RUAMRUDEE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL

THE ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE

PROGRAMIN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Parents sometimes ask, “My child can already speak English. Why is he in the ESL program?”

We should keep in mind that students need to be proficient in two kinds of English to be successful in school.

To be able to chat with their friends they need social English.

Most children pick that up quite quickly.

However, to be successful in school, students need

to become proficient at academic English.

This is the English they will need to fully understand the concepts taught in their subject areas and to complete assignments well.

Mastering this kind of English takes much longer than social English; usually between five and seven years, sometimes more.

Some students learn quite quickly at first, and then, as the language becomes more complex as they move up through the grade levels, they get stuck, or “plateau” at a mediocre level of English.

Some of them might be able to scrape through their subjects, but they don’t achieve as highly as they could if their academic English was more strongly developed.

The ESL program at RIS has these main goals:

To enable students to develop their English language proficiency to the best of their ability

To provide English language support for students so they can be successful in the mainstream classroom

How long do students stay in the ESL program?

How long do students stay in the ESL program? Each child progresses at a different rate. That progress is monitored carefully.

Each semester a standardized language test is given to students in the ESL program, and teachers meet formally to discuss each child’s progress. A committee meets to decide whether continued support is needed. This decision is based on the student’s performance in class, as well as in the language test and other assessments. It is expected that students will pass all sections of the test - reading, writing, listening and speaking - before being exited from the ESL program.

Who is involved in the

program?

?

Of course, the most important people in the program are the

students!

This year, we have four English language specialists in the elementary school.

Mrs. Marilyn works with the fourth grade. She has many years of experience teaching English language in schools in Australia, the United States, Thailand, Indonesia, Burma, Brunei and Turkey.

Mrs Pat is a former student at Ruamrudee International School. She is an excellent linguist with many years of experience teaching English. She will

work with the children in grade three.

Ms. Nora is from Colorado in the United States. She has taught ESL in schools for many years in a variety of locations, such as Japan, Korea and Lebanon. Ms. Nora works with grade 5 classes this year.

Mr. Stuart comes from Sydney, Australia. He is an experienced ESL and elementary classroom teacher who has worked at schools in Australia, Thailand, Japan and Brunei. Mr. Stuart works with grades 2 and 5.

The other important members of the ESL team are the homeroom teachers.

Language support teachers and homeroom teachers work closely together to make sure students in the ESL program are getting the support and instruction they need.

How will the ESL program operate this year?

ESL students will be clustered in two to four homeroom classes at each grade level from grade 2 to 5.

There will be between 4 and 8 ESL students in a class of 20 to 23 students.

A student in the ESL program follows the regular curriculum in all respects, doing the same assignments as his or her peers and being assessed using the same criteria used to assess other students.

For around two periods every day, usually during language arts, ESL-designated classes will have two teachers: the homeroom teacher and an English language specialist.

These two teachers plan lessons together and both take responsibility for students’ learning.

Having an English language support teacher in the classroom means that children in the ESL program get individual attention in a number of different ways.

Let’s look at some Let’s look at some examples of how examples of how

students in the ESL students in the ESL program will receive program will receive language support and language support and

instruction.instruction.

Cooperative learning groups are a very effective way of learning. Here, the ESL teacher is working with a group of fifth graders, making sure the ESL

students are fully involved in the learning process.

In this fourth grade class, the ESL teacher is working closely with two ESL students.

In this third grade class, an ESL student is receiving individual attention from the ESL teacher, while the rest of the class is working on their assignments with the homeroom teacher.

With two teachers teaching the class, there’s always plenty of opportunity for each child to receive individual attention from both teachers.

The ESL teacher is teaching a lesson on reading skills to the whole class in this third grade classroom.

In this second grade classroom, both teachers are moving around the room, ensuring the ESL students in the class are receiving the support they need to understand and complete their work successfully.

This second grade ESL student takes the opportunity to check her understanding of a task with the ESL teacher.

Most of the time, students in the ESL program will work in the regular classroom, as you have just seen. Sometimes, however, groups of students are taken to another room to work, either by the ESL teacher or the homeroom teacher.

The homeroom teacher and ESL teacher plan lessons together and teach together. This focuses instruction on the language needs of the students, allowing ESL students to achieve success in the regular classroom.

What can parents do to help their children?

Did you know that one of the most important factors in learning a second language successfully is to have a well-developed first language, both spoken and written?

Parents can help their children by using that first language at home to discuss what they are learning at school, or what they are reading.

Other ways to help children’s English improve …

Encourage them to read for enjoyment as much as possible and show an interest in what they’re reading.

When older students watch DVDs, have the English subtitles showing, even if the movie is already in English.

Make a special time each day, or week, for speaking only English in the house. Make it a fun and positive experience.

Two more ways parents can help their child’s English improve…

Enrol them in EDP classes. There are several which promote English language development.

Encourage friendships with non-Thai speakers.

Meeting children’s learning needs is very important to us. Thank you for taking the

time to find out more about the ESL program at RIS.