The ESL Philosophy

At KIS children have a wonderful opportunity to enhance their language learning skills by adding a new language to their language repertoire and hence become a bilingual learner. Research shows that being bilingual not only benefits a child linguistically, but also cognitively has a positive effect on intellectual performance. It is our aim at KIS to play our role in developing a child’s bilingualism by facilitating their English language learning. Language learning is a complex process in which the rate and direction of learning vary from child to child. The sequence of language learning is seen as one in which there is an expanding repertoire of individual abilities and competence. Research has shown that children will best learn language if they engage in its meaningful use. The more they use language in meaningful situations, the more rapidly they achieve competency. At KIS, children are provided with opportunities to use language to communicate in a wide range of activities. They learn by doing, by trying out language, and modifying it to serve communicative needs in natural and authentic contexts. Therefore, the ESL program draws heavily on the interests and experiences of all children, incorporating “real-life” language, which reflects the lives, values, and experiences of children from differing social and cultural backgrounds.

It is essential that children feel that they are a successful member of the group. We endeavor therefore, to create learning environments where a child feels comfortable, accepted and happy while feeling challenged and ready to take risks, knowing that mistakes and misunderstandings are accepted as essential to human growth and development.

The ESL Program

At KIS we do not use any single program, as no one program can satisfy what is now known about language learning. The program we provide is driven by what the research and our own experience tells us about how children best learn. Therefore the ESL program at KIS is in line with the schools Language Curriculum, which has the goal of utilizing every opportunity to develop and expand the existing base of language and thinking skills by providing a broad, rich curriculum that builds on the existent language facility and knowledge of learners. This stance also supports the PYP Program, which is now implemented throughout the Elementary School. In our ESL program the four modes of language (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) are taught as an integrated whole and not in isolation. This makes language learning natural and therefore easier for the learner. This approach provides reinforcement for all aspects of language learning and lends itself optimally in promoting communicative competence through a content-based approach, supporting class programs. Reading and writing stories, poetry and plays, performing role-plays, drama and puppet plays, reciting poems and chants, singing songs, playing games, watching videos, listening to cassettes, making recordings, incorporating arts and crafts, using the computer for various purposes, peer tutoring and group work, etc. –are all ways in which learning opportunities are created in an engaging and motivating manner. With this approach language skills such as grammar, vocabulary and sentence structures are learned in meaningful contexts, where it is easier for the children to make connections and practice these skills for real purposes. Spelling is developed in a similar fashion where the purpose of writing is to communicate thought, giving children the impetus to express themselves through print. As learning to spell is a developmental process, writing for authentic reasons is a powerful way of promoting progress in spelling. The mother-tongue language skills and wealth of knowledge that ESL children bring with them is essential to their English language learning and plays an important role in the planning of programs. For many ESL students the opportunity to use their first/home language to support learning and understanding will provide a way of enhancing the conceptualization of ideas and confirm language and meaning.

Listening and Speaking

Talk is a vital key to language acquisition! Learning oral English is the foundation for learning to read and write in English. The tasks that second-language students have to deal with when starting to learn a new language and the complex understandings they have to develop in order to use the new language for oral communication are immense. However, ESL learners have already learned at least one language and, therefore know a great deal about how to learn a language. Part of the process in both first and second language learning involves hypothesizing the rules and structures of a language. Second language learners formulate rules for themselves in a way that makes sense to them. Any errors in this initial predictive language needs to be supported and not labeled as incorrect. Errors and mistakes indicate that learning is taking place! A ‘silent period’ can occur and is natural in the early stages. Silence does not mean lack of comprehension and learning. Some new arrivals do not speak until they have worked out the procedures and rules and feel confident enough to try using English. Parents can assist their child’s second language oral acquisition by maintaining the home language for everyday communication.

Pronunciation

At KIS, ESL learners may experience difficulty in hearing and producing certain English sounds that do not occur in their language. The difficulties experienced are most likely due to a lack of exposure to English, and lack of experience in using it. Students become more proficient with pronunciation as they become more familiar with the language as a whole.

Reading

• age
• literacy skills in their first language
• whether or not they have already learned a script that is different from English, and consequently need to learn a new script to read English.

• new sounds and how they are represented in English (and learn that the same sounds may be represented by different letters or groups of letters, or that the same letters may represent different sounds in different words )
  
• new stress and intonation patterns, which may carry different meanings
• new conventions in the presentation of texts, and the organization of information in texts
  
• new culturally specific reading values and behaviors

• that English uses a phonetic writing system
• how sounds are represented in English
• new conventions, such as reading text from left to write, and turning ages from right to left.

For most ESL learners there is a close link between what they are able to talk about in English, and what they are able to read and understand in English. New students are likely to understand more of a text if they hear it read aloud than if they try to read it for themselves. The stress and intonation will help convey meanings that the written words alone cannot convey. Therefore the importance of reading choice and of reading to students cannot be stressed enough. Parents can support their child’s additional language reading progress by ensuring that the child has plenty of opportunity to read and is read to in the home language.

