At my school, we have created a bespoke English syllabus for learners on our KS3 EAL pathway. This may not sound like an ‘ideal’ model of EAL provision to you – and fair enough. Ideals are subjective – provision is bound by context and constraints. This works okay for us and our learners at the moment, but things are always evolving.

Some of our general principles for the syllabus

Our syllabus aims to support learners in developing academic knowledge, language and skills across the curriculum. It is not an EFL/ESL syllabus based solely around input on ‘language structures’ and ‘the four skills’ – the focus is on integrating content and language with a relevance to various subject areas.

We aim to align our units to general content from KS3 English, science, and humanities. These are key areas of need for our learners. Most of our syllabus involves teaching from units of work that we’ve produced in-house. These weave in subject-related content/language and academic tasks that feature across the curriculum, often (but not always) with relevance to current curriculum topics. Either way, our units rarely just mirror the exact content taught in these areas.

That said, about 25% of our syllabus is solely dedicated to the review of current subject content. This, coupled with support slots and in-class support from our EAL support coaches, makes up our main curriculum support.

Main areas of pedagogical focus for our own units

• Identifying gaps in vocabulary and knowledge across certain subject areas. We cannot guarantee that learners joining us have had the same academic experiences. Our syllabus topics help draw out gaps in prior knowledge
• Familiarising learners with typical academic tasks and skills. We embed certain tasks in our own content – this could be anything from visible thinking routines to writing PEEL paragraphs, citing sources to completing ranking tasks, answering exam style questions to completing peer assessment tasks. Learner training basically, but with more relevant content.
• Content that is a stepping stone to core English. Not just differentiated units of work for literature, but lang and lit-rich units that are accessible and enjoyable. High yet realistic expectations.

Design principles

• Leading, where possible, with tasks. Our most successful units are those leading to genuine, real-world outcomes. Task-supported mostly, rather than more deep-end tasky.
• Medium-CLIL. Yes, I know that doesn’t exist. We are certainly not brie-CLIL, much closer to parmigiano-CLIL, but perhaps gouda-CLIL. Or that nutty-tasting crumbly one that I forget the name of but had once. We’re that type of cheesy-metaphor CLIL.
• Content that is ‘internationally-minded’. Oh, here we go….

I’ll refer back to Roberts (in Pearce 2013) for this one:

This really does matter to me, and as a syllabus designer I feel myself increasingly drawn to these themes. Put it this way:

• I like it when our content feels relevant to real world issues. The SDGs are a bit of a go-to for me and I have shaped content around them a lot in our curriculum.
• I like it when we zoom in, but from a less Eurocentric starting point because that might not be best for our learners. More regional (Asia/ASEAN) to national (Malaysia) to local (rural Sabah, I don’t know). This is on my radar when I plan.
• I like it when things shift to our learners’ cultural heritage. I also like looking forward to our learners as agents of change (that’s where the character education at our school sneaks in, but the ‘agents of change’ bit does sound a bit ‘tut’ there, I know)
• I’m more ‘communication-led’ overall – it’s about involvement, engagement, giving space, giving a voice, etc. I mean not solely, but I try to emphasise that. Collaborative and fluency-first I guess – that’s how different perspectives are likely to pop up IMO.

Walkthrough of an example unit

Unit: ‘Population’

Curriculum links: Humanities – learners are exploring the impact of overpopulation; English – persuasive language; Maths – statistics, graphs and charts

Overview

Part 1 (3 weeks):

• Framing ‘overpopulation’: 8 billion and counting, what are the issues and possible solutions? Prior knowledge and vocab building
• Hone-in on a specific issue: the food crisis. Stats, authentic texts (video)
• Solving the food crisis: a focus on insect-based protein, Popularity, benefits (semi-authentic listening)
• Scenario: Your school have decided to sell insect-based dishes. Create an advertising campaign (poster)
• Language focus: language of persuasion. Go back and edit your campaign poster to include persuasive features. Model text on persuasive speeches. Analyse it.
• TASK: Deliver a persuasive talk ‘during a KS3 Assembly’ persuading your fellow KS3 students to try (imaginary) insect-based dishes sold in our school canteen.
• Peer assessment etc

Part 2 (4 weeks)

• Framing ‘overconsumption‘: focus on ecological footprint (authentic video content). Calculate your own ecological footprint. What tweaks could you make to reduce this?
• Focus on overconsumption, regional:  authentic text on China refusing to import (certain) plastic waste from other countries since 2018. Debate/discussion-based follow up.
• Focus on overconsumption, national: authentic text on whether Malaysia will meet their 40% recycling rate target this year. Re-present statistics in the article as an infographic.
• Language focus: Making recommendations/suggestions for changes
• UNIT PROJECT – local focus: independent research on overconsumption in our local community (school!). Learners research an aspect of consumption in the school community (paper use, food waste, energy waste from our air cons being left on all the time, etc). Devise a research question, plan research methods, conduct research prepare to present…

OUTCOME/FINAL ASSESSMENT

• Open door ‘poster presentation’ of research findings. Teachers, SLT, students all invited. Looked like this on our big boards:

If I could change anything about our curriculum, I’d say some units could have more of a real-world focus like this one does. That’s what brings things to life and makes them feel relevant. You do need confidence as a teacher though to draw out the cross-curricular elements of this (language-wise), and work off-the-cuff with those as needs emerge (or don’t!).

Anyhow, what’s in your EAL syllabus right now if you’ve got one going on? We’re always looking for new ideas and keen to collaborate!

Categories: General, reflections

Tags: CLIL, curriculum, eal, international mindedness, international school, scheme of work, SDG, syllabus, unit of work