We had a meeting a month or so before the end of term, where the heads of certain subjects in the Junior school met to discuss the provision that we make in our individual subjects for the growing number of students in the school who have first languages other than English. We have students from around 10 countries in our school community, and they are given some excellent support by my ESOL colleague Mr. Williams, and members of the Learning Support department, and other staff including those in the boarding houses and the International School.
Mr. Williams went through some of the training he had attended, which had identified two main elements to learning a new language:
BICS - Basic Interpersonal Communication Skill The speech of everyday life. Acquired through speaking and listening in everyday situations. Takes one or two years to acquire BICS and become confident speakers of English in most situations.
CALP - Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency The language we use in school learning such as thoughts, concepts and processes. CALP is learnt rather than acquired. Mainly found in written texts and with fewer visual supports. Some research suggests it takes 7-10 years to develop and for many EAL learners progress stalls after 3-4 years.
Second language development research by Jim Cummings was referred to.
We've already done some work on the place of geographical vocabulary in learning the subject. This is important both literally (geographical terms which need to be understood and used for exam success), but also
Has anyone done any particular work in this area and would like to work together or share some ideas?
Mr. Williams went through some of the training he had attended, which had identified two main elements to learning a new language:
BICS - Basic Interpersonal Communication Skill The speech of everyday life. Acquired through speaking and listening in everyday situations. Takes one or two years to acquire BICS and become confident speakers of English in most situations.
CALP - Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency The language we use in school learning such as thoughts, concepts and processes. CALP is learnt rather than acquired. Mainly found in written texts and with fewer visual supports. Some research suggests it takes 7-10 years to develop and for many EAL learners progress stalls after 3-4 years.
Second language development research by Jim Cummings was referred to.
We've already done some work on the place of geographical vocabulary in learning the subject. This is important both literally (geographical terms which need to be understood and used for exam success), but also
Has anyone done any particular work in this area and would like to work together or share some ideas?
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