English as a Second Language (ESL) Companion to the Victorian Essential Learning Standards
S Stages: Secondary – Years 7 to 10
Stage SL
Learning focus
As students work towards the achievement of Stage SL standards in ESL, they begin to learn the English essential for basic social and classroom purposes. At the same time they develop early understandings of the conventions and expectations of classrooms, schools, and Australian culture and society, and how these differ from practices in their own countries. In a structured, inclusive and supportive environment, strongly supported by visuals, students learn the basic vocabulary and features needed to interact and negotiate with others. They experiment with and practise their developing English in a range of activities including choral repetition, role-plays, dialogues, and songs. As well as learning essential vocabulary and grammatical features they begin to understand the function of, and to use, stress, rhythm and intonation in English. They learn formulaic expressions and adapt them for a range of contexts. As they study across the curriculum, students begin to learn some topic-specific language, appropriate to their English level and prior knowledge and experience.
Through a wide range of routine reading activities using short, simple, repetitive, illustrated texts written for their stage of development, students begin to learn to read. Early reading tasks are undertaken around shared texts and language experience activities. Students learn the basic conventions of written texts, such as book and sentence directionality, and features like titles and headings. Through activities around the alphabet, and familiar words with common letter–sound patterns students begin to learn the sounds that letters and letter groups usually make. They develop a sight vocabulary of frequently used words. They learn to focus on the context, letters, shape and the length of words when reading new words. To develop fluency and a sense of achievement, they practise reading aloud known texts, and experiment with stress, rhythm and intonation. Strategies such as re-reading and reading-on are modelled. Students begin to learn about the purposes of illustrations and diagrams the way these provide contextual clues to meaning, and of the cultural significance and purposes of different types of texts.
Students undertake early experiences in writing in English that help them to develop basic understanding about the writing process, and the school and social purposes of writing. They copy familiar words and short sentences and label diagrams and pictures. They begin to write their own simple texts, based on shared examples and the texts they are reading. Basic written grammar activities help to develop their understanding of how simple sentences are constructed. Through modelling, students learn to combine sentences into short but coherent simple texts. Students learn to write using conventional letter formation. They also learn ways of organising and presenting simple information through tables, basic graphs and diagrams. Students learn to organise their work using booklets or folders, and learn strategies such as using headings, dates, colour or underlining to emphasise important aspects of their learning and to facilitate review.
Standards
Speaking and listening
At Stage SL, students communicate simply but effectively in English in a limited range of familiar social and classroom contexts. They communicate using formulaic language, short, simple and well-rehearsed grammatical features and adaptations of their limited English repertoire. They use stress and intonation appropriately in some familiar interactions and can imitate models with some accuracy. They understand common instructions and questions, and simple descriptions and explanations when strongly supported in familiar contexts. They understand and use basic subject–verb–object grammatical patterns, common regular and irregular verbs, and basic prepositions and connectives. They use their limited repertoire with varying accuracy to ask and respond to questions in predictable and familiar contexts, express simple ideas and preferences and provide simple explanations and descriptions. They use some basic strategies to initiate and sustain simple conversations in English, repeating and re-pronouncing as necessary.
Reading
At Stage SL, students read and complete simple, structured activities around a wide range of familiar, short, simple, texts which use repetitive structures and features and are strongly supported by illustrations. They read their own writing and simple teacher-developed texts based on well-rehearsed spoken English. They read a range of familiar simple fictional, factual and everyday texts. They name some letters and know the sounds many letters and common letter combinations usually make. They attempt to sound out words, recognise some common words, and read some new words based on their similarity to known words. They show some awareness of basic punctuation and use stress, intonation or pausing appropriately when reading aloud well known texts. They use simple strategies like pointing to words as they read or as shared texts are read aloud in class. They understand the basic practical and cultural purposes of the texts they read.
Writing
At Stage SL, in a limited range of familiar contexts, students write short, grammatically-simple texts based on well-rehearsed spoken and well-practised written English. They write simply for a range of basic classroom and personal purposes such as making lists, writing simple journal entries and notes, and complete activities following models. They demonstrate an early awareness that written texts in English are presented according to certain conventions which change according to context and purpose. Their texts use familiar sentence patterns from well known texts or classroom models. They begin to use conventional letter formations when writing or copying, attending to the relative sizes and shapes of letters, their position on the line, and basic punctuation. They leave appropriate spaces between words. They attempt to write some new words using their limited knowledge of the sound-letter system of English, personal dictionaries and glossaries, resources in the classroom, and by asking for assistance.
