View Learning Outcomes | Learning Outcomes and Indicators

Curriculum Focus

Communication

Students listen to and use English for a wide variety of different classroom and social purposes. Students talk simply about their English learning and their classroom learning in the other KLAs. They interact with other students in social situations through work and play, expressing their wants and needs simply and understanding the needs of others. They use simple English in a wide range of classroom-based imaginative and aesthetic contexts, talking about the imaginative and creative activities of themselves and others. Teachers encourage students to be creative with their English resources and to adapt them to new communicative and functional demands. Students are provided with appropriate models within the context of communicative activities and classroom organisational routines. The English they are learning to speak becomes the basis for them to begin to learn to read and write in English. Teachers accept and respond to students’ oral English, scaffolding and supporting talk. They restate when students indicate that they do not understand and they employ non-verbal language to support the interaction.

Aspects of language

Contextual understanding

Through their first language learning, students already understand that different situations may require the use of different kinds of language. By taking part in activities for a range of classroom purposes, students begin to adapt their basic oral English repertoire and non-verbal resources to respond appropriately to different social and school situations. By listening for intonational clues for meaning when conversing or listening to text read aloud, students begin to understand how English intonation and stress assist meaning. Teachers provide clear models of English to follow, where the context for the use of particular language is obvious, and specifically teach the English needed, for example, common courtesy phrases and conversational markers and the contexts for using them. Students talk simply about the effects of non-verbal language on others, and how non-verbal language can enhance the meaning of spoken texts.

Linguistic structures and features

Teachers accept and respond to students’ oral English, scaffolding and supporting talk and providing students with correct models within the context of communicative activities and classroom organisational routines. They restate when students indicate non-understanding and they use non-verbal language to support the interaction. They focus students incidentally on correct grammatical features and vocabulary while responding to the communicative meaning of the students’ own forms of English. Students are taught the features necessary for performing some of the basic functions of classroom learning, such as comparing and clarifying. Students begin to recognise patterns in English features through games, rhymes, songs and repetitive texts.

Strategies

Teachers encourage students to take risks with their spoken communication. They respond positively to students’ attempts at communication in English and they provide support by scaffolding and restating students’ English in the correct forms. They encourage students to use non-verbal communication to enhance their spoken texts, and to focus on the non-verbal communication of others. Teachers modify the language they use with students to match the level of English of the students, while still introducing them to new and more complex forms. Students understand that accurate usage will enhance communication, but that meaning can be negotiated.