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Writing in English as an additional language in UK schools

Writing in English as an additional language in UK schools. Lynne Cameron University of Leeds. The research projects. KS4 and post-16: OFSTED funded (2003) KS2: DfES funded (2004) “Writing in EAL” Aims:

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Writing in English as an additional language in UK schools

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  1. Writing in English as an additional language in UK schools Lynne Cameron University of Leeds

  2. The research projects • KS4 and post-16: OFSTED funded (2003) • KS2: DfES funded (2004) • “Writing in EAL” • Aims: • to identify in detail features of written English that bilingual students find difficult, and thus enable teachers to address them more systematically in their teaching.

  3. Research procedures • Scripts and writer details provided by schools. • Close analysis of scripts. • Comparison of results across three groups: • EAL students achieving at average or below • English mother tongue (EMT) peer group • High achieving EAL students

  4. Key Stage 4 • Year 11 students • Mock GSCE exams - English and other subjects. • Focus group (N=103) • EAL, at least 5 years in UK, C/D borderline or below in English GCSE • Gujerati, Punjabi, Bengali, Urdu + others • Time in UK education: 10 years 4 months.

  5. Comparison groups • EMT: peers with English as first language (N = 16) • High EAL: predicted A or B in English GCSE. (N = 20) • First languages:Bengali, Gujerati + others • Time in UK education: 10 years 10 mths

  6. Key Stage 2 • Year 6 pupils. • KS2 English National Curriculum Tests, Writing. Levels 3, 4, 5. • EAL: (N=138) • at least 5 years in UK (mean = 7 years 2 months) • First languages: Punjabi, Urdu, Bengali, Gujerati + others • EMT: (N = 126)

  7. An integrated framework for writing The text as a whole Content ideas and topics composition purpose Language resources genre paragraphs linking within the text

  8. within the text Content the development of sub-topics, storyline.. Language resources sentence grammar words and phrases punctuation figurative language

  9. Evaluating the whole text: Genre Genres as socially conventionalised ways of writing: a letter to a newspaper (KS4) a story, a radio advert (KS2) • format • style • voice and purpose • stance Does the writer consistently and effectively use the genre required?

  10. Format • Letter openings and closings • Explicit teaching of format seemed to help EAL students.

  11. KS4 Findings - style • EAL students need support in developing their awareness of degrees of formality and the language typical of different genres (rhetorical adaptability). • High EAL students need more advanced awareness to judge nuances of style. • EMT students need more familiarity with written genres and their language.

  12. Style - EAL errors of language choice • formality Hope you are fine I thank you extremely for your patience • talk / writing I mean just look at • relationship to reader don’t just sit there - get moving • overly explicit / academic essay genre I think I have given some good reasons as to why...

  13. KS 4 Findings - voice and purpose • Writing in specific genres requires students to adopt and use multiple layers of voices. This seemed to lead to confusion about the writer’s role and purpose, audience, and how to address the audience.

  14. KS4 Findings - Content and Linking Ideas • Texts were too short. • Focus EAL group had most problems with content. • Some had ideas but did not express them clearly. • Ideas were not developed into detail. • Paragraphing was not used well, by all writers.

  15. To produce extended writing on a topic needs... • a range of connected ideas about the topic • development of each idea • connections made between the ideas as the writing progresses • linking the sequence of ideas to the topic and to the purpose of the writing.

  16. Finding ideas to write about • your experience • your world knowledge • task materials • reading demands • unfamiliar contexts • different genre and register • KS2: pictures

  17. Developing an idea • get more precise • give examples • explain connections

  18. Developing ideas Riding bikes is a good exercise for life. It is a way of keeping fit and healthy… An easly simple quick way of keeping fit is by just riding the bike for about an hour each week… Riding bikes …also makes sure that you have lower risk of getting a heart problem. …helped me loose weight …3 stones ...

  19. Generating ideas to write about • Think yourself into the writer’s role in the genre and situation. • Use of drama to clarify voice and purpose. • Practise changing voice and style. • Brainstorm, mind-map around key words. • Break topics down into sub-topics. • Extract key words from task materials and use for ideas.

  20. Story genre: format • setting • characters • problem • resolution • (moral)

  21. KS2 Storyline: Findings • 68% did what they were asked • 32% changed the storyline in some way • they fight over a poster, not the game • Problem - boy does not have enough money to buy the game • EAL level 5 scripts were surprisingly likely to change the storyline (35%, EMT level 5 - 10%)

  22. Why, and does it matter? • Do EAL students interpret the pictures in the same way as EMT / as intended? • Do EAL students attach less importance to sticking close to the storyline? • Do they change because of difficulties finding the language to describe the given storyline? • Does it matter in NC tests?

  23. Narrative development strategies • Description • Direct Speech • Figurative language - metaphors and similes.

  24. Narrative development: Findings • Level 3: EAL and EMT similar amounts of development; Level 4: mixed • Level 5: EMT did more development than EAL in all components except Setting • Best scripts (level 5 / a lot) did most development of Character, then Setting. Least development of Problem.