Stage S1
Learning focus
As students work towards the achievement of Stage S1 standards in ESL, they begin to learn the English essential for basic social and classroom purposes. They develop initial understandings of the conventions and expectations of Australian schooling, culture and society, and how these differ from the practices in their country of origin. Supported by visuals, objects and actions, students learn the basic vocabulary and grammatical features needed to interact with others, and to begin learning across the curriculum. In a controlled, inclusive and supportive environment they learn, experiment with and use their emerging English in a range of activities including choral repetition, communication gap, role-plays, chants, songs and short supported presentations. They learn some formulaic expressions for interacting and negotiating meaning. As part of this essential oral foundation, students begin to learn the English of topics from the mainstream curriculum. Students record new vocabulary and grammatical features through visuals, posters and simple written materials. Students are encouraged to use additional strategies such as recording meanings in their own language or using bilingual dictionaries. Students practise pronunciation, focusing on learning the stress, rhythm and intonation patterns in words and phrases.
Students read a range of short, simple, factual and fictional ESL or teacher developed texts and complete tasks around them. They read for authentic purposes, including texts from topics across the curriculum. They begin to learn to use titles, headings, and illustrations to make simple predictions about content before reading. Activities such as reconstructing shared texts focus them on basic cohesive devices, including common conjunctions, and simple pronoun reference. Students listen to texts that are read aloud and practise reading aloud, learning how stress, rhythm, pausing and intonation vary at the word and sentence level, and the effect this can have on meaning. Students are encouraged to draw on their knowledge of reading in their own language as they begin to learn the letter–sound relationships and the text structures of English. Activities such as collecting word families assist students to read words with common letter and pronunciation patterns. They talk simply about the information in texts, suggesting possible motivations of characters in fictional texts, and comparing their own knowledge with what they are reading about
Students learn to write simple factual and imaginative texts, such as recounts, narratives, reports, lists, journals, and notes, for a range of basic classroom and personal purposes. They undertake a range of structured writing tasks, and are encouraged to draw on their knowledge of writing in their first language as they begin to write in English. Basic written grammar activities assist students to develop their understanding of how simple sentences are constructed. Through modelling, and activities such as text reconstruction, students begin to use headings, paragraphs, and features such as basic connectives to organise, link and sequence sentences into short but coherent texts. In contexts across the curriculum they learn ways of organising and presenting information appropriately, such as in tables, simple graphs and diagrams. They practise conventions for writing English script and for presenting their texts, including the use of basic computer programs.
Standards
Speaking and listening
At Stage S1, students communicate simply but effectively in English in a limited range of familiar social and classroom contexts, and when learning in contexts across the curriculum. They negotiate meaning and interact with others using formulaic language, short simple and well-rehearsed grammatical features and creative adaptations of their limited English repertoire. They use some stress and intonation appropriately in familiar interactions. They use subject–verb–object utterances, basic prepositions and some common regular and irregular verbs. They understand and use introduced vocabulary, common basic grammatical patterns and connectives. They use these with varying grammatical accuracy to express ideas and preferences, and provide simple explanations and descriptions. They understand common instructions and questions and simple descriptions or explanations in familiar contexts and areas related to their prior knowledge and experience. They use some basic strategies to initiate and sustain conversations, repeating or re-pronouncing as necessary.
Reading
At Stage S1, students read and comprehend a range of short, simple, familiar factual or fictional ESL or teacher-developed texts. They understand a range of basic written instructions and questions in context. They discuss texts at a simple literal level, and show some understanding beyond the literal level. They demonstrate an understanding of basic text structure, reading for different purposes, and using titles, and chapter headings to make simple predictions about texts. Students read new texts with support, combining their developing knowledge of English sound–letter relationships, their developing sight and oral vocabulary, their beginning knowledge of the conventions of print and text organisation in English, and their emerging knowledge of English grammar. They read some common letter combinations and make logical attempts at reading new words. They use appropriate stress, intonation and phrasing when reading aloud known texts, showing an understanding of the function of basic punctuation.
Writing
At Stage S1, students write for a range of basic classroom and personal purposes, making lists, writing simple journal entries, notes, descriptions, recounts of events, and instructional texts. Their basic sentences and short texts are based on well-practised spoken English and familiar contexts. They write with varying grammatical accuracy, expressing themselves using familiar vocabulary and modelled structures and features. They order and sequence sentences about familiar topics into coherent texts, incorporating basic headings, sub-headings and paragraphs. They correct some errors relating to targeted grammatical items, and rework drafts in response to teacher suggestions. With support they plan their texts and provide some additional information through illustrations and diagrams. They utilise a range of strategies for finding and spelling words, using spelling patterns, and checking resources. They use basic word processing features to write and present their texts.
