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Supporting recently-arrived EAL students in a mainstream school setting

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Elena Di Mascolo & Liaqat Gulzari

Dandenong High School

Wednesday 4 September, 4-5pm

In this workshop, Elena and Liaqat shared their experiences establishing and implementing specialised programs for recently-arrived EAL students in a culturally-diverse secondary school setting, from Year 7-10. They explained the features of the various academic and non-academic programs, including both embedded and parallel EAL academic programs, community programs and transition processes. There was a particular focus on the “Connect” program, designed to support recently-arrived EAL students over 16 years of age. They shared their pedagogical approaches and the related strategies they employ and look at measures of success. Resources and processes were also shared in order to assist schools to develop programs tailored to their own settings.

Elena is a Learning Specialist at Dandenong High School. She has been teaching in the areas of EAL and Learning Difficulties for about 20 years and has worked at Dandenong High School for ten of those years. She is interested in school structures and pedagogical approaches that support the learning of recently-arrived EAL students who require specialised support to thrive in mainstream secondary school settings.

Liaqat is a Learning Intervention Officer at Dandenong High School. He has been supporting students at the school for two years. He is interested in supporting the learning of students in a mainstream secondary school setting.

Victoria’s Multicultural Awards for Excellence 2019

Nominations are now open for Victoria’s Multicultural Awards for Excellence 2019. Nominations close Sunday 29 September.

Victoria’s Multicultural Awards for Excellence recognise the outstanding achievements of people and organisations who strengthen multiculturalism across 10 categories.

The Multicultural Education and Early Childhood Award recognises outstanding school education and early childhood practice which enhances intercultural understanding and meets the needs of children and young people from diverse communities. Please click here for further information.

VCE English and English as an Additional Language (EAL): Focus groups

The VCAA is consulting practising teachers of VCE English and English as an Additional Language through a series of focus groups to provide monitoring and feedback for a major review of the VCE English and English as an Additional Language Study Design. Click here for further information.

To gain feedback on the current VCE English and English as an Additional Language Study Design and future directions for the study, focus groups will be held on:

Wednesday 28 August 2019, 4pm to 5.30pm
Elisabeth Murdoch College
80 Warrandyte Road
LANGWARRIN

Thursday 29 August 2019, 4pm to 5.30pm
Yarra Valley Grammar
The Pavilion Room
Kalinda Road (Enter Gate A)
RINGWOOD

Thursday 12 September 2019, 4pm to 5.30pm
MacKillop College
1-29 Russell Street
WERRIBEE

Tuesday 17 September 2019, 4pm to 5.30pm
Assumption College
Fourviere 001 Room
Sutherland Street
KILMORE

Thursday 19 September 2019, 5pm to 6.30pm
VCAA
Level 7, 2 Lonsdale Street
MELBOURNE

Registrations will close three days prior to each focus group.

Spaces are limited to 12 participants. Participants will be selected to ensure that there is appropriate representation across regions and sectors.

Teachers in regional areas are strongly encouraged to register and will be able to participate via video conference.

Registered participants will receive additional information about the session via email after this date.

For enquiries, contact:
Annelise Balsamo, VCE English Curriculum Manager at balsamo.annelise.z@edumail.vic.gov.au
or
Kellie Heintz, VCE English as an Additional Language Curriculum Manager at heintz.kellie.a@edumail.vic.gov.au

VicTESOL Symposium: Live Streaming this Monday!

If you won’t be at the VicTESOL Symposium at the Bastow on Monday 19 August 2019, we have arranged to bring the keynote and the panel discussion to you via live streaming on the day, plus through a recording for viewing afterwards via a link on the VicTESOL website.

If you would like to test accessing the streaming of these sessions via WebEx prior to the day, please click here to visit:

https://www.webex.com/test-meeting.html

Keynote Speaker: Dr Marianne Turner, Monash University

Exploring the ‘SOL’ in ‘TESOL’: Leveraging and developing students’ linguistic repertoire

Open from 8:45am Monday 19 August 2019, session 9.00am – 10.15am
To access the live streaming, please click on this link:
https://eduvic.webex.com/eduvic/j.php?MTID=m702884934d72c441fcf09bf118a2ebac

OR

DET School with Cisco Webex Unit:
574914680@eduvic.webex.com

OR

To connect via Skype for Business:
JOIN USING MICROSOFT LYNC OR MICROSOFT SKYPE FOR BUSINESS
574914680.eduvic@lync.webex.com

In Europe and the US, traditional understandings of languages as discrete systems that can be mastered are increasingly being challenged via a focus on speakers’ practices. Terms such as plurilingualism and translanguaging have emerged from these different contexts, the former mainly from continental Europe and the latter mainly from the US and the UK, and both grapple with linguistic repertoire in a holistic sense. They attribute value to students’ broader linguistic experiences rather than only ‘measuring’ the students through their knowledge of a dominant language.