  25. Narrative development strategies: Findings • Description most used. Then Direct Speech, then Figurative Language. • Figurative language used more by EAL and more by higher levels. • Levels 3 and 5 EAL used more Direct Speech than EMT.

  26. Level 5 scripts used more variety of development. • Level 5: EMT used more of each strategy than EAL, except for Figurative Language to develop Character.

  27. Story endings: completeness • EAL level 3 had highest number of incomplete endings • Level 5: EAL much higher number than EMT • Level 4: EMT higher than EAL, and EMT level 3.

  28. Story endings: originality • Just over 10% had interesting or original endings. • Steady increase across levels. • EMT stories consistently more than EAL.

  29. Helping with endings • Listen to and read stories with different types of endings. • Notice how writers end their stories and the effect on the reader of a satisfying ending. • Work out how a story will end before starting to write. • Write a story with a given ending.

  30. Paragraphing: Findings • Use varied by level, rather than language. • Level 3: 20% of stories showed no use of paragraphs. • Overall use of paragraphing better than in Key Stage 4 project.

  31. Evaluating language use within the text • Sentence level language • What use is made of the possibilities of English clauses and sentence grammar? • Words and Phrases • What use is made of the possibilities of phrases within clauses? • Range of vocabulary used. • Accuracy • How accurate is the use of language?

  32. The basic structure of an English clause {the government} {should allow} S V {more space} {in trains} {for bikes} O A A S V O/C A SubjectVerbObject/ComplementAdverbial

  33. Joining clauses • Co-ordination and, but, or • Sub-ordination when, if, because, who, that

  34. KS 4 Findings - sentence and clause grammar • High EAL make most use of grammar resources • High EAL show most variety in clause and sentence types. • Focus EAL use simple clause and sentence structure.

  35. Sub-ordinators • Basic sub-ordinators: that, because, if, so, as, when, who • Advanced sub-ordinators: which, where, although, after, until, unless etc. • High EAL made twice as much use of ‘advanced sub-ordinators’ as Focus and EMT.

  36. Sub-ordination at KS4 • High EAL used lowest number of sub-ordinators. • EMT used most. • High EAL used most variety of sentence types.

  37. Subordination at KS2 • Different pattern from KS 4. • EMT use more subordination than EAL. • For both groups, the amount of subordination increases from level 3 to level 4 to level 5. • Does the use of variety of clause types come with maturity?

  38. At KS4, very little use of Subject relative clauses: the people (who) I talked to all agreed … • At KS2, EAL use more Subject relative clauses than EMT. • Not much use of Adverbial clauses: As you may already know, there are ...

  39. Filling the Adverbial slot: non-finite clauses • High EAL used more non-finite clauses, I have written this letter to tell you my reasons By Burning body fat and raising your metabolic rate, youcan looseweight • but there were very few of the more advanced types of non-finite clause: after listing the reasons,… in agreeing to this, …

  40. Filling the Adverbial slot • More Adverbials could be used. • More phrases could be extended into clauses.

  41. Findings: Length of Subjects • At KS 4 and KS 2 level 4, EAL writing uses more single-word Subjects • EMT also use short Subjects • KS 4 high EAL use longer Subjects • At KS 4, high EAL and EMT vary Subject length with type of writing.

  42. Findings - ‘bare’ noun phrases • Focus and EMT groups use short and simple phrases: the school, the adults, a good idea • KS 4 high EAL use longer phrases with more interesting words an easly quick simple way a larger number of young people

  43. Findings - Words and phrases • Greatest differences between EAL and EMT writing was in accuracy at word and phrase level. • EAL errors • formulaic phrases and collocations • ‘small’ words • endings and agreements • consistency of verb tense and modality

  44. Formulaic phrases • are words that are ‘bound’ together they waited for long(for a long time) for a lot of time after somecouple of weeks(a) • Strong differences between EAL and EMT; as at KS4. At least twice as many errors.

  45. from KS2 Script 1 • his class girl • lots of people at the front of him • very amazed • I am not going to buy you a game any more

  46. ‘small’ words • prepositions e.g. in, with, up help on pollution regret of what they did • delexical verbs e.g. make, put, do it will do a really good help to us schools don’t give enough interest

  47. Learning formulaic phrases • Students should meet / notice / learn words as parts of phrases, as well as separately. • Errors in phrases should be corrected, in speech and writing, sensitively and consistently. • Explicit teaching of thematic sets of phrases may be useful e.g. time phrases

  48. articles • omitted • used wrongly it will decrease (the) traffic • A statistically significant difference between EAL and EMT at KS4 but not at KS2

  49. Agreements • Subject -Verb agreements there are so much traffic Everyone else are looking • Noun-pronoun agreements I think bike-friendly measures should be introduced.. Because it will • Plurals Next times he is going to

  50. Agreements: findings • At KS 4, EAL made significantly more errors than EMT writers. • This persisted even for High EAL writers. • At KS 2, there were very few errors and no significant difference. • EMT made more errors, largely due to spoken language influence: in’t they he hurt his self

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