This newsletter and the Professional Learning and Development initiative relating to English Language Learners is funded by the
Ministry of Education. The provider is Te Tapuae o Rehua consortium.
National Newsletter: English Language Learners
Information/resources for senior leaders and teachers of ELLs in secondary schools | Term 3 2013
The writers of this newsletter
The Professional Learning and Development (PLD) facilitators for
English Language Learners (ELLs) and Home School Partnerships,
identified in the panel on the right, have all contributed to this
newsletter. Our work is funded through a Ministry of Education PLD
contract. We work as a national team and value the opportunity to
share ideas around the country.
The purpose of this newsletter
This newsletter aims to provide a link with PLD for school leaders,
middle leaders, teachers in a range of learning areas and for
English language teacher specialists. A key aspect of our work is in
helping schools to develop effective communication with the
communities and families of ELLs about learning. We hope that
some ideas from our newsletters can be shared with community
groups.
The newsletter is organised by beginning with big picture ideas
about curriculum for all students, including ELLs. As with all our
newsletters this year, there is a one-page information sheet that
can be used with a variety of people. The focus in this newsletter is
on key messages about identifying English Language
Learners (ELLs) at enrolment. (See page 4.) The key messages
are primarily for senior management personnel with responsibility
for enrolment. Previous newsletters this year have had foci on key
messages about teaching ELLs and key messages about
teaching vocabulary to ELLs. If you would like additional copies
of these one-page information sheets, please contact your regional
facilitator.
Curriculum
The following two video clips help us think about the heart of
education:
Julia Atkin explains why our New Zealand Curriculum (NZC) is a
treasure in Expressing the Essence of the NZC.
Sir Ken Robinson talks about How to Change Education: from the
ground up.
Support for ELLs is described on page 16 of the NZC, showing how
the teaching of ELLs is both a shared responsibility and something
for which specialist support is necessary.
Have you considered discussing curriculum in home-school
partnership meetings?
English Language Learners Professional Learning and Development - National Newsletter
Facilitator contact details
National Coordinator,
(and Facilitator, Canterbury,
West Coast, Otago, Southland)
Juliet Fry
Christchurch
Phone: 027 273 7009
juliet.fry@canterbury.ac.nz
Auckland and Northland
Petronella Townsend
Auckland
Phone: 027 479 4572
petronella.townsend@canterbury.ac
.nz
Simon Crosby
Auckland
Phone: 027 275 7062
simon.crosby@canterbury.ac.nz
South Auckland, Waikato, Bay of
Plenty, Gisborne, Hawkes Bay
Julie Luxton
Tauranga
Phone: 027 599 9263
julie.luxton@canterbury.ac.nz
Taranaki, Manawatu, Wairarapa,
Wellington, Nelson,
Marlborough
Stephanie Dodd
Porirua
Phone: 027 275 7056
stephanie.dodd@canterbury.ac.nz
Success for bilingual and multilingual
Pasifika ELLs
“Pasifika success will be characterized by demanding, vibrant,
dynamic, successful Pasifika learners, secure and confident in their
identities, languages and cultures, navigating through all
curriculum areas.” Pasifika Education Plan 2013-2017
Targets from the Pasifika Education Plan include:
The number of all Pasifika school leavers leaving with NCEA
Level 1 literacy and numeracy qualifications to increase
from 80% in 2010 to 95% in 2017. 85% of Pasifika 18 year
olds to achieve NCEA Level 2 or equivalent in 2017.
In the article by Karlo Mila-Schaaf and Elizabeth Robinson
‘Polycultural’ capital and educational achievement among
NZ-born Pacific peoples, maintenance of Pacific values, cultural
pride, Pacific language fluency and acceptance from Pacific peoples
and others were all significantly associated with positive
educational outcomes: trying hard at school, doing well at school
and making plans for the future. ‘Polycultural’ capital is associated
with cross-cultural resources, knowledge, skills and agency –
students being able to draw purposefully and strategically from
more than one cultural way of knowing and interpreting the world.
In the light of the findings of Mila-Schaaf and Robinson, the
following statistics might be of use in helping schools to consider
whether the range of standards used to assess bilingual Pasifika
students’ language might be extended. How could your school
provide support for Pasifika students to achieve in their home
languages?
