ADDITIONAL LANGUAGE POLICY

Additional Language Policy

Abstract

This project will discuss a research which will be undertaken in a primary school in Newham with regards to implementing English as an Additional Language. English as an Additional Language (EAL) is the expression used in the NEWHAM to refer to the teaching of English to speakers of other languages. Current statistics indicate that, almost 10% of pupils in maintained schools are learning in English as a second language. Statistics from (ONS, 2004), indicates that, every year “tens of thousands of children arrive in the NEWHAM with little or no English”. This issue needs to be address because not only has it become an issue in the NEWHAM but the issue of learning in a second language has become a global dilemma when it comes to adopting a language for national teaching. Graddol (1994, p. 4) asserts that, “The majority of the world population peaks one or more languages”. Cummins(2000 1)asserted that, there is an impressive body of research evidence to show that bilingualism has the capacity to be linguistically and cognitively advantageous, provided it is allowed to be so by monolingual-dominated schools. An interview will be conducted in a school in Newham to find out the Strategies adopted by teachers to implement government policies such as: effective learning and planning, usage of National Curriculum Provision, usage of resources to identify needs, assessment and issues, funding. (DfES. 2008 23)

Research Questions

Research Questions:

How do teachers examine the implications that state educational policies, such as high-stakes testing in English and Proposition as an additional language?

Are there any policies for organisation to implement language policy?

What challenges does current additional language policy presuppose for teachers?

What are the challenges the teachers face with regards to additional language policies?

Literature Review

Introduction

Newham, as in many other countries, e.g., China, Malaysia, and Japan, has taken the decision to lower the starting age at which children learn English as a compulsory subject in primary education in response to the global impact of English as the language of international communication, the language of business, technology, and science. The early introduction of English has prompted the need to revise the foreign language curriculum, and introduce communicative language teaching (CLT) as part of a curriculum innovation process. Attempts to introduce CLT have lead to a shift in pedagogy from the teacher-centred transmission-oriented paradigm to student-centred communicative teaching with a view to promoting communicative language proficiency of the learners (Kirkgöz, 2007).

Despite the widespread adoption of the communicative approach by Newham and many other countries, one frequent effect of such nationally initiated curriculum innovation projects is the difficulties experienced by local non-native speaker English teachers when trying to implement unfamiliar classroom practices, which has resulted in a gap between the official rhetoric and the actual classroom practices of teachers (Carless, 1998; Holliday, 1994; Hui, 1997; Karavas-DoNewhamas (1995) and Karavas-DoNewhamas (1996); Kirkgöz (2006) and Kirkgöz (2007); Nunan, 2003; Wedell, 2003 12). This might largely be attributed to the fact that the underlying ideas and hopes for outcomes of curriculum innovation projects in many ...