Rationale

I have analysed the Forward Planning Document, PowerPoint and Worksheet in

terms of the needs of EAL/D students. The modifications I have suggested are targeted at

meeting these needs of EAL/D students. These modifications must be able to be integrated

into the mainstream classroom, and may sometimes pose barriers when being

implemented.

The Need to Have Native Language and Culture Incorporated Into the Classroom

EAL/D students need to have their native language and culture incorporated into the

mainstream classroom. This can be done by using bilingual practices within the classroom.

Using two languages for instructional purposes can add and build on the prior knowledge of

students (De Jong & Field, 2010). Teaching students should be additive in that it builds on

their prior knowledge, whilst the integration of prior knowledge will also greatly assist with

current learning (De Jong, 2013). It can reduce the language shock that some students face,

as it decreases the anxiety around being in a foreign classroom as there is familiarity as well

as the ability to follow the lesson (Miller & Endo, 2004). It is important to lower this

language shock as it can lead to difficulty in learning the new language. Some EAL/D

students can reject their native language and culture initially as it makes them seem

different in a classroom situation where students aim to fit in (Miller & Endo, 2004). By

incorporating native language and culture into the classroom, their language and culture

becomes the norm of the classroom (Miller & Endo, 2004). This bilingual approach along

with incorporating culture will decrease the conflict between native language and English
(De Jong, 2013). It will help to affirm the identities of students, whilst also leading to greater

integration of students in the classroom.

In order to meet the need of students to have their native language incorporated

into the classroom, I made many of the resources used in the classroom bilingual. I also

provided students with the key words for the coming lesson prior to the lesson commenced.

Providing a glossary of technical words for the topic being studied was suggested by ACARA

(2014). Students would also have their own bilingual dictionary in which they write these

key words, in both English and their native language, the definition, and the context used in.

ACARA (2014) suggested this keeping of a dictionary. Students will also have access to a

bilingual dictionary in which they can search words they are unfamiliar with (De Jong &

Field, 2010).

Having bilingual resources may be difficult at first for other students in the class, as it

is a big change to the regular classroom. Students will not be used to having two languages

for instructions and on resources, so they may take time to adjust. This change will need to

be explained to students so that they are aware, understand, and can support it when

implemented. It will over time benefit all students as it will create more cultural

understanding amongst them. Implementing bilingual approaches take time as there is an

extra layer of creating and adapting resources. This is a barrier that is hard to solve. By

having students update their bilingual dictionary however, this will decrease the need for

bilingual instruction for certain tasks once they have been explained and put in the

dictionary.
Need Cultural Conceptualisation

Cultural conceptualisation refers to thinking of new information in comparison with

cultural experiences, schemas and categorisation (Sharifian, 2015). It is like a filter for new

experiences and information that compares them to past experience and prior knowledge.

This can have great impacts on teaching EAL/D students. Linking to prior knowledge of

students and prior experiences in their culture can give students some comparison to learn

the new information. For example when thinking about features of wars prior to World War

1, asking students to reflect on wars in their home country may allow them to develop a

greater understanding of war. It is also important to be aware of assumed cultural

knowledge amongst the rest of the classroom, and be aware that EAL/D students would not

have this prior knowledge. Also creating new experiences with students to create a shared

knowledge can aid in the understanding of new topics (ACARA, 2014). This shared

knowledge can act as a concept that that students can refer back to to make sense of new

topics whilst also encouraging collaboration with other students.

In order to meet this need of students to have cultural conceptualisation, I tried to

modify activities so that they required students to reflect on past experiences and prior

knowledge in order to think about the current topic. I asked them to refer back to

experiences in their home country when thinking of World War 1, for example when

thinking of where World War 1 was fought, asking students if their home country fought,

where they fought, whilst also plotting them on the map in relation to the places of conflict.

