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English as a Second Language (ESL) Companion to the Victorian Essential Learning Standards

Introduction

The English as a Second Language Companion to the Victorian Essential Learning Standards provides a framework for assessing student achievement and developing effective learning programs for the many students in Victorian schools who are learning English as a second language.

These students are a diverse group, of different ages, at different stages of learning English, from differing first-language backgrounds and with varying amounts of education in their first language.

The ESL Companion provides an overview of:

Teachers should use the ESL standards to assist them when assessing and planning English language learning programs for ESL students.

Relationship with the Victorian Essential Learning Standards

The study of English, and the broader concept of literacy as it is described in the English Standards, is about the appropriate and effective use of English. This includes the use of English as a means of learning in all domains, and the development of knowledge about language, and English in particular. The goals for students learning English as a second language are the same, but their learning pathway to these goals is different. They need explicit English language teaching and extra time, support and exposure to English before the English Standards are appropriate. As the ESL standards map English language learning, they are presented in the same dimensions as the English standards.

ESL learners also need to understand and express their understanding using English in the three strands and all domains, so it is important that assessments of progress in all domains take into account students’ development as learners of English. It is important that teaching programs in all domains are supportive of the needs of students still learning English. The ESL standards will assist teachers across all domains to understand the ESL learning pathway, and to take into account the learning needs of ESL students.

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Structure of the ESL Companion

The ESL Companion is organised into eleven sections, one for each stage of ESL learning. Each stage includes a learning focus statement and a set of standards organised by dimension.

Stages of ESL learning

ESL students are a highly diverse group, including those:

The ESL standards accommodate this diversity in student background and the varying points of entry to school, by providing an overview of English language development within three broad bands of schooling:

  • Lower primary:
  • Middle/upper primary:
  • Secondary:
    Prep to Year 2
    Years 3 to 6
    Years 7 to 10

Within each band, stages of ESL learning are described. They are structured as follows:

  • Lower primary (Years P to 2)
  • Middle/upper primary (Years 3 to 6)
  • Secondary (Years 7 to 10)
    Two stages:
    Three stages:
    Four stages:
    A1 and A2
    B1, B2 and B3
    S1, S2, S3 and S4

These stages describe the development of students who are literate in their first language and who have had educational experiences similar to those that would be expected for their age group.

Students with little or no prior literacy learning

Two additional stages are also included to describe the initial learning of older students who have little or no literacy in any language, and who are beginning their schooling in Australia:

BL for middle/upper primary students

SL for secondary students.

Students are likely to move to stages B1 or S1 of the ESL standards after Stages BL or SL. They are likely to make quicker progress in learning to speak English than in learning to read and write it. When considering the progress of such students, teachers must always take into account the student’s language and literacy learning background and any initial levels of literacy in the first language.

Diagram 1 illustrates the stages of the ESL standards and the way in which they relate to the English standards.

The relationship between the ESL standards and the English standards

The ESL standards describe the stages preceding the English standards for students learning English. As ESL students move through the ESL standards, the English standards are likely to become more appropriate for describing their English language learning. When the learning of ESL students starts to approximate the levels of the English standards of their peers, the English standards should be used instead of the ESL standards. However students are still likely to require ESL support after they have progressed to the English standards.

The information in the ESL standards will therefore continue to be relevant in the development of programs for students with an ESL background, and for the assessment of their progress. The overlap between the English standards and the ESL standards on the diagram below illustrates this point.

Diagram 1: Stages of the ESL standards in relation to the levels of the English standards

Stages of the ESL standards in relation to the levels of the English standards

Learning focus

Learning focus statements are written for each stage. These outline the learning that students need to focus on if they are to progress and achieve the standards at the stages where they apply. They suggest appropriate learning experiences rather than defining a syllabus or prescribing specific teaching methods. Teachers can draw from these statements to develop relevant teaching and learning activities.

Standards

The ESL standards represent what students would be expected to attain following successful ESL learning. The standards provide a set of practical, observable ways in which students are likely to demonstrate their achievements in English language learning. The standards for each stage should be read in conjunction with the learning focus, taking into account the teaching setting and the degree of teacher support available.

Particular criteria are used to differentiate the standards expected at different levels. These relate to the nature and degree of teacher control and input occurring in certain learning contexts. They also help to explain the relationship of the teaching context to the standards.

Dimensions

Standards in ESL are organised in three interrelated dimensions:

As well as developing competence in the linguistic aspects of the English language, ESL learners also become increasingly aware of the culturally diverse practices, values and expectations of Australian society. They develop a fluency in operating within Australian cultural contexts and an identity as a bilingual user of English in Australian society and at school in Australia. This cultural learning becomes increasingly evident in the ways that ESL learners speak and listen in English, read English texts, and communicate in written English.

Speaking and listening

The Speaking and listening dimension focuses on ESL students’ development in comprehending spoken English and in using it for communication. This includes using English for social interaction and school-based learning, and in both formal and informal contexts. This dimension focuses on students’ development as they learn the vocabulary and grammar of English, and about the conventions of different spoken genres. It also includes elements of students’ development as they gain increasing control over English phonology, word and sentence stress, rhythm and intonation, and the information conveyed by these systems.

Reading

The Reading dimension focuses on the development of reading in English; including understanding, interpreting, reflecting upon, responding to and enjoying written and visual, texts, and reading both silently and aloud.