Stage S2
Learning focus
As students work towards the achievement of Stage S2 standards in ESL, they are supported to expand their understanding of Australian cultures and their understanding and use of the English necessary to communicate with some independence in a range of social contexts, and academic contexts, based on the topics and concepts in contexts across the curriculum. Students are supported to listen to and respond to instructions and explanations, such as an outline of the steps of a basic research project, or discussion of a shared learning experience. Activities such as viewing a short film on a topic being studied, or a modified news bulletin, assist students as they listen for specific purposes; for example, to identify key information. They research and undertake short discussions or presentations on familiar topics in small-group contexts. They learn how to structure their more formal spoken texts using basic frameworks such as an introduction, body and conclusion. Through modelling and role-play they learn basic strategies to maintain connection with their audience, including eye contact and the use of visual aids. They learn basic metalanguage as they discuss their own texts and the texts of others.
With teacher support, students read a range of different text types such as descriptions, explanations and narratives, including teacher-developed materials and excerpts from some accessible mainstream texts such as short science and fictional texts. They begin to learn to read for different purposes such as for gist, to extract specific information or to identify a sequence of events. They are explicitly shown how to use titles, headings, or illustrations to assist understanding, and how connectives link or sequence ideas in texts. They discuss how the content and punctuation influences features such as stress, intonation and pausing, such as when expressing emotion in a dialogue or reading the key words in a factual text. They practise reading aloud simple, known texts, and listen when others read. In responding to accessible texts they explore some meanings beyond the literal level; for example, by discussing implied meanings, figurative language or character motivations in a narrative.
Writing tasks, including activities that focus on grammatical patterns assist to develop students’ understanding of how sentences can be extended and ideas can be simply linked or sequenced. Students explore the use of compound tenses, passive constructions, word forms and a range of connectives for expressing causal, conditional or temporal links between ideas. They write a range of text types based on content across the curriculum or on topics that reflect their own culture and experience, including fictional texts. They are provided with models when writing. For example, they are shown how to incorporate information they have obtained through research into reports or descriptions. Using aids such as data-charts to organise their writing, they develop initial drafts which they refine using feedback from the teacher or other students. They explore alternative ways of expressing their ideas at the sentence level as well as the whole text level; for example, by being guided to consider the order, sequence and main ideas of paragraphs. They use headings, sub-headings, diagrams or tables of information where appropriate.
Standards
Speaking and listening
At Stage S2, students use simple but effective strategies for initiating communication and negotiating meaning. They communicate effectively in a range of familiar social and some basic academic contexts, experimenting with and adapting their developing English and awareness of Australian cultural expectations appropriately. With support in academic contexts, they extract some specific information from accessible audio-visual texts and understand the gist of teacher explanations involving familiar subject specific vocabulary. With support, they use some increasingly complex grammatical features and a basic range of connectives to show relationships between ideas. They use some standard expressions to express views and attitudes. They demonstrate some understanding of the structure and features of extended texts, by using appropriate stress, intonation and pausing, eye contact, and modelled introductory and concluding sentences.
Reading
At Stage S2, students read and comprehend a range of short, familiar fictional and factual ESL texts and, when well-supported, some unfamiliar texts. They show some comprehension beyond the literal level, suggesting appropriate interpretations and identifying basic cultural variables where evident. They use headings, sub-headings and diagrams to assist in reading accessible texts from across the curriculum for a range of purposes. They extract some simple specific information and the main ideas from factual texts. They show awareness of how some connectives link and sequence ideas within a text. They read-on and consider the context when deducing the meaning of unknown words. They read aloud with a degree of fluency, and draw upon their understanding of the text to use stress and intonation with increasing accuracy. They use their developing knowledge of sentence structure and sound–letter relationships to read new words and self-correct. They select basic texts appropriate for particular reading purposes.
Writing
At Stage S2, students write with a degree of autonomy for a range of everyday classroom and personal purposes, such as describing, explaining and recounting. They independently write some basic texts and experiment with presenting their own ideas. Their texts show varying grammatical accuracy. They incorporate subject-specific vocabulary and use taught grammatical features to achieve desired effects. They use an increasing range of simple connectives to indicate some basic causal, conditional and temporal relationships within and between sentences and paragraphs. They choose appropriate text structures and use headings, sub-headings, tables and illustrations. They use basic text models as a basis for their own texts. They use strategies to organise information in supported research tasks. With teacher support and feedback, they review, re-draft and improve their writing by discussing alternative ways of arranging and expressing ideas.
