Promoting+English+at+ISE

Promoting English language development

 * The Student’s Role:**
 * Use time effectively.
 * Cooperate with others.
 * Show respect for staff and students.
 * Use available resources.
 * Ask for help.
 * Be clear about assignments and requirements.
 * Communicate their needs with their teachers.
 * Look for patterns.
 * Be on time, ready to work.
 * Prepare for class, complete reading and other assignments before class.
 * Participate in class discussions and activities.
 * Demonstrate progress in speaking, listening, reading and writing English.
 * Use English only (exceptions are made with the teacher’s permission when it is essential that a student understand an important concept.)
 * Be actively involved in their language learning and participate in the many activities of school life with a wide variety of students of other nationalities, all of whom are using English.


 * The Parents’ Role:**
 * Understand the ESL program, their child’s English learning needs and their child’s social needs (by talking with their child and their teachers).
 * Support the program’s expectations of the student by making sure that homework is completed.
 * Take an interest in their child’s work and homework.
 * Encourage/provide a variety of English learning opportunities at home and in the community (reading, watching movies or TV in English, socializing with English-speaking friends, after-school clubs and activities in English, etc.).
 * Communicate concerns about their child’s learning with teachers.
 * Ensure their child have adequate sleep and good nutrition.
 * Develop their own native language at home. Children need their own native language to grow so that concepts and vocabulary learned in that language will be more easily learned in English.
 * Inform the school when their child has a tutor and help the tutor communicate with the child’s teachers.
 * Learn English. Model those behaviors you want your child to learn.


 * The Teachers’ Role:**
 * Use instructional strategies that promote cross-cultural interaction (work in pairs, small groups, etc.).
 * Communicate in different modalities (auditory, visuals, handouts, experiential).
 * Have students restate/explain tasks, directions, concepts.
 * Use controlled vocabulary when understanding is essential.
 * Provide for various think time and response time and give more time for work completion.
 * Teach vocabulary.
 * Model for students.
 * Vary assessment methods; ensure language is not interfering
 * Provide choices whenever possible.
 * Limit the student’s use of their native language.