The new EAL curriculum in Victoria plans to introduce the concept of plurilingual awareness and, at the base of this awareness, there lies a different way of thinking about language. In this presentation, I will explain this thinking, and will also address similarities and differences between plurilingualism and translanguaging. The latter is a concept that has particularly been gaining ground in the US, where TESOL is also increasingly being conceptualised as bilingual education. A discussion on this trend, and the associated benefits, challenges and critiques will then lead to an exploration of how we can learn from the explicit positioning of EAL in students’ broader linguistic repertoires, and apply ideas in the Australian context.

Panel of Experts: Plurilingual perspectives and their implications for teaching

Open from 2:05pm Monday 19 August 2019, session 2.20pm – 3.20pm
To access the live streaming, please click on this link:
https://eduvic.webex.com/eduvic/j.php?MTID=m61e61453cb5f097ec5227ecfe76eb72f

OR

DET School with Cisco Webex Unit:
579964567@eduvic.webex.com

OR

Connect via Skype for Business:
JOIN USING MICROSOFT LYNC OR MICROSOFT SKYPE FOR BUSINESS
574914680.eduvic@lync.webex.com

  • Dr Shem Macdonald – VicTESOL – Moderator
  • Dr Marianne Turner – Monash University
  • Dr Julie Choi – University of Melbourne
  • Dr Howard Nicholas – La Trobe University

An awareness, understanding, acceptance, and embracing of the plurilingualism of learners in TESOL programs can positively shape how we teach and how they learn. The fact that plurilingualism features prominently as a new strand in the Draft English as an Additional Language Curriculum as part of the Victorian F-10 Curriculum suggests that this claim bears some weight. However, do we, as TESOL professionals, have a clear idea what plurilingual perspectives are and what their implications are for teaching language?

To explore this question, we have invited several experts in the field of TESOL/Applied linguistics to a panel discussion to share their perspectives on plurilingualism. We then ask them to outline some of the implications of such views for how  teachers of EAL might approach their planning and teaching.

For further details about these presentations, please click here.

VicTESOL Symposium Panel of Experts: Send in your questions about ‘Plurilingual perspectives and their implications for teaching’

With 1 week to go until the VicTESOL Symposium- VicTESOL is collating your questions about ‘Plurilingual perspectives and their implications for teaching’ for the panel of experts.  VicTESOL invites questions from members and others about the topic of plurilingualism and the teaching of EAL.  Please send through your questions to victesol [at] victesol.vic.edu.au.

 

Panel of Experts

Plurilingual perspectives and their implications for teaching

  • Dr Shem Macdonald – VicTESOL – Moderator
  • Dr Marianne Turner – Monash University
  • Dr Julie Choi – University of Melbourne
  • Dr Howard Nicholas – La Trobe University

An awareness, understanding, acceptance, and embracing of the plurilingualism of learners in TESOL programs can positively shape how we teach and how they learn. The fact that plurilingualism features prominently as a new strand in the Draft English as an Additional Language Curriculum as part of the Victorian F-10 Curriculum suggests that this claim bears some weight. However, do we, as TESOL professionals, have a clear idea what plurilingual perspectives are and what their implications are for teaching language?

To explore this question, we have invited several experts in the field of TESOL/Applied linguistics to a panel discussion to share their perspectives on plurilingualism. We then ask them to outline some of the implications of such views for how  teachers of EAL might approach their planning and teaching.

Your questions and comments

Prior to the Symposium and the Panel discussion, VicTESOL invites questions from members and others about the topic of plurilingualism and the teaching of EAL.  These questions will be elicited and collected through the event registration process as well as via a range of social and digital media in the weeks leading up to the Symposium. We will collate a selection of questions to be put to the panel on the day.

If you cannot make it to the Bastow to hear the panel answer your question, we are also planning on bringing the panel discussion to you via live streaming on the day, plus through a recording for viewing afterwards via a link on the VicTESOL website.

 

 

VicTESOL Research Grant 2019- application period extended to 9 August 2019!

The application period for the VicTESOL Research Grant 2019 has been extended to Friday 9 August 2019. 

 

Applications for the 2019 VicTESOL Research Grant are closing soon! Applications need to be submitted to VicTESOL by COB 9 August 2019.  Please click here for further information and to download the application form.  The VicTESOL Research Grant offers funds of $10,000 in 2019 to a research team to conduct research into the TESOL field. The project must involve researchers and practitioners as research partners.

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Incorporating Action Research in the Classroom with Low Language and Literacy Learners

Download a PDF of the presentation here:

Incorporating Action Research in the Classroom with Low Language and Literacy Learners

Rebecca Grimaud, Hân Trinh, Hayley Black – Carringbush Adult Education

In this workshop Rebecca, Han and Hayley shared their experience incorporating action research into the classroom. They explored approaches to teaching digital and traditional literacy skills to low language and literacy learners. They shared ideas and activities that they have trialled, including using technology, gestures, learner-centred tasks and students’ L1 in the classroom to help students to learn English.

