On Thursday 19 May, Gurmeet Kaur, the Education Programs Producer at Immigration Museum, shared how the museum’s resources can be best used to engage EAL learners from primary to adult. Gurmeet introduced participants to a range of fantastic resources, both digital and at the museum, including migration stories, cultural stories, objects, timelines and personal stories investigating a myriad of Australian identities. Elsa Brissenden from Bethal Primary School detailed her own experience of taking primary new arrivals students to the museum and how this enhanced a unit of work on identity. Many of the resources highlighted are interactive and enable a high level of engagement. They also provide learners with an opportunity to connect their own story with similar stories of migration to Australia. Participants looked at a range of digital resources and discussed the rich learning opportunities for exploring culture and identity with EAL learners that these resources provide.
Don’t forget that teachers are eligible for membership with Museums Victoria. This is a free online subscription service for teachers in Victorian schools and education institutions, as well as homeschool teachers designed to give you easy access to all Museum Victoria museums and education services in order to help you plan school group excursions to our venues.
https://i.imgur.com/aeJqqIF.png00Association Officerhttps://i.imgur.com/aeJqqIF.pngAssociation Officer2022-05-23 21:00:232022-07-22 13:37:51Immigration Museum and VicTESOL: Integrating culture and language for EAL learners
Dr Julie Choi and Ms Kailin Liu presented a session on 24 March entitled: Enacting translation and translanguaging collaboratively between teachers and learners for knowledge building. In this session they prompted us to consider translation and translanguaging as a collaboration and explained that this can take place on a number of levels. Talking about it in relation to learning, we were shown texts in which there were examples of a number of translation strategies used by learners. One was a reading text, where students had not only written words they had translated in the margins, but had also made notes about their translations of larger concepts that appeared within the texts. They also showed us a student notebook explaining that these kinds of texts are intricate spaces where we can observe students and the ways they use translation. They demonstrated that translation isn’t simply a case of converting a word or phrase from Language Code A to Language Code B but is a more complex process involving moving back and forth between languages to find the best fit for meaning. As I understood, this is where translation engages with translanguaging whereby learners and other plurilinguals bring to the fore their knowledge of all languages, or their combined language repertoire, in order to make meaning.
The presenters emphasised the value of collaborative dialogue in which speakers “[engage] in problem solving and knowledge building” (Swain, 2000) involving negotiation of meaning and knowledge building. They then shared with us their own experiences of collaborative dialogue that they themselves had engaged in as part of exploring a language translation issue related to the word “besides” – a vocabulary item in English often inappropriately used by students in their writing.
The session was highly engaging and informative and offered many practical ideas for teachers for working collaboratively with language learners to explore and develop skills in translation and translanguaging. Thank you Julie and Kailin!
https://i.imgur.com/aeJqqIF.png00Association Officerhttps://i.imgur.com/aeJqqIF.pngAssociation Officer2022-03-31 17:21:282022-07-22 13:37:16Enacting translation and translanguaging collaboratively between teachers and learners for knowledge building
Thursday November 18, 4-5pm Online Panel Discussion What does effective assessment look like? How do we give feedback that shows students their strengths and assists them to improve? How is...
This content is available for VicTESOL members. Become a Member
https://i.imgur.com/aeJqqIF.png00Molly Flowershttps://i.imgur.com/aeJqqIF.pngMolly Flowers2021-11-19 20:45:292024-01-02 10:02:15Members Resource Page – Assessment and Reporting for EAL students in primary and secondary schools
VicTESOL, the state association for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) & Multicultural Education, held our annual Symposium on Tuesday 31 August. This was live online event from 4-5:30pm AEST. For this event, we had a panel of speakers, experts in TESOL and multicultural education and related fields who discussed what they see as implications of the COVID pandemic for the field of teaching English as an Additional Language (EAL) in Victoria and Australia.
They discussed what TESOL might look like in the next few years and in the longer term as a result of what we are currently experiencing. With the pausing and slowing of some programs during the pandemic, is there a chance that TESOL and other programs may change? Is there a chance that while there are no new arrivals that existing programs and services will be affected, not only in the short term, but also in the longer term? How might this look? What might be some of the advantages of possible changes? What might be some less positive consequences of change during and post COVID? What can we do to prepare ourselves for ensuring we maintain and build on the quality of EAL and associated learning and support that has been established over many, many years?