NZQA subject
Pacific Studies (unit standards)
Lea Faka-Tonga (unit standards)
Vagahau Niue (unit standards)
Samoan (unit and achievement standards)
Cook Is Māori (unit and achievement standards)
ESOL (unit standards)
Number of
results for
Pasifika
peoples in
2012
548
359
514
5304
1163
2750
Given that there are 11,135 ESOL results for Asian students, we
need to question whether our school systems are disadvantaging
Pasifika students. How can our systems change to enable more
Pasifika ELLs to access NCEA success through ESOL standards? To
provide an opportunity to demonstrate Pasifika students’ skills, is it
possible to weave a Pacific Studies standard into some ESOL class
learning? Could the Pacific Studies standards work in different
learning areas like Technology? Would it be useful to look at the
new English for Academic Purposes standards for Pasifika students
and other ELLs heading for tertiary education?
The Public Achievement Information, the PAI Pipeline on Education
Counts, is a new site from the Ministry of Education that provides
key statistics at a national and regional level, disaggregating NCEA
data by ethnicity and reminding us of these disparities. As we work
to reach the targets outlined in the Pasifika Education Plan, these
statistics may help us to think about changes to our schools to
enable Pasifika students access language standards.
English Language Learners Professional Learning and Development - National Newsletter
ESOL Online
The ELLs PLD facilitators wish to
acknowledge Breda Matthews for
her facilitation of the ESOL Online
community. Breda has done a
wonderful job of keeping us all
informed and talking about matters
that matter in relation to ELLs. We
have been most fortunate in having
such a vibrant online community.
The contract for this work has been
moved from Cognition Education to
CORE Education. Those of you who
participate in the community will
have received information about the
transitional arrangements through
your emails.
EL standards
ESOL standards are being changed
to English Language (EL) standards.
They remain as standards for ELLs
but the term is a bit more inclusive.
In this newsletter, both terms are
used. The link to the NZQA EL site
is:
http://www.nzqa.govt.nz/qualificati
onsstandards/qualifications/englishlanguage-qualifications/review/
By the time you receive this
newsletter the latest information is
likely to be available.
Māori students
transitioning from kura
kaupapa
Have you considered using the EL
standards with Māori students
transitioning from kura kaupapa?
There are 37 ESOL results for Māori
students in 2012.
With good support, anyone literate
in one language can be expected to
access English as an additional
language at an accelerated rate.
These standards might be useful in
acknowledging such Māori students’
developing academic fluency.
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English for Academic Purposes (EAP) unit
standards
English for Academic Purposes (EAP) Unit Standards are a set of
five standards designed to assess a learner’s readiness for tertiary
study at undergraduate level. They are particularly suited to the
needs of English Language Learners (ELLs) as they offer a literacy
pathway that is research based with a stated academic purpose,
rather than the generally more literary study offered through the
subject of English. In this respect they are more in line with a
cycle of study that students often encounter at university.
The standards have been developed in response to university and
student needs. In several interviews with English language
learners conducted by Simon Crosby, an Auckland ELLs PLD
facilitator, the first year university students said that schools had
not fully prepared them for their studies. “We get a maximum of 2
weeks and assignments of over 1,000 words,’ said one student. “I
was shocked - it wasn’t easy to manage. It wasn’t about grammar.
You had to read a lot and understand and analyse. The analysing
part was challenging.” A further study is planned to interview
students who used/are using the EAP pathway to gain university
entrance in 2014.
PLD for EAP standards
This year, ELL facilitators have been
working with teachers to network,
develop resources and provide help
and guidance. A Virtual Learning
Network (VLN) group has been set
up to enable the sharing of EAP
resources and discussion of EAPrelated issues nationwide. This now
has 52 members.
A session is being run this month by
Jenni Bedford and Breda Matthews
in Auckland to help gather material
for some online resources that will
become available once they are
complete. This workshop is a oneoff.
However, the ELLs PLD facilitators
will be working with NZQA and the
developers of the online resources
to ensure that teachers have more
support for using the EAP standards
by next year.
NZQA is underway in producing a
newsletter on the EAP standards.
Crafting an integrated cycle of study
Academic listening
e.g. note taking, inferring,
synthesising ideas from
presentations, thinking
critically, summarising.
US 22892 Listening
Academic reading
e.g. identifying purpose for
reading, skimming for
information, organising ideas,
inferring, reading critically,
drawing conclusions.
US 22751 Reading (UE Lit)
Presenting academic ideas
orally
e.g. presenting broad
knowledge and theory of
subject matter which is clear
and appropriate to an
audience.