Stage S3
Learning focus
As students work towards the achievement of Stage S3 standards in ESL, they consolidate and extend their expanding knowledge and control of English to compose, comprehend and respond to spoken texts that contain some unfamiliar themes, information and issues from across the curriculum. Students, learn in a range of supportive classroom settings, groupings and activities, where they focus on new language forms and features through communicative activities, such as information-gap and group problem solving tasks; role-plays; and debates and formal presentations.. They undertake varied listening and viewing tasks involving, teacher and student presentations, dictogloss, accessible videos and audio excerpts. With guidance, students listen for gist and/or particular information. They practise stress, rhythm, pausing and intonation at the word and sentence level, and identify the way these can impact on meaning. In supportive activities they identify sounds that affect their own communication or that they find hard to articulate, and intensively practise them; for example, final consonants,. They continue to develop a metalanguage when analysing, discussing and critiquing oral texts.
Students study a range of accessible fictional and factual texts, including visual texts from across the curriculum and from a range of media. As they study new texts, they undertake a range of before-, during- and after-reading activities focusing on specific aspects of texts. Through activities such as note-taking, data charts and timelines, they learn how to extract basic information from texts. They learn how the structure and layout of texts changes to reflect their purpose and audience. They explore how the texts relate to their own cultural knowledge and experiences, identifying differences and similarities in content and text type. They study the overall structure of texts; for example, by constructing a graphic outline. They learn how cohesion is established in English through the use of more complex conjunctions and reference items, such as although, and however. They develop their research skills through learning to use a variety of sources, including the Internet.
With support, students plan and write an extensive range of fictional and factual texts across the curriculum including responses to literary texts and issues. Through modelled examples, class discussion and group work, they explore the purpose, audience, mode, text structure, language choices, cultural context and appropriate content of texts. They brainstorm possible approaches to a writing task; for example, the use of timelines in a narrative or the selection of appropriate content in a report. Through activities such as dictogloss and cloze, students practise manipulating grammatical features and text structures appropriate to the text types they are writing, focusing on elements such as modals, tense and basic cohesive devices at the sentence and paragraph levels. They learn to incorporate material such as diagrams, tables, and illustrations appropriately. They discuss whether their own writing has achieved its purpose. They are encouraged to use modelled strategies for planning, proofreading, editing and redrafting their own writing. They learn conventions and strategies for spelling new words, through activities which, for example, focus on spelling patterns or word derivations.
Standards
Speaking and listening
At Stage S3, students listen, question and respond successfully in a wide range of social and academic contexts. They demonstrate sufficient control of stress, rhythm and intonation to be understood in most contexts. They use appropriate non-verbal language, take account of purpose and audience, and stage extended texts appropriately when participating in group debates and discussions. They discuss aspects of issues and texts from across the curriculum using modelled examples in supportive classroom situations and structured group work. With varying accuracy, they use a range of question types, time signals, connectives, conjunctions and modals to express a variety of academic functions, and to give and justify opinions and points of view. Students interpret the gist of accessible spoken and audiovisual texts, and, with support, understand the full text. They listen for specific information when questions are given beforehand. They understand the gist of small amounts of abstract and generalised information when appropriate background is provided.
Reading
At Stage S3, students demonstrate, through guided activities, a basic understanding of the main ideas, issues or plot developments in a range of accessible texts from across the curriculum. They demonstrate a basic understanding of the different purposes and structures of a range of text-types and can make predictions about the likely content of texts. They identify the stages of accessible narrative texts, and the role of headings, sub-headings, diagrams and captions in factual texts. They follow meaning across sentences and paragraphs by tracking basic cohesive and reference items and clearly expressed syntactic and semantic cues. They use appropriate metalanguage to talk about the structure and features of a text. They adjust their rate of reading according to the task, reading closely for analysis, scanning for specific information and skimming for gist. They use cues from the surrounding text and their sound–letter knowledge to assist in reading new words.
Writing
At Stage S3, through guided activities, students write an extensive range of fictional and factual text types from across the curriculum, showing an awareness of purpose and audience. They consistently use the basic structures of these text types, and demonstrate consistent but not complete control of the English grammar appropriate to them. They demonstrate some control of passive voice, a range of tenses, conditionals and direct speech. They produce paragraphs with topic sentences and incorporate some cohesive devices to make links and contrasts between and within paragraphs through a range of modals and pronoun references. When taking notes they use appropriate abbreviations. When planning, writing, reviewing and redrafting they pay some attention to whole-text, sentence and word level issues, including punctuation. They use a range of strategies when spelling new words. They present their writing appropriately, in print and electronic forms.