You can view the recording of the event here:
Panelists:
Jessica Bishop, Migrant Information Centre (Eastern Melbourne)
Margaret Corrigan, CEO of Carringbush Adult Education and President of the Australian Council of TESOL associations
Dr Susan Creagh, Honorary Senior Lecturer, School of Education, The University of Queensland
Associate Professor Russell Cross, Language and Literacy Education, Melbourne Graduate School of Education
Carmel Guerra, Director and Chief Executive Officer, Centre for Multicultural Youth
Mark Melican, Principal of Blackburn English Language School
Matt Rodger, Senior Schools Support Officer – RESP Education & Early Years Program Practice & Sector Development, The Victorian Foundation for Survivors of Torture
The panel was chaired by Dr Shem Macdonald, VicTESOL President and Lecturer at La Trobe University.
To view the collated comments of participants from the registration process, see below. Participants were asked to identify one positive and one negative coming out of their experience of working in the TESOL field during the pandemic. .
The recent issue of TESOL in Context contains an editorial related to the topic covered in today’s session. It is referred to within the symposium event.
Teaching and learning English in the age of COVID-19: Reflecting on the state of TESOL in a changed world
Many thanks to all who were involved in this event.
https://i.imgur.com/aeJqqIF.png00Molly Flowershttps://i.imgur.com/aeJqqIF.pngMolly Flowers2021-08-31 23:23:312021-09-02 15:40:05*Resources Page* VicTESOL Symposium 2021 – TESOL in a time of COVID: Implications and Possibilities
A lot of professional learning quite rightly focuses on the global, big-picture ideas of teaching and learning, but what about a small, everyday practice of successful teaching. In this series of vignettes, EAL teachers showcase a single activity, idea or resource that they find to be effective in the EAL classroom, and discuss how and why it works. This vignette is generously contributed from Rosemary Abboud, Dandenong North Primary School. It focuses on an Arrange and Describe activity which she uses with primary-aged EAL students. We thank Rosemary for donating her time and expertise.
There is a wealth of EAL expertise out there! Why not share it with the EAL community? We are keen to showcase this practice of teachers in primary, secondary and adult sectors. If you would like to contribute a vignette about an activity you find to be effective in the classroom, please email plcoordinator[at]victesol.vic.edu.au
Dr Anne Keary has generously shared a number of recordings used in the education of pre-service primary school teachers at Monash University.
They cover topics including advice for planning and programing, getting to know learners, behaviour management and how schools have adapted to remote learning.
Michelle shares with us an insight into the planning of teachers at Preston North East Primary School. She shows the viewer her school’s Individual Learning Improvement Plan document, highlighting the importance of setting goals and planning lessons in a way that involves students and families.
Mairead discusses the processes in place for getting to know newly-arrived students at Collingwood English Language school. She takes the viewer through the student profile documents used, highlighting information that can be useful to gather, such as: socio-lingual context, language background, visa codes, nationality, cultural group, position in family, siblings, religion, prior learning, settlement services involvement, and well-being. Mairead also reflects on the need for teachers to not assume anything about their learners and emphasises the need to ask questions to get as good a picture of the student’s prior learning as possible.
Rosemary describes the range of programs running at Dandenong High School, including the EAL program and the transition program.
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David Rothstadt, Principal, Noble Park Primary School
David talks about how he and the staff at Noble Park Primary School have adapted to remote learning over the last 18 months. He highlights the flexibility and sheer hard work of teachers to get online programs up and running in a short amount of time, and how teachers supported each other in the transition. David concludes that one of his key learnings from these uncertain times is that the value of face-to-face teacher/student relationships cannot be underestimated or replaced by technologies.
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Various Presenters on Behaviour Management (edited version)
VicTESOL acknowledges and thanks the Faculty of Education, Monash University, for providing these videos.
Online Event – Presentation and Conversation Rooms
This was an opportunity for teachers who are at a similar stage of their careers to share practice with teachers from other schools and institutions. A big part of this session was EAL resource sharing with Jennifer Peck from the Languages and Multicultural Education Resource Centre (LMERC) and and Eileen Wan (Blackburn English Language School). They presented on LMERC’s online and physical resources. This session was for pre-service teachers and early-career teachers (0-2 years) of EAL students, and teachers who are new to teaching EAL students.
https://i.imgur.com/aeJqqIF.png00Association Officerhttps://i.imgur.com/aeJqqIF.pngAssociation Officer2021-06-03 15:31:322021-06-06 18:56:38Online Resourcing and Networking session for pre-service, early-career EAL teachers and teachers new to EAL
As most language teachers know, motivation is a vital component of effective language learning. Without it, teachers’ careful planning and creative ideas can quickly be undermined. The research supports this view and finds that motivation can predict anything up to 33% of language learning success. Yet, there is still much we need to understand about motivation in the language classroom. In this talk, we will share insights gathered from a large-scale study conducted among Hong Kong school learners of English.