Writing

Like learning to read in English, learning to write in English has strong links with learning to speak in English. ESL students need to learn about the way English works in its written form, which as with reading, means working out how the language operates at the sound letter and grammatical levels, as well as learning new English words. Students will also need to learn how writing changes in English to suit different audiences. This all takes time, but right from the first day students may begin to write simple messages and ideas in English, using classroom models. Parents can also encourage their children to write in their home language for authentic reasons.

Assessing and Monitoring ESL Development

Assessment is on-going to assist teachers to provide the best possible program for the students and their individual needs. Through daily contact with the students in small group learning situations, and by collecting and analyzing their work, teachers gain a comprehensive view of each child’s development in the following categories:

Communication – focuses on communicative use of English and the acquisition of English for social interaction and for learning in the school context.

Contextual understanding – focuses on the development of a student’s understanding of, and ability to use English appropriately, in a variety of situations and contexts.

Linguistic structures and features - focuses on a student’s learning of the structures and features of English, such as grammar, vocabulary, conventions of text organization, and aspects of its sound and writing system.

Strategies- focuses on the strategies that a student uses as English is learned and communicated. By monitoring a student’s progress as a part of teaching and learning, a student’s achievements, no matter how small, can be regularly acknowledged and celebrated, giving students the necessary confidence to take risks in their second language learning.

There is no full-proof formula or test that can be applied to students to determine their stage or level.
Making judgments about student performance requires that teachers know students well, have observed them over time in a variety of situations, and have collected on-going records of their progress.

Program Structure
At KIS, the ESL program provides two options for instruction:

• Pull-out ESL instruction: Students are taught in small groups for a specified period each day. Additionally, students requiring further assistance may be taught individually or in smaller groups at other times, as arranged with the classroom teacher.
• Integrated ESL instruction: Students receive ESL instruction individually or in a group within their regular classroom. This instruction is provided by an ESL teacher or Teaching assistant, who closely works with the classroom teacher in order to choose appropriate content-based material according to the abilities and levels of the ESL students. As much as possible, the ESL students are integrated in regular classroom activities modified to suit their needs.

In both of these options, close communication between the ESL teacher and the classroom teacher is essential to establishing a content-based curriculum appropriate to each group, and to determine an individual student’s needs. Pull-out as well as mainstream support are very effective according to our experience and these two options provide the necessary flexibility essential to providing optimum assistance. We feel that especially the beginning ESL student experiences a more effective and rewarding learning situation in a separate focused group where their social as well as their learning needs can be more closely met. As student numbers are small (not more than 10) teachers are able to foster a close relationship with the students who in the early days may feel lost and confused. In such instances the ESL environment can be a real haven for ESL students.

Why do some children learn English more quickly than others?

Some Factors
The more similar the first language is to the new language, the more the children will make connections and learn.

First language
When children read books in their mother tongue and spell in their mother tongue, they build a strong background of knowledge, which helps them to make connections to reading in the new language.

Background Experience
When parents take children to museums, galleries, zoos, movies and talk and read with their children in their own language, children are able to make connections more quickly to content taught in English.

Self-Esteem
Children with high self-esteem are more likely to take risks, to engage others in conversation, to worry less about making mistakes.

Attitude towards the Target Language and Culture
When children feel – “I like these people. I want to be able to talk to them” – they are more motivated to try and learn a new language.

Attitude towards the teacher and the classroom environment
When the children like the teacher and like the school, and want to work with the teacher and their peers, they acquire new language more quickly.

Motivation
If children did not want to leave their own country or if they are angry, anxious or frustrated about their new experiences – this slows down learning. The more a child wants to learn, the faster they do learn.

Anxiety Level
The more worried a child is or the more worried parents are, the more slowly a child learns. Pressure is not helpful in improving the speed of language acquisition.

Acculturation
If children think people are like them, they will learn more quickly. If children think people are very different to themselves, they are less likely to learn the new language. If children are afraid they will lose their identity, this can also cause learning difficulties.

Personality
Children who are outgoing tend to learn languages more quickly.

Supporting the ESL Child’s Language Learning at Home

Parents of ESL students often ask if they should speak English at home with their child. The practice of switching the language of the home in order to help a child learn English for school is generally not recommended. Communication between parents and children can be tricky and changing the language of the home can complicate issues even more. Also, this question usually comes up after the child has been in school for some time and is experiencing some difficulty. The suggestion that parents begin to speak English with the child at home can have the adverse effect of reinforcing the child’s sense of failure with the language. However there are some exceptions to the rule, and the child should participate fully in the decision to switch languages as well as genuinely desire this change.

While speaking English with your child might not be such a good idea, speaking and reading your home language is one of the best ways to help improve your child’s command of both languages. Research on the connection between a solid foundation in the home language and success in learning a second language is undisputed.

Ensuring the continued development of the home language is not always easy. Your child is immersed in English for at least six hours of every school day and is often tired and busy with homework in the evening. However, parents who make the effort are often rewarded with a child who is academically successful and proficient in two languages.

The following suggestions and tips for developing home language skills have been useful for some parents. If you have any to add to this list, please let us know.

