ESL Elementary Program

What is ESL?

The aim of an ESL Program is to provide support to students whose mother tongue is not English. ESL support is available from grade 2 to grade 5. All new students to the school are assessed and placed at the appropriate level of assistance. As children are given attention individually or in small groups, an extra fee is charged for this Program.

What do the children do in ESL class?

During ESL the children participate in many different activities designed to develop skills in reading, writing, speaking, and listening. The students benefit from small group size where they can "have a go" at presenting. Activities include home reading or group reading, re-telling a story, vocabulary games, drama, sentence structure practice, phonics activities, handwriting practice, and listening to cassettes and songs.

What do the children miss while in the ESL class?

ESL class takes place during the class language time and when the other students are learning a foreign language. Therefore they are participating in activities similar to what the mainstream class is doing but with more focus on increasing English language proficiency.

How long will my children attend ESL classes?

On average elementary school students need about 18 months to 2 years of some form of ESL support before they have sufficient English to function independently in the mainstream. But even here it is necessary to stress the words "on average". The actual time needed will depend on a number of learner variables, such as the native language of the learner, language learning aptitude, student motivation, similarity between the mother tongue languages and so on. When students can benefit from working with the main-stream class, they usually spend some time receiving support within the Program at no additional cost.

Assessment

All students whose first language is not English undergo a language assessment upon entry to ISPP. The ESL department, in collaboration with mainstream teachers, will periodically review ESL student progress. Student transfer to other ESL Programs or full mainstream is dependent on established ESL exit criteria.