US 22981 Speaking
Academic writing
e.g. managing a research
process, developing ideas and
displaying knowledge,
structuring text using academic
tone, language forms,
vocabulary, acknowledging
sources appropriately.
US 22750 Crafted writing
(UE Lit)
e.g. organising ideas under
pressure, express academic
ideas using precise language
under test conditions.
US 22749 Writing under
test conditions
English Language Learners Professional Learning and Development - National Newsletter
National newsletters
National newsletters are developed
for every learning area by National
Co-ordinators from The University
of Auckland and/or Te Tapuae o
Rehua consortium (University of
Canterbury, University of Otago and
Te Runanga o Ngāi Tahu). This
term, the ELLs newsletter is
distributed under the same system.
To download the latest newsletter
or for more information about
Ministry-funded professional
development for secondary middle
leaders, visit this page on TKI:
http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/Seco
ndary-middle-leaders/Professionallearning-and-development
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Key messages to help identify English
language learners (ELLs) at enrolment
MOE priorities
Priority 1 in the Ministry of Education's Statement of Intent is to
improve education outcomes for Māori learners, Pasifika learners,
learners with special education needs, and learners from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Students who are English language
learners - ELLs - are represented in all of these learner groups.
Gathering information about ELLs
The New Zealand Curriculum makes it clear that schools are
required to “gather information that is sufficiently comprehensive
to enable evaluation of student progress and achievement; to
identify students and groups of students … who are at risk of not
achieving” (page 44). The ELLs group is diverse and includes
students from overseas and New Zealand born students.
To assist in accurately identifying English language learners’
language strengths and needs, the following approaches are
recommended. These may be included in your policy.
Appropriate staff, who understand and have familiarity with
the processes involved in learning an additional language,
should attend the enrolment meeting. This is generally the
teacher in charge of ELLs.
A trained interpreter is employed when required, to ensure all
relevant information is able to be given to, and received by,
the student and their family. Possible contacts for these
services include:
http://www.interpret.org.nz
and
http://ethnicaffairs.govt.nz/browse/language-line.
Accurately assessing the English language proficiency of a new
student will require appropriate assessments by a trained ELLs
specialist teacher. This needs to happen before final class
placement and timetable decisions are made. However,
changes may be needed as a student’s learning develops and
his/her strengths and needs are monitored.
It is important to establish proficiency levels in first
language/s to establish bi- and multi-lingual strengths. With
whānau/family, establish other learning strengths and needs
especially as some learners will need multiple levels of
support.
Secondary students at ELLP Stage 2 or below will need
intensive specialist language support to access the curriculum
at age-appropriate levels. Students at ELLP Stage 3 will be
able to access the curriculum more easily with scaffolded
support. Funding for this support will come primarily from the
school’s operations grant and may be supplemented by MOE
ESOL funding and money from international fee-payers.
English Language Learners Professional Learning and Development - National Newsletter
How you might miss ELLs
An English language learner’s needs
may be missed at enrolment for a
variety of reasons. Students learn
social English more quickly than
academic English (Cummins 2002).
It is easy to overlook the academic
language learning needs of ELLs
who are reasonably competent with
social English. It is good practice to
have an enrolment, assessment and
placement policy for ELLs.
Who you might miss
There are various groups of students
whose needs may not be accurately
identified. There will not be a
one-size-fits–all response:
There are students transitioning from
kura kaupapa.
Family reunification refugees and
asylum seekers generally would not
have had the initial support available
at the Mangere Resettlement Centre.
They might need particular support.
Students transitioning from Year 8 to
Year 9, especially Pasifika students,
need to be understood well. Close
liaison with the contributing school
and family is important. Often ELLs
are assessed in one-off written tests
and their bilingual strengths and
progress are not understood.
Placing students
Too many emerging bilingual
students are wrongly placed in lowband classes at Year 9. ELLs should
be given challenge and high support
and are generally better placed in
high band classes. G ELLs should be
placed with their age-group.
Finding out more
Comprehensive information about
good practices for enrolment and
placement may be found in the MOE
Refugee Handbook. These
processes and practices would also
benefit other English language
learners.
http://www.minedu.govt.nz/NZEduc
ation/EducationPolicies/Schools/Eng
lishForSpeakersOfOtherLanguages/
MaterialsResources/ESOLRefugeeHa
ndbook.aspx
and
http://esolonline.tki.org.nz/ESOLOnline/Student-needs/EnglishLanguage-Learning-Progressions.
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