Teaching in English in multilingual classrooms

The first module asks participants to:

• consider the needs of our students in multilingual classrooms
• discuss how the diversity of knowledge and experiences that students bring can be a valuable resource to be drawn on for the benefit of all learners
• experience for themselves what is involved in learning another language so as to gain insight into the challenges for all students of learning in the language of the curriculum.

In this second module, participants:

• explore how we can make meaning though a range of meaning-making systems, principally language but also through other means such as visuals and music
• consider the notion of literacy and how it links to meaning-making and discuss the implications for our teaching practices
• focus on the literacy demands that are inherent in curriculum statements.

In this module, participants are introduced to the major underpinnings of the course. They consider:

• the model of language that underpins the course
• scaffolding at three levels: macro-scaffolding, meso-scaffolding and micro-scaffolding
• cycles of teaching and learning that allow for language to be considered in an integrated approach.

This fourth module has a strong focus on ways to build a student’s capacity to comprehend a range of texts expected of them across the curriculum. Participants:

• explore the different language choices we make at different points along the Register continuum and the demands this makes on students
• appreciate the challenges school contexts make on students and the need to support students to comprehend and compose texts across this range of contexts
• explore the language patterns of simple Procedures and Recounts
• consider the function of active and passive voice, and the implications for their teaching practice
• consider how the relationship between the visuals and language of any text impacts on a student’s capacity to comprehend that text
• are introduced to a series of metalinguistic strategies that will allow all students to access the meanings in any given text.

In this module, participants continue to focus on the comprehending side of meaning making but now with a focus on the resources that make a text a cohesive whole. Participants consider:

• the role of different kinds of conjunctions
• two key resources that build the cohesion of a text: the reference system and word chains
• practical ways they can help students understand the causal relationships holding within a given text, which will be critical in comprehending more complex texts
• the role of modality, a crucial resource in English for expressing both how certain we are about something and how often some phenomenon occurs, as well as meanings to do with obligation and necessity.

This module is comprised of two options that are based on the age of the students.

In Option 1, participants consider:

• key language resources for expressing the content of any text, both fiction and non-fiction
• the range of resources needed by a student writer in constructing the imagined worlds of stories.

In Option 2, participants consider:

• how students can develop their knowledge while expanding their vocabulary
• how to support students to express more abstract and technical meanings.

The focus of this module is on three main strategies that support writing. Participants:

• use the notion that the content of texts can be set up through guiding questions, and that this process can be modelled for student writers
• experience a dictogloss activity, which is a key strategy for supporting students in maintaining the appropriate Register in their writing
• explore the various resources available for joining clauses to make longer stretches of text and use this knowledge for understanding how students can control how a text unfolds by varying sentence beginnings.

In this module, participants consider how:

• students can be supported when they are listening to and viewing extended, dense texts, such as speeches and documentaries
• we can evaluate language development in students and see what their learning looks like on a continuum where language and learning are interdependent.

In this final module, participants:

• draw together all the understandings they have built over the course to inform their programming and assessment practices
• explore some of the key issues related to programming and assessment by reflecting on one of their own teaching and learning programs using the notion of ‘backward planning’
• evaluate how their school is addressing the needs of EAL students
• consider some of the ways the setting up of successful whole-school frameworks can be achieved over timeframes that are manageable and sustainable.