ESL Scope and ScalesFREQUENTLY ASKED

QUESTIONS

DECS Language & Multicultural Education Portfolio

Professional Development & Resource Materials for ESL

  Who are ESL learners?

ESL learners are students from non-English speaking backgrounds who need to develop their use of Standard Australian English to a level that will allow them to achieve the Standards within the SACSA Framework relevant to their year level. The decision that language is the issue is based on teacher judgement.

Are Aboriginal learners also ESL learners? 

Aboriginal learners may have an Aboriginal language or Aboriginal English as a first language. These languages or dialects have their own grammar different from Standard Australian English, so standard Australian English needs to be learnt as a second or additional language.

Who has responsibility for ESL learners?

All teachers with ESL learners in their classrooms will share the responsibility for ESL learners developing Standard Australian English. Teachers will use the ESL Scope and Scales to identify the language requirements of their teaching programs. By assessing student work, they will be able to describe what language learning the student still needs to develop.

Why is language an important focus?

The school curriculum requires students to be able to describe, analyse, critically examine, communicate understandings etc. Therefore Students need to have a wide range of language skills in order to be successful.

What is the link between the Learning Areas in SACSA and the ESL Scope and Scales?

Reference to the ESL Scope and Scales is made in the Introduction to each Learning Area in SACSA. It reads: ‘In supporting teaching and learning for ESL students and in assessing their performance educators should use the Learning Area Scope and Standards, in conjunction with the Scope and Scales for ESL.’

What is the relationship between Standards and Scales?

A learner of ESL who has achieved Scale 6, for example, has achieved Standard 1 in the English Learning Area; that is, the linguistic competence of a seven-year-old Standard Australian English speaker. Remember that each of the Standards is for an average to above average achievement of a child of the year level in which the standard is assigned. The closer a student is achieving to the Standard in English for their age, the less likely they will be requiring ESL support.

However even if a 7 year old achieved Scale 6 and hence Standard 1 and so was identified as not needing ESL support, it would still be valid to say that there are some areas of the language that the child needed to develop further, such as:•knowing how to speak in more formal situations•being able to draw on a wide knowledge of cultural texts (eg folk-tales and other stories likely to be used in English-speaking homes in Australia, famous Australian people and television shows, Australian music, major Australian historical events, geographical aspects of the local area or the nation)

•choosing appropriately for a wide range of contexts•a wider lexical store, especially for social situations like picnics and barbecues, and sports matches

However, there remain differences between the Standards for the English Learning Area and the Scales. These are that:

•whereas the Standards are age-related, the Scales include learners of ESL of any age from the beginning. That is, it is possible to locate Year 10 learners of ESL on the complete range of Scales, from 1 to 14•the Outcomes of the Scales refer to the texts and contexts comprising all the Learning Areas, not just the English Learning Area •the focus on the understanding of the cultural meanings in a text and the degree of cultural appropriateness of choices•the Strands in English are organised according to the macro-skills [Listening, Speaking, Reading and Viewing, and Writing] whereas ESL has only two Strands (Texts in Context, Language)

What is the purpose of the ESL Scope and Scales?

The ESL Scope will provide teachers with planning and programming ideas to address the language requirements of the Learning Areas. The ESL Scales will allow teachers to assess and report ESL learners’ language achievements over time. They will provide a mechanism for ESL learners to be identified for support and receive feedback on their English language development.

What is the organisational basis of the ESL Scope and Scales?

The ESL Scope and Scales are organised into two strands – Text in Context and Language - to reflect the inseparable relationship between language and the context in which that language is used.

Why aren’t the ESL Scope and Scales organised according to the macro-skills?

Much of what happens in the classroom in schooling contexts (in contrast with the playground etc) is not just listened to or spoken but rather listening and speaking, reading and writing occur simultaneously with texts. The genre, field, tenor and Mode continua are the most useful ways for catering for these typical texts in these typical contexts.

That doesn’t mean that one couldn’t engage the students in listening activities but we know that an effective listener takes into account the genre (the predictability of the staging allows one to focus on other elements of the text, for example), the field (knowledge of the field will allow one to engage in the text confidently), the tenor (the degree of formality will impact on how much I have to focus on the beginning of the utterances) and the mode (do I rely on the words only or can non-linguistic elements in the context make some or most of the meanings as well).  

What is the link between the ESL Scope and Scales and funding?

Most ESL support categories for which funding is provided require the identification of the ESL Scale for each ESL learner. This data is entered into EDSAS.

Who is responsible for data collection?

It is intended that assessment of ESL learners should be part of the normal teaching process undertaken in a school. Schools will make their own decisions about how the ESL data is collected.

What are the number of texts to be assessed?

A minimum of 2 texts of different genres is recommended to provide an assessment of a student’s English language development.

How should funding for the support of ESL learners be used?

It is expected that the funding provided to schools for ESL learners will be used to improve their learning outcomes. However, schools will determine the best way to use their funding.

What is the ESL Program’s view of having SSOs teach the ESL program?

While all teachers are responsible for the language development of ESL learners, qualified and/or experienced ESL teachers (where appointed) should have lead responsibility for ESL programming and delivery. Where SSOs are used, the ESL teacher or classroom teacher should have oversight of the program.

Why do we have another new document?

Curriculum documents will never be static as they need to respond to changing times and changing understandings. It is professionally responsible for the Department to commission new documents.