• Be language aware. Talk to your children and take advantage of every opportunity for home language enrichment in the course of your daily interactions.
• Plan ahead. Find out from the school what topics your child will most likely be studying in the course of the school year. Collect related learning materials on visits back to your home country.
  
• Provide your child with an encyclopedia in the home language. Encarta, the CD-ROM encyclopedia, is considered to be an excellent resource for ESL students and is now available in several languages.
  
• As far as possible, help your child to an extensive understanding of the topics they are studying in school. Provide your child with books, magazines and videos in your home language. Engage in discussions at home on school topics and take trips to museums and places of cultural interest and beauty. The value of these kinds of resources for the child’s personal development as well as for their studies in school cannot be overemphasized.
  
• Enlist the support of relatives and friends in your home country who might be able to help you get the necessary resources. Get together with other families with the same language background and pool your learning resources.
  
• Join a book club to encourage reading in your home language.
  
• Plan for your child to take instruction in the home language, especially if you expect to be away for a long time.
  
• Maintain contact with the school.
  
• Understand and don’t become anxious about the silent ‘silent phase’
  
• Don’t pressure your child to speak English
  
• Be a good role model and socialize with speakers of English as well as of other languages.
  
• Be a good role model and read books in the language of your choice or what is appropriate to the occasion. Read for pleasure in your home language.
  
• Don’t correct your child’s English. Making mistakes is an important part of learning.
  
• Try and remember what language learning was like for you. Put yourself in your child’s shoes.
  
• Trust your child to learn the new language just as they learned their mother tongue.
  
• Criticizing a child’s efforts to communicate in the new language can be detrimental.

What the Research Tells Us

• As opposed to long held beliefs, students do not acquire communicative competence by learning the elements of the language system first. It is not the case that learners learn best by memorizing vocabulary items in isolation and by producing limited simple sentences. Even those students who learn grammar well and are able to pass tests on nouns, verb conjugations, tense usage, and the like may be quite unable to understand language when it is spoken to them outside the classroom. The study of the language system itself, while useful for some students, does not automatically result in the development of the ability to process language in real situations and in the ability to respond meaningfully in appropriate ways. Indeed, an earlier emphasis on the learning of the language system to the exclusion of meaningful interactive activities in the classroom has lead to frustration and dissatisfaction for students. Many adults complain today that although they ‘took’ two or more years of foreign language and obtained high grades on grammar examinations, they are unable to speak the language at all.
• Children take up to two years to develop ‘basic interpersonal communication skills’ (playground/street survival language) BUT it takes from five to seven years to acquire the full range of literacy skills (‘cognitive academic language proficiency’) needed to cope with the literacy demands in Middle School and High School.
• A silent (receptive) period is natural in the learning of a second language and not a sign of learning difficulties in the first/early stages.
• There are developmental factors common to both native and second language acquisition. Pupils learn roughly the same regardless of their first language background.
• Parents should be encouraged to share language and literacy in speaking and listening as well as in reading and writing. This can be as valuable in first/home language as in English.
• Being bilingual can be educationally enriching and has a positive effect on intellectual performance.
• Being bilingual should be valued as a special achievement.
• Students learn English more easily and effectively if they maintain and develop their proficiency in their mother tongue.

Common Questions Asked by Parents
Here is a selection of some of the most frequently asked questions posed by parents of ESL children. The list is not exhaustive and we have attempted to answer them as succinctly as possible. If you have any more questions that you feel have not been addressed here, please let us know!

• What teaching methods does the ESL Department use?
The four modes of language, listening, speaking, reading and writing are taught as an integrated whole and not in isolation. The children participate in many “hands-on” activities in small groups. They are not passive members of the group, but actively participate in a variety of tasks, such as singing, performing role-play, playing games, reading and writing, sharing ideas, discussing, doing arts and crafts, etc.

• How is my child placed in the ESL program on entering KIS?
A student who is a potential candidate for the EAL program is assessed in an informal stress free setting on entering KISS. Background information provided by the parents will give the ESL teachers additional insights into the child’s English proficiency.

• How much support will my child receive?
According to individual needs students receive one or more sessions daily either through pull-out or mainstream instruction or through a combination of both pull-out and classroom support. Parents are notified of their child’s placement in the ESL program by the class teacher.

• How is my child assessed?
There is no one method of assessment used at KIS, no one test can be applied to a child to determine their stage or level. Assessment is viewed as an ongoing process. Through daily contact with the child in small group learning situations and by collecting and analyzing work, teachers gain a comprehensive view of the child’s development.

• How important is Mother Tongue support?
Parents can play a crucial role in supporting their child’s language learning at KIS by maintaining and developing the child’s proficiency in the mother tongue. This can be achieved by speaking the mother tongue, providing reading material in the mother tongue, etc. Research shows that ESL students learn English more effectively if they maintain proficiency in the mother tongue.

• How will my child best learn?
It is our firm and basic belief at KIS that children will learn best in a place where they feel happy, accepted and safe. At KIS we strive to provide such an environment where each child can achieve their best.