When doing this, I would have to be aware of the sensitivities that surround war,

particularly if the student was from a war torn country. I would also try to build shared

knowledge and experiences in the classroom by doing hands on activities that do not
necessarily require language (ACARA, 2014). An example of these activities is the creation

and drawing of a map.

The incorporation of this in the classroom will benefit all students as it will lead to

greater cultural understanding. Doing hands on activities will also benefit the whole

classroom. The incorporation of cultural experiences and prior knowledge of EAL/D students

may be confusing to other students in the classroom. For example when learning about

Australia’s involvement in World War 1, it may be confusing to students as to why China is

referred to. As mentioned in the need for native language section, making students aware

as to why this is being mentioned will help with this. It is also not always easy to find a link

between lesson content and the prior knowledge and cultural experiences of students. For

example, topics such as the ANZACs is likely to be completely new to EAL/D students and

are hard to link to their prior knowledge of experiences. To cater for this, teach the topic

from the very beginning and try to create some shared experiences and knowledge about

the topic.

Need to Have Visual Representation

Having visual representation can lead to a reduction in the language load of students

(Miller & Endo, 2004). Being in a classroom where they are learning both a language they

are unfamiliar with, as well as content through that language can be a big load for students.

Having visual representations can assist with this. It can help gain an understanding of the

content or what is required from a task when language may not be fully understood.

I made modifications to many resources in my FPD in order to meet this need of

students. I changed many images to ones that were more relevant to the topic being

discussed, whilst also adding in other images to resources that did not have any. I
incorporated as many pictures as I could as I believe this is important for a topic such as

history that may be difficult for EAL/D students to grasp. This is suggested by SCSA (2014a). I

also incorporated visual symbols for parts of the lesson such as objectives and summary, as

well as for activities such as source analysis, research. This was done to draw students

attention to particular parts of the lesson, and identify to students what they are required

to do in activities.

This incorporation of images and symbols is beneficial to all students as it alerts

them to the requirements of a task, draws their attention to important aspects of the

lesson, and gives them a visual representation of text that they are reading. Images also

make a lesson more enjoyable and less text dense. It takes time to set up the symbols in the

classroom and students need to be explicitly taught them. Through repetition and practice

students will become familiar with them and they will save instructional time in future

lessons.

Need to Have Clearly Stated Goals

EAL/D students need to have clearly stated goals for the lesson and clear instructions

for each activity. These goals and instructions should be clear, contain simple unambiguous

words, and be easy to follow (Miller & Endo, 2004). I did not make any clear modifications

to my FPD in terms of goals, but I need to remember to explain clearly the objectives of the

lesson and instructions of each activity. The teacher will speak clearly and use appropriate

gestures and explanations. Lesson goals and activity instructions can be given bilingually to

aid understanding also. Scaffolding activity tasks can help to break down activities into

smaller easier to understand clear steps (Western Australian Department of Education,

2016). These clear instructions and activity goals will be easy to implement and will benefit
all students in the class. The teacher has to ensure that each lesson and activity is clearly

explained.

Need to Have Time

EAL/D students need appropriate amounts of time to complete activities (Western

Australian Department of Education, 2016). For each lesson in my FPD, I would ensure that I

allowed appropriate time for EAL/D students to work on activities based on their place on

EAL/D progression model. I would also allow for extra time in tests (Western Australian

Department of Education, 2016).

By giving appropriate time for activities, this may lead to activities dragging on and

taking longer than expected. This can be avoided by knowing the abilities and needs of the

student and planning activities around the time required for them. Failure to allow sufficient

time will lead to EAL/D students falling behind. This also raises the issue of some students

finishing earlier than the EAL/D students. Have activities planned for these students.

Need Modelling and Need Explicit Teaching of Academic Language & Subject Specific Skills

It is the role of the teacher to teach the language of their learning area (SCSA,

2014a). That includes subject specific terminology and subject specific skills. When teaching

these to EAL/D students, it is important for teachers to explicitly teach to students the key

words of the topic, and model to students the subject specific skills (ACARA, 2014).

