View Learning Outcomes | Learning Outcomes and Indicators

Curriculum Focus

Communication

Teachers ensure that students experience a wide variety of situations and purposes for hearing and using English. 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 talk simply about their English learning and classroom learning, and 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 control the complexity of the English they use with students, using known vocabulary and structures in new situations. They encourage students to be creative with their English resources and to adapt them to new communicative and functional demands. Students are provided with correct models within the context of communicative activities and classroom organisational routines. The English they are learning to speak becomes the basis for what they are reading and writing 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 different language choices. 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, students begin to understand how English intonation and stress assist meaning. Teachers give students models of English to follow, where the context for the use of particular language is clear. Teachers discuss with students, at a basic level, the need for common courtesy phrases and the contexts for using them.

Linguistic structures and features

Teachers focus students incidentally onto correct grammatical features and vocabulary without lessening the communicative value of students’ own forms of English. Students begin to recognise patterns of English features through rhymes, games, songs and repetitive texts. Through activities students are taught the English necessary for performing some of the basic functions of classroom learning, such as comparing and clarifying. Teachers ensure that students understand that although communication is the main aim of an interchange, accurate usage will enhance communication.

Strategies

Teachers encourage students to take risks with their spoken communication. They respond positively to students’ attempts at communicating in English and they provide support by scaffolding and restating students’ English in 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 challenging them with new and more complex forms.