How can we keep track of the students’ achievements?

Teachers are designing various ways of recording student achievement of the Outcomes in the ESL Scales. One way is to highlight photocopies of the relevant Scales. Another is to use the Overview chart. Keeping work samples and Scales records in students’ individual folders ensures data is easily accessible and transferable. EDSAS allows the history of ESL Scales to be recorded for each ESL learner.

What ESL professional development courses PD courses are available?

Language and Literacy ESL in the Mainstream ESL IN the Mainstream for the Early LearnerESL in the Mainstream OnlineEarly Literacy and the ESL Learner

To register interest contact:CEASA 8463 5875

How do you decide upon an overall scale for the piece of work if there is difference across and within the strands?

This is going to be difficult and not recommended because a Scale does not work well with one piece of text; it works well with lots of texts because a Scale can be seen as a ‘tendency’. In other words, a student achieves a Scale because, across a range of texts and contexts, they tend to choose the sorts of things described in the indicators for that Scale.

So, one text is simply contributing to the achievement of a Scale.

Of course, a student develops beyond a Scale when they tend to choose the language described in the next Scale.

How do you decide upon a scale for the student if the minimum pieces of evidence have different scales?

Get more pieces and it ends up being a consistent achievement of the indicators, ie a tendency to have control of the indicators as described.

If you cannot do that, then maybe look at the kinds of genres or texts and work out which one demanded greater delicacy of choice and which one showed good control of the staging and which one is strongly cohesive or which one makes powerful choices in Field, Tenor and Mode. Then you balance these up and make your decision.

What is the difference between range and wide range?

How long’s a piece of string? It depends on what we’re talking about; which linguistic element it is. Typically, it is one scale’s difference.I don’t use the term ‘range’ and ‘wide range’ in this example but it’s illustrated in something like:

The council said no to our idea and The council didn’t approve our idea and The council rejected our idea

If a student has used a wide range of language features, but not the most appropriate, what scale should be given?

I have tried to qualify the word ‘use’ with level of control and level of appropriateness. Naturally, there is a degree of delicacy in the choice. So a higher degree comes later in development, eg

said no, didn’t agree, didn’t approve, rejected

The discussion point is whether this little continuum is accurate for any one learner. I suppose the issue is not if it is so for every learner but that on average it is. Teachers can always make adjustments for individuals.

Why is modality in both field and mode? Should we be looking for different things?

Modality, as used in Tenor, means degrees of possibility, frequency, obligation and inclination, egI might go to Portland, It might be built in PortlandI usually go to Portland, It’s usually built in small townsYou have to go to Portland, It has to be built in PortlandI might go to Portland meaning I’m sort of willing to go

Modality has another meaning and that is when it is the adjective of Mode, so we get multimodalities. I’ve made sure that I haven’t used modality alone in Mode but multimodality

What happens to spelling after 7?

This is tricky because of trying to fit in adult writers and primary aged writers on the same scale. After Scale 7, I am saying that spelling shouldn’t be a focus for assessing the writing ability of a student. I am not saying that it isn’t something thast should be assessed in individual assessments of texts but that as a scaling exercise, spelling is Field-related and you are already assessing for Field. Also, proofreading and spell checkers can fix spelling … but they can’t fix Field.

In some texts it is appropriate to foreground the topic of the sentence rather than a conjunction or a dependent clause. Where does this come in features that organise the text?

This goes back to implicit conjunctive relations. Conjunctions are (one of) the most congruent and explicit ways of organising a text but for a variety of reasons (some to do with culture and power) we choose to do things incongruently (metaphorically) and implicitly. So instead of using First, Second etc we use something like:

The main factor is …, Another important factor is …

This is included in Genre (Language) Scale 12, where I have said: A wider range of alternatives to conjunctions to organise formal oral and written texts: ‘The main factor’ instead of ‘Firstly’

Another possibility is moving the ‘cohesive’ kinds of conjunctions (eg Therefore, However, Nevertheless) from the front of the clause. Now, conjunctions are expected to come at the front so, if you move them, there is a reason for it. It most probably is because you want to place extra focus on the participant (maybe because of contrast), eg compare the meanings in a) and b).

– The car was supposed to continue along Highway 42. However, the police set up roadblocks on Highway 1 as well, because they weren’t absolutely certain.

– The car was supposed to continue along Highway 42. The police, however, set up roadblocks on Highway 1 as well, because they weren’t absolutely certain.

If the text does not require a great deal of modality, how is it scaled?

If modality doesn’t play a major part in the text, then there is a contextual reason for it. Little modality means that the text is located in a context which has neutral tenor. If the text doesn’t require moving away from neutral tenor then go to another text which does.

Leave indicators out of the scaling exercise if they’re not relevant for the text and context.

Another point. Remember that not choosing something is as significant as choosing something, if you know you are not choosing it! Imagine what the text would be like if it did have degrees of modality that were inappropriate.

What are the most important strands to look at for written factual genres?If we assume the student has chosen the appropriate genre, has maintained the field, maintained appropriate tenor and the text flows somewhat OK and (I’m not worrying about tense, verbal groups, spelling and punctuation), then I would focus on the things below.

Genre organisation

expansion/projection

cohesion

Field Technical/abstract and accurate

Nominal group expansion

Nominalisation

Tenor Modality

Objectivity

Mode Theme/Hyper-Theme/Macro-Theme