I modified many lessons in my FPD as there was little explicit teaching of key terms

or modelling of skills. I will explicitly teach students the key words at the start of the lesson.

These key terms would have been provided to the students prior to the lesson so they can

read them themselves, understand, and add them to their personal bilingual dictionary. It is
important to provide a glossary of technical terms to students (ACARA, 2014). HASS has

many different types of skills such as source analysis. Because they are often different skills

to other learning areas and life outside of school, these need to be explicitly taught to

students (SCSA, 2014b). Over the two weeks, I will explicitly teach and model to students

how to analyse a source. When teaching how to analyse a source, I will model the viewing of

a source, and explicitly identify values to be analysed in the text. I will first explicitly teach

students key terms of source analysis such as perspective, primary and secondary sources

and author. I will then identify to students the reason for reading, explain the structure of

the text, identify headings, subheadings or any key features of this particular text type,

identify the main ideas of the text (Alford & Windeyer, 2014). I will explain to students that

they must first read the questions that they are to answer, then read the text scanning for

pieces of information that will help answer these questions and highlight. I will do this for all

different text types, such as cartoons, exerts from books, exerts from magazines as they all

have different structures and their structure needs to be explicitly taught to students

(ACARA, 2014). After the teacher has modelled to students, they will do it in pairs, and then

do on their own.

This will have a positive impact on all students as all students will learn clearly all the

steps of reading a source and answer questions on it. Students that are already familiar can

be allowed to work ahead. The only barrier to teacher modelling and explicit teaching is that

it takes some time. This is unavoidable however and after the teacher has taught to

students a couple of times, there will be less time required to be spent on the process of

answering these questions. The teacher should recognise the time required for the teaching

of these terms and skills and plan lessons accordingly.

Need Scaffolding

EAL/D students need scaffolding when completing activities. They need larger

activities broken down, larger topics broken down to simple easy to follow steps (ACARA,

2014). I made modifications to many activities in my FPD by scaffolding them and breaking

them down into smaller simpler steps. This would benefit most students as scaffolding will

lead to greater understanding and greater understanding of what is required in a task.

Scaffolding can however restrict students in their creativity and product. This could be

avoided by only scaffolding essential tasks and essential concepts, and planning open ended

higher order extension activities.

Need to Check for Understanding Frequently and Assess

Teachers need to check for understanding frequently with EAL/D students (Western

Australian Department of Education, 2016). This is to ensure that the student is comfortable

in the classroom, following the lesson and not falling behind, and understanding what is

being taught. Checking for understanding and assessing students is vital in order to help

progression of the student. The teacher needs to locate where the student is on the EAL/D

Progression Map, identify areas where explicit teaching is required, and assess and check for

understanding to monitor progression (ACARA, 2014). They should also give effective

feedback to students so they are aware of how they are progressing and how they can

improve (Western Australian Department of Education, 2016).

In modifying my FPD, I increased the frequency of checking for understanding

throughout the lessons. This is checking for understanding through speaking, writing,

reading, viewing and listening (SCSA, 2014a). This should not only be checking the

understanding of the content knowledge, but the English language and social interactions
(ACARA, 2014). In assessing students in the final lesson of the FPD, I made modifications to

the Source Analysis task in order for it to be more accessible to the EAL/D student. I

changed some questions so that they better aligned with the short answer questions we

had been doing in class. I also changed some questions so that they allowed students to

draw and illustrate the answers as opposed to write (Western Australian Department of

Education, 2016).

The increase in checking for understanding will benefit all students and is good for

the Teaching Learning Assessment Cycle. It can however stop the momentum of the lesson

if it constantly being stopped to check for understanding. This can be avoided by doing

simple check for understandings such as the thumbs up thumbs down I have used during an

activity, and a more in depth check for understanding at the end of activities. It can also be

difficult to record keep throughout the lesson, particularly if it is a lesson that involves a lot

of explicit teaching by the teacher. A way to overcome this to set aside a few minutes after a

lesson to take down any anecdotal records that they notice. They can also keep some work

samples.