Rebecca has been a teacher in a variety of settings in England, France and Australia for over ten years. She joined Carringbush as a literacy volunteer in 2017 and now teaches low level literacy learners two days a week. Rebecca also teaches French at a local Primary school. She is interested in the use of gestures and explicit pronunciation to help learners increase their confidence in speaking.

Hân has worked as an ESL teacher in Vietnam and Australia for more than 5 years. She studied her Masters of TESOL in Melbourne and joined Carringbush teaching team in 2018. Hân has mainly worked with low level literacy learner groups at Carringbush and is interested in teaching explicit pronunciation and incorporating multilingual teaching approaches into her practice.

Hayley Black is an EAL teacher with a secondary school media and EAL teaching background and a Masters in TESOL. She currently teaches beginner level EAL classes at Carringbush Adult Education. Hayley has taught in the Victorian school system as well as teaching and volunteering overseas in Korea, Nepal and Japan. Her professional interests focus on pedagogical development for teachers working with adults at the Foundation level.

Regional EAL Practitioners: 1 week until the draw for the free VicTESOL Symposium tickets *ENTER NOW!*

To assist EAL practitioners in regional areas to attend the upcoming VicTESOL Symposium (19 August 2019), we are offering 5 free tickets– one ticket for each of the regional areas:
  • Barwon South West
  • Gippsland
  • Grampians
  • Hume
  • Loddon Mallee
To go into the draw for a free ticket in your regional area, please email: victesol [at] victesol.vic.edu.au by 18 July 2019.  Click here for regional area information.
Please provide the following information in your email-
NAME:
POSTCODE:
REGION:
SCHOOL/INSTITUTION NAME & ADDRESS:
PHONE NUMBER:
Further information about the VicTESOL Symposium is available at: https://victesol.vic.edu.au/index.php/victesol-symposium-2019/
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Leading EALD Professional Learning Within Schools – Webinar

Mei French, Ashima Suri and Rita Alexander

In multicultural and multilingual school contexts, it is beneficial for all teachers to develop strong intercultural relationship skills and understand the role of multilingualism in the classroom in order to support English learning across the curriculum. As colleagues in a South Australian secondary school, Mei, Ashima, and Rita, designed and delivered a whole-school professional learning program which addressed this need. They advocated for EALD students as individuals and experts, and invited colleagues to learn more about the lives, strengths and resources of the EALD learners in their classes. Over the course of a school year, teachers were encouraged to take on the role of learner, to listen to students’ stories, and to learn new skills from them. Teachers reported improved understanding of their students’ life experiences, deeper empathy, more positive relationships, and adopted more creative approaches to pedagogy that support English learning across the curriculum. While the EALD specialists running these workshops reported feeling re-energised by their role in the program. This professional learning program was memorable, sustainable and allowed all teachers to rethink themselves as co-learners with EALD students.

In this webinar, Mei, Ashima and Rita outline the program they conducted in the school, and give advice to webinar participants about planning a professional learning program for their own context, drawing on the EALD elaborations to the AITSL standards.

Presenters
Mei, Ashima and Rita worked together teaching multilingual young women at a South Australian secondary school.

Now based in Canberra, Mei French is an EALD specialist, who combines secondary school teaching with teacher education and curriculum development. She has been an active contributor to advocacy and professional learning through TESOL associations. Her PhD investigated the complex and purposeful multilingual practices of secondary school students and their teachers, and the implications for practice and policy.

Ashima Suri is an EAL and Science teacher. As an EAL network teacher in Adelaide, Ashima has worked across different schools, supporting both students and staff to use different pedagogies to support the development of academic English for students. She takes particular interest in the many ways multilingual students contribute significantly to the school community.

Rita Alexander is an experienced teacher who has worked with EAL learners at all stages of schooling from early childhood to Year 12. Rita’s career has seen her work in a broad range of contexts across South Australia. Rita takes particular interest in harnessing students’ varied cultural and linguistic experiences to construct positive learning identities and supporting the learning of English language across the curriculum.

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Foundation House Student Perspectives Report – Webinar

Greg Gow, Program Coordinator, Schools Support Program & Matt Rodger, Schools Support Officer West Region, Schools Support Program

‘School is where you need to be equal and learn’: Insights from students of refugee backgrounds on learning and engagement in Victorian secondary schools (2019)

This report presents the findings of a research project conducted by the Schools Support Program at the Victorian Foundation for Survivors of Torture (Foundation House). This project sought out the insights of students of refugee backgrounds on the barriers and facilitators to learning and engagement at school. Focus groups were conducted at three Victorian secondary schools, with 51 students (aged 13-19). The students were all from refugee backgrounds and had arrived in Australia within the past seven years. Through this project the Schools Support Program was able to learn directly from students of refugee backgrounds and position them, through their lived experience, as experts on ‘what works’ to support them at school.

In this webinar, Greg and Matt take you through the findings of this report and provide insights into how this report can inform practice at your school.