It is the goal of our EAL department to help our students
reach the BICS stage as quickly as possible so they can communicate in the
classroom.
The lessons in question focused on the two social skills of group decision-making and cooperation. They also
focused on the communication skills
of listening and writing. At the start of the lessons the students were asked
what they wondered about. All of these wonderings were pasted on our class
wonder wall. This is a living area of
the classroom that changes regularly. According to Vygotsky (1978), in order
for learners to move into a zone of proximal development where new learning can
take place, prior knowledge needs to be taken into consideration. I have found
that the wonder wall is a good way to determine students’ prior knowledge as
well as determine their interests in order to motivate learning.
Wonder Wall
The students used their writing skills to document their wonderings.
After this they used their group decision-making skills to decide which story
they would write and how many of the wonderings could be incorporated. Some of
the decision-making strategies we have been learning in class are listening,
voting and playing scissors, stone, paper. In this context listening refers to,
listening to the ideas of others then discussing them.
After deciding on the theme of the story students continued to use
their group decision-making skills and their writing skills to plan their
storyboard. A sample of a storyboard the students made for a story about the
ocean may be seen below. It is encouraging to see them working in groups, using
their communication and social skills, supporting each other to write the text.
Story Board
Finally a template is given to the students with space for a picture
and with lines to write on. The students were supported to create a correct
sentence and then draw a picture. After they had finished we traced the text
and pictures with a black felt tip pen. The pages are then photocopied and
bound. We read the finished book twice or three times in each lesson. This way
students who may not be reading yet have the chance to learn the words off by
heart and experience success when they take the book home to read.
By teaching the above mentioned ATLs in this manner students can be
scaffolded to not only learn in the BICS area but also in the CALP area of
learning about language. Students can be introduced to various linguistic
genres such as narrative or argument at an early stage of their language
development. By creating the books collaboratively I have found that students
learn to cooperate and communicate. Parents have reiterated that students have
brought the books home and read them confidently. Some students have described
the production process to their parents in their mother tongue.
References
Cummins, J. 1979. “Cognitive/academic
language proficiency, linguistic interdependence, the optimum age question and
some other matters”. Working Papers on Bilingualism. Number 19. Pp
121–129.
International Baccalaureate Organization. 2008. “Learning in a
language other than mother tongue in IB programmes”. Cardiff. Pp 4-5.
International Baccalaureate Organization. 2014. “Language and
learning in IB programmes”. Cardiff.
Vygotsky, LS. 1978. Mind in Society: The Development of higher
psychological processes. Cambridge, Massachusetts. Harvard University Press.