Stage S4
Learning focus
As students work towards the achievement of Stage S4 standards in ESL, while continuing to need inclusive ESL teaching support, they use their expanding knowledge and control of English to participate productively in contexts across the curriculum. They compose, comprehend and respond to extended texts that contain increasingly unfamiliar themes, information and issues from contexts across the curriculum. Students communicate orally with confidence in familiar contexts, and activities such as small-group discussion assist them to concentrate on the fluency and clarity of their speech. They develop strategies to work at a deeper level of interpretation on texts involving familiar content and speakers. They develop skills to understand a wide range of spoken texts from across the domains that incorporate some level of abstraction and generalised knowledge, and that reflect a range of cultural contexts. They discuss and present relatively complex ideas and information in a reasonably sustained and organised way. Their expanding vocabulary and activities that focus, for example on modals and qualifiers, assist them to identify and express more subtle shades of meaning, informed by purpose, audience and context. In listening to and evaluating other viewpoints, they gain skills in questioning, justifying, negotiating, reviewing, rebutting, clarifying and persuading as appropriate.
Students study the full range of fictional and factual texts from across the domains and from a range of media. Strategies such as note-taking and graphic outlines are modelled to assist them to respond to texts they may not fully understand. With more accessible texts they develop a deeper understanding and interpretation through discussion and activities such as three-level reading guides. They work with articles from the news media and the Internet to examine different ways issues and events are presented. They investigate topics using a range of reference sources. They study the organisational structure and specific language features of different text-types, including extended texts, and they explore how the texts relate to their own cultural knowledge and experiences. They develop an increasing awareness of how texts can contain large amounts of information through, for example, the use of nominalisation, embedded clauses and ellipsis. They use cues from the surrounding text and their knowledge of affixes to deduce the meaning of new vocabulary items.
Students write the full range of extended fictional and factual texts undertaken across the curriculum. Through modelled examples and discussion, they explore the purpose, cultural context, audience, mode, stages, language choices and likely content of a range of texts on familiar and unfamiliar topics and issues. They use their increasing control of English to broaden the ways, for example, they express uncertainty and emotions, and compare and show causality and discuss issues. By focusing on cohesive markers and links between paragraphs, students extend the length of their writing while maintaining a sense of cohesion, coherence and purpose. They look critically at their own and other students’ writing to review how effectively it meets the intended purpose and audience. They plan appropriately and use organisers such as data charts to summarise their research findings in preparation to write, and use appropriate citations.
Standards
Speaking and listening
At Stage S4, students demonstrate greater autonomy and control over their use of English, combining their expanding vocabulary with the appropriate use of complex grammatical features including modals, conditionals, passive voice and a wide range of tenses and connectives. They demonstrate understanding of the qualities that affect fluency in English including pausing, stress, rhythm and intonation. They speak clearly and pronounce most sounds correctly. They take part in extended discourse on factual and interpersonal topics using an appropriate modelled structure, and respond appropriately to listeners’ reactions. They identify the intention of supportive speakers, using their knowledge of how intonation, volume, stress and lexical choices support and convey meaning and emphasise opinions and emotions. They identify examples of relatively overt subjective language. They extract information from challenging spoken texts, using guide questions, completing tables and taking notes on key ideas.
Reading
At Stage S4, students read a wide range of accessible and culturally appropriate texts from across the curriculum and from a range of media with a high degree of independence. They take notes that identify main ideas, issues and plot developments. They identify supporting information to justify a response, including significant quotations that relate to key themes. They identify bias through emotive and persuasive language. They understand the gist by focusing on sub-headings and the first lines of key paragraphs. They adjust their reading style according to the task. They locate and organise information from a range of reference sources including the Internet. They identify reference items across complex sentences. Using their knowledge of different text types and their purposes, they predict the way a text may be organised and its likely language features. With more difficult texts, they identify a few specific facts and the basic perspective of the writer.
Writing
At Stage S4, students write, with appropriate support, the full range of extended fictional and factual text types undertaken across the curriculum. With support they vary their writing consistent with the text type, the context and the needs of the reader, presenting similar content in different ways. They demonstrate reasonably consistent control of a wide range of grammatical features. They incorporate direct and indirect speech, including quotations, appropriately. When taking notes they use appropriate abbreviations, symbols and graphic devices. They employ an extended range of appropriate cohesive devices between sentences and paragraphs, retaining clarity and fluency. They use some abstract noun groups. In response to feedback and self-assessment, they review and redraft their writing to enhance fluency, clarity, accuracy and appropriateness to purpose, audience and context. They plan and present their writing for a range of print and multimedia forms, as appropriate.
