Support and Advice for Primary School Teachers of EAL Students

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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.