Teacher guide English as an Additional Language: Science Language Literacy Pilot Project

TLF ID S7066

This teacher resource describes a pilot project in which selected Victorian science teachers learnt functional and systemic pedagogical strategies to support English as an Additional Language (EAL) students to understand and use science literacy genres. Organised in nine sections: Summary; Target student group; Method; Results; Lessons learned; Next steps; Research base; Further reading and links; and Contacts, the resource outlines the five-day course the teachers took part in; points to the effectiveness of the Genre Teaching and Learning Cycle model; and identifies the conditions under which the effectiveness of the pilot can be replicated.





Educational details

Educational value
  • This is an important resource for secondary schools concerned about improving their EAL students' attainment of the English and science achievement standards from year 7 to 10 and their development of the Literacy general capability across the full range of learning areas. The project specifically targeted improving teachers' pedagogy so that EAL students would not only learn how scientific genres are structured, understand scientific texts and produce their own texts, but would also be motivated to continue school until year 12. The teachers involved in the project reported growth in student understanding and more students continuing science in years 10 to 12.
  • The resource is particularly valuable in identifying the conditions under which success for EAL students can be replicated in other schools and in learning areas other than science. Conditions identified include: teachers believing the EAL students can learn the subject at the same time as they are learning English; teachers understanding the importance of modelling explicit literacy teaching practices; and school leaders establishing a whole-school culture of professional learning and discussion, with responsibility for students' literacy shared by all subject areas.
Year level

7; 8; 9; 10; 11

Learning area
  • English
  • Science

Other details

Contributors
  • Contributor
  • Name: Education Services Australia
  • Organization: Education Services Australia
  • Description: Data manager
  • Copyright Holder
  • Name: Commonwealth of Australia
  • Organization: Commonwealth of Australia
  • Address: AUSTRALIA
  • URL: http://www.australia.gov.au
  • Publisher
  • Name: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Organization: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Description: Publisher
  • Address: AUSTRALIA
  • URL: http://www.esa.edu.au
  • Resource metadata contributed by
  • Name: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Organisation: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Address: AUSTRALIA
  • URL: www.esa.edu.au
Access profile
  • Generic
Learning Resource Type
  • Online
  • Text
Rights
  • © 2014 Commonwealth of Australia, unless otherwise indicated. This material is provided under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike licence (CC BY-SA 3.0 AU) unless otherwise indicated. You may distribute, remix and build upon this material, provided that you include the acknowledgement '© Commonwealth of Australia 2014' and license under the same terms any new creations you have based on the material.