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.

 

 

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Support and Advice for Primary School Teachers of EAL Students

 

Download (PDF, 48KB)

Michelle Andrews, Giuliana Mecoli & Rebekah Jones de Villagran

VicTESOL assembled a panel of experts in primary school EAL teaching to answer your questions, offer advice and support, and discuss best practice in primary school EAL teaching. In this online Q&A session, Michelle, Giuliana and Rebekah tailored their discussion around your specific needs. They answered both live questions and questions gathered in the registration process.

Panel Members

Michelle Andrews, Preston North East Primary School
Michelle Andrews is currently working as the EAL specialist at Preston North East Primary school. An experienced Primary EAL teacher, she taught for more than 12 years in the New Arrivals program, undertaking a variety of roles including curriculum leadership. She is an active member of the VicTESOL committee, working mainly in the area of Professional Learning. Passionate about working with other teachers to build excellence in practice, her recent move back into a mainstream Primary school has reinforced her enthusiasm to support student learning and engagement through effective EAL teaching.

Giuliana Mecoli, Department of Education and Training
Giuliana is currently working as the EAL Project Officer in DET, North West Victorian Regional Office and previously was in the same role in the South West Victorian Region for a number of years. In this role she is responsible for providing EAL policy and strategic advice at regional, school and teacher level. She has extensive experience working in the EAL and Literacy fields with teachers across state and independent education sectors at primary, secondary and adult levels. She has worked as a university lecturer in TESOL, classroom teacher, EAL specialist, network leader and literacy coach/mentor at primary and secondary levels.

The key passion that has driven Giuliana’s work over the years has been her commitment to improving teacher’s knowledge about language and to build their skills and capacity to improve the English learning outcomes for EAL students in schools.

Rebekah Jones de Villagran, Blackburn English Language School
Rebekah is the Primary Curriculum Leader at Blackburn English Language School. She has been working in the New Arrivals program since 2015 where she has taught mostly in the upper primary year levels. With over 13 years of experience in primary and English language teaching and a Masters in TEFL/TESL from the University of Birmingham, she has taught over 40 different nationalities in a range of teaching and learning contexts, across Australia, Japan and Guatemala. This has given her a comprehensive understanding of the cultural, social and linguistic issues in EAL teaching and language acquisition.

VicTESOL Symposium 2019 – Bookings now open!

Sharing multiple perspectives on TESOL

Monday 19 August 2019
8:30am – 4pm
Bastow Institute, 603-615 Queensberry St,
North Melbourne, 3051

For more details about the event, please click here.

To book tickets, please click here.

– Keynote Speaker –
Dr Marianne Turner – Monash University
Exploring the ‘SOL’ in ‘TESOL’: Leveraging and developing students’ linguistic repertoire

– Panel of Experts –
Plurilingual perspectives and their implications for teaching
Dr Shem Macdonald – La Trobe University
Dr Marianne Turner – Monash University
Dr Julie Choi – University of Melbourne
Dr Howard Nicholas – La Trobe University

Click here for further information about sessions and presenters.

Free ticket offer for 5 regional EAL practitioners!
To assist EAL practitioners in regional areas to attend this event, VicTESOL is 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.

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Reading and Comparing Face-to-Face Session – Marcellene D’Menzie

Powerpoint Presentation:

Download (PPTX, 2.04MB)

Worksheets:

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Professional Learning: Introduction to the draft English as an Additional Language curriculum

The draft EAL Curriculum has now been released for familiarisation and optional implementation. To support the release of the EAL Curriculum, the VCAA in partnership with VicTESOL, are offering a mix of face-to-face and webinar professional learning sessions over May and June 2019 beginning 16 May. For information and registration details, please go to the VCAA website: Professional Learning/English as an Additional Language.

The VCAA is also welcoming feedback via an online form which can be found here, with feedback closing on 29 August 2019.