Need Opportunities to Communicate

Competency in spoken language is a crucial prerequisite of the learning in that

language (ACARA, 2014). Therefore it is crucial for EAL/D students to be competent in

speaking in English. Instructions, information and explanations for activities should be given

orally as well as visually in order to develop this spoken language. Spoken language or social

language is developed through communication, as opposed to academic language that is

developed through modelling and explicit teaching (Western Australian Department of

Education, 2016).
 When modifying my FPD, I incorporated more opportunities for communication. I

incorporated opportunities for students to share information, opinions and perspectives as

suggested by SCSA (2014b). I had many group work tasks, but modified these so many were

done in partners as opposed to larger groups. Larger groups can overwhelm EAL/D and they

may not feel comfortable contributing (SCSA, 2014a). Students can later develop to larger

group work but pair work is a good starting point. Placing EAL/D students with a buddy

rather than in a large group or whole class discussion means that they only have one

language input that they have to process and the buddy can better adapt their language to

suit the language level of the EAL/D buddy (ACARA, 2014). Aside from adapting these group

work activities, I added in more group work.

Group work is beneficial for all students as it develops their collaboration and

communication skills. It will also develop their cultural understanding if they are working

with EAL/D student. Group work needs practicing and takes time to model to students.

Once they have practiced, there will be less time in setting up. Group work should not be

done for all activities however. There needs to be a progression from teacher modelling, to

group work, to individual work which I have done in my FPD. There is also less individual

thinking in group work, so it is important to have individual work done.

 References

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2014). English as an

Additional Language or Dialect Teacher Resource: EAL/D Overview and Advice.

Retrieved from

https://docs.acara.edu.au/resources/EALD_Overview_and_Advice_revised_February

_2014.pdf

Alford, J., & Windeyer, A. (2014). Responding to national curriculum goals for English

language learners: Enhancing reading strategies in junior high school content

areas. Journal of Immersion and Content-Based Language Education, 2(1), 74-95.

De Jong, E. (2013). Preparing mainstream teachers for multilingual classrooms. Association

of Mexican American Educators Journal, 7(2).

De Jong, E. & Field, R. (2010). Bilingual Approaches. In C. Leung & A. Creese (Ed.),

English as an Additional Language: Approaches to Teaching Linguistic Minority

Students (pp. 107-123). Retrieved from http://sk.sagepub.com/books/english-as-an-

additional-language/n8.xml

Miller, P. C., & Endo, H. (2004). Understanding and meeting the needs of ESL students. Phi

Delta Kappan, 85(10), 786-791.

School Curriculum and Standards Authority. (2014a). English as an Additional Language or

Dialect Teacher Resource: Overview and Advice. Retrieved from

https://k10outline.scsa.wa.edu.au/media/documents/eald/EALD-Overview-and-

advice.pdf

School Curriculum and Standards Authority. (2014b). English as an Additional Language or

Dialect Teacher Resource: Annotated Content Descriptions: Humanities and Social

Sciences (HASS) Pre-primary to Year 10. Retrieved from

 https://k10outline.scsa.wa.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/142809/EALD-HASS-

Pre-primary-to-Year-10.pdf

Sharifian, F. (2015). Cultural Conceptualisation and Language: Theoretical Framework and

Applications. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing.

Western Australian Department of Education. (2016). Secondary EAL/D Progress Map –

Years 7 to 12. Retrieved from

http://det.wa.edu.au/curriculumsupport/eald/detcms/school-support-

programs/english-as-an-additional-language-or-dialect/assessment-and-

reporting/esl-esd-progress-map/early-adolescence-progress-maps/secondary-eal-d-

progress-map---years-7-to-12.en?title=Secondary+EAL%2FD+Progress+Map+-

+Years+7+to+12