View Learning Outcomes | Learning Outcomes and Indicators

Curriculum Focus

Communication

Students communicate in a wide variety of contexts. They develop the oral English language skills needed to participate effectively in the classroom, in small group tasks and when presenting information to others. They talk about their own personal experiences and listen to those of others. Through a range of classroom activities based around the key learning areas, teachers model a variety of imaginative and factual spoken texts that students need to participate fully in school activities. Students work in a variety of group contexts where they are encouraged to listen to, question, clarify and report. Students listen to, give and follow instructions to carry out tasks, play games, and follow classroom procedures. They listen to a range of audiovisual texts to gain and communicate specific information.

Aspects of language

Contextual understanding

Students use a wide range of spoken text types and a variety of communicative formulas to interact for specific purposes and audiences. Role-play, drama, cooperative small group activities and participation in other interactive situations develop communicative strategies, for example, turn-taking, topic selection and topic change. Students become familiar with and able to use these appropriate responses and interactive devices in conversation. Through discussion, students develop a deeper understanding of the role of non-verbal behaviour in interactions in English. Teachers read aloud and introduce students to a wide variety of audiovisual texts, such as tapes of conversations, videos, TV programs and interactive media, and discuss the appropriateness of the text to its audience. Students talk to explore and clarify ideas as preparation for oral reports or writing.

Linguistic structures and features

Teachers introduce students to new sentence and text structures and vocabulary for specific tasks, activities or topics, and students use their developing English vocabulary and knowledge about English in real classroom contexts. Students are given feedback that helps them to extend and refine their speaking skills in a wide variety of contexts. Teachers provide a variety of models of spoken interaction, both formal and informal, and guidance in terms of features, such as pronunciation. Students begin to refine their oral English language features according to the particular social and cultural situation.

Strategies

Teachers model, revise and recycle vocabulary and sentence structures, and create opportunities for students to use and develop their oral English skills for a range of purposes. A supportive environment is created in which students feel confident to take risks with oral English and to communicate through a broadening range of functions. Students are encouraged to continue to use their first language in order to clarify new or difficult concepts. Teachers model pronunciation and encourage students to participate in activities that develop rhythm, intonation and fluency, for example, chants, repetitive rhymes. They are aware that students may have been exposed to differing prior learning and school experiences, and they may need to develop new strategies in order to participate in and maintain the kinds of interactions common to the classroom. Teachers actively model and role play with students those strategies that assist them to sustain and maintain communication in English. Students develop skills in presenting their ideas and describing and explaining their experiences through models of presentations, through explicit discussion of what makes particular interactions successful and through using scaffolds, such as key topic words, sentence beginnings and connecting words or phrases.