Two key components of the language learning experience are the teacher and the language environment; we’ll examine what the findings of the study tell us about how teachers’ practices and the language of instruction impact on students’ motivation. A key focus will be on the way in which different features of the language learning experience can lead to a more or less agentive motivation, in other words motivation that is more driven by the student than by the teacher or parents and particularly a motivational orientation more closely tied with a second language identity. We will explore possible explanations for these relationships between classroom features and agentive or less-agentive motivational orientations. Together we will examine what this means for classroom practice and for shaping classrooms that promote and sustain motivated language learning, broadening the discussion to other instructional contexts and drawing on participants’ classroom experience. Through sharing of experiences (good and not so good!) of and challenges and opportunities for generating and sustaining students’ motivation, as well as drawing on relevant theory and research, we will identify key guiding principles of effective motivational language teaching practice.
The talk will be interactive, meaning that participants will be encouraged to share their reactions, reflections and experiences. In order to enrich the conversation, participants will be invited to share specific examples of practice in their diverse contexts. Pause-for-talk moments and breakout rooms will be used to facilitate these conversations.
Mairin Hennebry-Leung started her career teaching Modern Languages and TESOL in a variety of contexts. She joined the University of Tasmania as Lecturer in Languages and TESOL in 2020, prior to which she has held posts in Hong Kong, Scotland and England, working in language education and language teacher education. In addition to this, Mairin has delivered professional development events and materials for teachers in France, Spain, China, Hong Kong and across the UK. Her research focusses on classroom language learning, specifically on language learning motivation, language teacher education, and the relationship between language teaching and citizenship development. Mairin has published widely in international journals including TESOL Quarterly, Language Teaching Research, and Language Learning Journal. She is a co-editor of System: An International Journal of Educational Technology and Applied Linguistics and co-editor of the Edinburgh University Press Textbooks in Applied Linguistics.
Xuesong (Andy) Gao is an associate professor at the School of Education, University of New South Wales, Australia. He has been involved in language teacher education in Hong Kong, mainland China, and Taiwan. His research interests include language learner autonomy, language education policy, and language teacher education. His research has been funded by Research Grants Council (Hong Kong), Sumitomo Foundation (Japan), and the Standing Committee for Language Education and Research (Hong Kong). He has published widely in international journals, including ELT Journal, TESOL Quarterly, Modern Language Journal, and Teaching and Teacher Education. He is a co-editor of System: An International Journal of Educational Technology and Applied Linguistics and co-editor of the English Language Education book series, published by Springer.
Here is the reading recommended in the chat function by Mairin during the session:
Chenjing (Julia) You, Zoltán Dörnyei, Language Learning Motivation in China: Results of a Large-Scale Stratified Survey, Applied Linguistics, Volume 37, Issue 4, August 2016, Pages 495–519, https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amu046
https://i.imgur.com/aeJqqIF.png00Molly Flowershttps://i.imgur.com/aeJqqIF.pngMolly Flowers2021-05-19 23:02:222021-06-06 19:01:30Motivating Learners in the Language Classroom
Once upon a time, a good learner was one who could just recall and repeat knowledge. However, in contemporary education we expect learners to do so much more – to locate, evaluate, articulate and create information individually or collaboratively. Reflecting this, Inquiry-based Learning (IBL) has become a popular pedagogical approach in Australian schools. Yet IBL presents unique challenges for EAL/D learners due to the complex language demands involved in problem solving and higher order thinking, as well as those required to work cooperatively with others. This workshop explored how to help EAL students participate and engage in IBL through effective planning and targeted teaching strategies that scaffold understanding, organisation and expression of ideas.
Following 14 years as a NAATI accredited translator then tertiary Spanish lecturer, April Edwards went on to gain a Master of Teaching as an EAL/D and English secondary teacher. She later took on roles as an EAL Coordinator, EAL specialist mentor to English teachers and Teaching and Learning lead teacher. She is currently training undergraduate and postgraduate pre-service teachers in the School of Education at La Trobe University as well as having worked as an EAL consultant to both the DET and the VCAA. April thrives on sharing her knowledge about 1st and 2nd language acquisition with colleagues and students alike. She does so in the belief that when Culturally and Linguistically Diverse students are supported to use their whole linguistic and cultural repertoire they can participate fully in any classroom setting.
Michelle Andrews is a Primary EAL specialist, currently coordinating the EAL program at Preston North East Primary School. Before moving to the mainstream in 2017, she worked for many years in the New Arrivals Program at Blackburn ELS, taking on a variety of roles including student wellbeing coordinator and Primary curriculum leader. She is passionate about supporting English Language learners to engage, learn and thrive in Australian schools.
https://i.imgur.com/aeJqqIF.png00Association Officerhttps://i.imgur.com/aeJqqIF.pngAssociation Officer2021-05-12 20:23:162021-06-06 19:14:30Supporting EAL students in Inquiry-based Learning