The development of students’ reading skills in English are outlined in the ESL standards, from their initial interaction with written texts encountered when first building oral English language skills, to their engagement with a wide range of texts used in mainstream classrooms. In the case of students in the early years of schooling or those older students learning to read and write for the first time, the development of their understanding about reading is also outlined. For these students, the term ‘read’ also includes reading behaviours and strategies such as role-playing reading, and reciting texts learnt by heart.

The Reading dimension includes a focus on students’ development as they learn to use semantic, sound–letter and syntactic cues to gain information from texts, and how this ability develops as they learn more English. It also includes the development of a vocabulary for talking about reading and for exploring the concepts and ideas in texts written for different purposes.

Writing

The Writing dimension focuses on the development of writing in English. It includes the development of skills for encoding English into its written form, as well as skills for composing editing and presenting a range of written genres. Writing involves using appropriate language for particular purposes or occasions to represent and reflect on ideas, issues, arguments, events, experience, character, emotion and information. It involves the development of knowledge about writing strategies and conventions and includes writing for print and electronic media and performance.

This dimension outlines the development of students’ writing skills in English, from their initial interaction with the writing system with beginning oral English language skills, through their growing understanding of the English sound–symbol system, and vocabulary and grammar. It also outlines their developing understanding that the kinds of texts they write will be influenced by the purpose for which they are written and the audience they are written for.

Note: Students who have had early reading and writing experiences in character or non-Roman alphabetic scripts will need a specific focus on learning English script and sound–letter relationships and handwriting.

The term ‘texts’ is taken to mean the full range of print and non-print texts, including fiction and non-fiction works, newspapers and magazines, illustrations, posters and charts, film and television and the texts associated with information and communication technologies.

Student development across the dimensions

Students do not all necessarily learn at uniform rates, and their progress in reading, writing, speaking and listening may not necessarily correlate across the stages outlined above. In particular, students in Prep are likely to take longer to move through the Reading and Writing dimensions than students in Year 2.

Students learning to write English script for the first time may proceed more slowly in learning to read and write English than those who begin their English language learning with some knowledge of Roman scripts.

Students who begin schooling in Australia with little or no literacy in their first language are likely to learn to speak English more quickly than they learn to read and write it.

In the secondary years, some students may have more experience in speaking English than in reading and writing it when they enter school; others may have learnt written English but not had much experience in speaking it or in hearing it spoken.

Table 1 on page 10 provides criteria for differentiating between stages of the ESL standards.

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Time

It takes time to develop full control over a second language. The rate of ESL learning is influenced by a range of factors including:

ESL students are likely to take around 5 to 7 years to learn English for academic purposes to the same level as students who have been learning English all their lives.

For many students, development is also likely to be influenced by their migration experiences, particularly those who have had refugee or refugee-like experiences, and who may have suffered trauma. Because of these individual differences, the time it takes students to move through the stages of the ESL standards is not prescribed.

It is important to note that students are likely to move more quickly through the beginning stages, which describe early learning, than through the later stages. This is deliberate, in order to capture and to acknowledge important early development. For example, a student’s pathway through the B Stages could be represented by the diagram below:

Diagram describing the pathway from stage B1 to B3

TIME

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Criteria that differentiates between stages of the ESL standards

Differentiation by activity

 

Early stages

More advanced stages

  • concrete
  • experientially known
  • reduced number of steps required in activity
  • simple, highly controlled linguistic features
  • becoming more abstract
  • experientially new
  • increasing number of steps
  • increasingly complex linguistic features

 

Differentiation by text – spoken and written

 

Early stages

More advanced stages

  • student/teacher-developed texts, shorter, more basic mainstream texts
  • texts using simple familiar subject matter
  • frequent use of non-linguistic cues
  • reduced speed and/or number of speakers
  • accessible mainstream texts, more extended texts
  • texts using less familiar and more complex subject matter, including mainstream texts appropriate to the year level
  • less reliance on non-linguistic cues
  • greater speed and/or number of speakers

 

Differentiation by conditions

 

Early stages

More advanced stages

  • extensive support by the teacher
  • little time restriction placed on completion of activities
  • extensive preliminary work to introduce activities
  • extensive opportunity for reworking material produced
  • reduced support by the teacher
  • time limits imposed on activities
  • reduced preliminary work
  • reduced opportunity for reworking

 

Differentiation by expectations

 

Early stages

More advanced stages

  • response short and simple
  • less concern with accuracy and fluency
  • high acceptance of error
  • high acceptance of attempt to communicate in English
  • longer, more complex response expected
  • increased expectations of accuracy and fluency
  • less tolerance for error
  • increased demand for use of standard English

 

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Relationship with the ESL Companion to the English CSF

The ESL Companion to the English CSF, published in 2000, provides teachers with a more detailed description of the ESL pathway and is closely aligned with the ESL standards. The stages are the same for both documents. The ESL Companion to the English CSF provides additional information, detailing learning outcomes and examples, and a curriculum focus, in a range of substrands for the CSF strands of Speaking and listening, Reading and Writing.

Substrands

Communication: sets the context, and describes the kinds of texts students are able to deal with.

Aspects of language:

Because of the insight the substrands provide into ESL development, elements of them are retained in these ESL standards. The ESL Companion to the English CSF can be used by teachers requiring further information about the ESL learning pathway.

The ESL Companion to the English CSF is available online.

Downloads

 

ESL Companion to the VELS: Stages A B S


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