Saturday, 20 October 2012

Indentifying EAL students


 

Ask!


I include the questions "How long have you lived in Canada?" and "What languages do you speak?" on the getting-to-know-you questionnaire I give to students in the first week of classes.

This has helped me to identify students who may potentially need EAL support, especially after also looking at a writing sample. Not all students who were born in another country or who speak another language will need language support, but some of them do. In particular this has helped me identify students I might not have otherwise recognized because their conversational English was so good. Remember- students might have excellent conversational English skills, but academic reading/writing skills take a lot longer to develop.

We know who many of the EAL students at GCC are. We will be messaging teachers through teacher connect about students who are currently registered in one of our EAL classes as well as other students who we think may need some supports this year. But there are EAL students in this school who have not been identified to us yet who could need some support. Sometimes students transfer in from out of division and come unidentified as an EAL student. 
 
If there are students in your classes who you think may need our support, please come talk to us.


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