Writing in English as an additional language in UK schools

Lynne CameronUniversity of Leeds

The research projects

KS4 and post-16: OFSTED funded (2003) KS2: DfES funded (2004)“Writing in EAL” Aims:

to identify in detail features of written English that bilingual students find difficult, and thus enable teachers to address them more systematically in their teaching.

Research procedures

Scripts and writer details provided by schools.

Close analysis of scripts.Comparison of results across three

groups: EAL students achieving at average or below English mother tongue (EMT) peer group High achieving EAL students

Key Stage 4

Year 11 studentsMock GSCE exams - English and other

subjects.Focus group (N=103)

EAL, at least 5 years in UK, C/D borderline or below in English GCSE

Gujerati, Punjabi, Bengali, Urdu + others Time in UK education: 10 years 4

months.

Comparison groups

EMT: peers with English as first language

(N = 16)High EAL: predicted A or B in English

GCSE. (N = 20) First languages:Bengali, Gujerati + others Time in UK education: 10 years 10 mths

Key Stage 2

Year 6 pupils. KS2 English National Curriculum Tests,

Writing. Levels 3, 4, 5.EAL: (N=138)

at least 5 years in UK (mean = 7 years 2 months)

First languages: Punjabi, Urdu, Bengali, Gujerati + others

EMT: (N = 126)

An integrated framework for writing

The text as a whole

within the text

Content ideas and topicscompositionpurpose

Language resourcesgenreparagraphslinking

Contentthe development of sub-topics, storyline..

Language resourcessentence grammarwords and phrasespunctuationfigurative language

within the text

Evaluating the whole text: Genre

Genres as socially conventionalised ways of writing: a letter to a newspaper (KS4)

a story, a radio advert (KS2) format style voice and purpose stance

Does the writer consistently and effectively use the genre required?

Format

Letter openings and closings

Explicit teaching of format seemed to help EAL students.

KS4 Findings - style

EAL students need support in developing their awareness of degrees of formality and the language typical of different genres (rhetorical adaptability).

High EAL students need more advanced awareness to judge nuances of style.

EMT students need more familiarity with written genres and their language.

Style - EAL errors of language choice

formalityHope you are fineI thank you extremely for your patience

talk / writingI mean just look at

relationship to readerdon’t just sit there - get moving

overly explicit / academic essay genreI think I have given some good reasons as to

why...

KS 4 Findings - voice and purpose

Writing in specific genres requires students to adopt and use multiple layers of voices. This seemed to lead to confusion about the writer’s role and purpose, audience, and how to address the audience.

KS4 Findings - Content and Linking Ideas

Texts were too short. Focus EAL group had most problems

with content.Some had ideas but did not express

them clearly.Ideas were not developed into detail.Paragraphing was not used well, by all

writers.

To produce extended writing on a topic needs...

a range of connected ideas about the topic

development of each idea connections made between the ideas

as the writing progresseslinking the sequence of ideas to the

topic and to the purpose of the writing.

Finding ideas to write about

your experienceyour world knowledge task materials

reading demands unfamiliar contexts different genre and register KS2: pictures

Developing an idea

get more precisegive examplesexplain connections

Developing ideas

Riding bikes is a good exercise for life.It is a way of keeping fit and healthy…An easly simple quick way of keeping fit is

by just riding the bike for about an hour each week…

Riding bikes …also makes sure that you have lower risk of getting a heart problem.

…helped me loose weight …3 stones ...

Generating ideas to write about

Think yourself into the writer’s role in the genre and situation.

Use of drama to clarify voice and purpose.Practise changing voice and style.Brainstorm, mind-map around key words.Break topics down into sub-topics.Extract key words from task materials and

use for ideas.

Story genre: format

settingcharactersproblemresolution(moral)

KS2 Storyline: Findings

68% did what they were asked32% changed the storyline in some

way they fight over a poster, not the game Problem - boy does not have enough

money to buy the gameEAL level 5 scripts were surprisingly likely to

change the storyline (35%, EMT level 5 - 10%)

Why, and does it matter?

Do EAL students interpret the pictures in the same way as EMT / as intended?

Do EAL students attach less importance to sticking close to the storyline?

Do they change because of difficulties finding the language to describe the given storyline?

Does it matter in NC tests?

Narrative development strategies

DescriptionDirect SpeechFigurative language - metaphors and

similes.

Narrative development: Findings

Level 3: EAL and EMT similar amounts of development; Level 4: mixed

Level 5: EMT did more development than EAL in all components except Setting

Best scripts (level 5 / a lot) did most development of Character, then Setting. Least development of Problem.

Narrative development strategies: Findings

Description most used. Then Direct Speech, then Figurative Language.

Figurative language used more by EAL and more by higher levels.

Levels 3 and 5 EAL used more Direct Speech than EMT.

Level 5 scripts used more variety of development.

Level 5: EMT used more of each strategy than EAL, except for Figurative Language to develop Character.

Story endings: completeness

EAL level 3 had highest number of incomplete endings

Level 5: EAL much higher number than EMT

Level 4: EMT higher than EAL, and EMT level 3.

Story endings: originality

Just over 10% had interesting or original endings.

Steady increase across levels.EMT stories consistently more than

EAL.

Helping with endings

Listen to and read stories with different types of endings.

Notice how writers end their stories and the effect on the reader of a satisfying ending.

Work out how a story will end before starting to write.

Write a story with a given ending.

Paragraphing: Findings

Use varied by level, rather than language.

Level 3: 20% of stories showed no use of paragraphs.

Overall use of paragraphing better than in Key Stage 4 project.

Evaluating language use within the text

Sentence level language What use is made of the possibilities of

English clauses and sentence grammar?Words and Phrases

What use is made of the possibilities of phrases within clauses?

Range of vocabulary used.Accuracy

How accurate is the use of language?

The basic structure of an English clause

{the government} {should allow} S V

{more space} {in trains} {for bikes} O A A

S V O/C ASubject Verb Object/Complement Adverbial

Joining clauses

Co-ordinationand, but, or

Sub-ordinationwhen, if, because, who, that

KS 4 Findings - sentence and clause grammar

High EAL make most use of grammar resources

High EAL show most variety in clause and sentence types.

Focus EAL use simple clause and sentence structure.

Sub-ordinators

Basic sub-ordinators: that, because, if, so, as, when, who

Advanced sub-ordinators: which, where, although, after, until, unless etc.

High EAL made twice as much use of ‘advanced sub-ordinators’ as Focus and EMT.

Sub-ordination at KS4

• High EAL used lowest number of sub-ordinators.

• EMT used most.• High EAL used most variety of

sentence types.

Subordination at KS2

• Different pattern from KS 4.• EMT use more subordination than

EAL.• For both groups, the amount of

subordination increases from level 3 to level 4 to level 5.

• Does the use of variety of clause types come with maturity?

At KS4, very little use of Subject relative clauses:

the people (who) I talked to all agreed …

At KS2, EAL use more Subject relative clauses than EMT.

Not much use of Adverbial clauses:As you may already know, there are ...

Filling the Adverbial slot: non-finite clauses

High EAL used more non-finite clauses, I have written this letter to tell you my reasons

By Burning body fat and raising your metabolic rate,

you can loose weight

but there were very few of the more advanced types of non-finite clause:

after listing the reasons,… in agreeing to this, …

Filling the Adverbial slot

More Adverbials could be used.More phrases could be extended into

clauses.

Findings: Length of Subjects

At KS 4 and KS 2 level 4, EAL writing uses more single-word Subjects

EMT also use short SubjectsKS 4 high EAL use longer Subjects At KS 4, high EAL and EMT vary

Subject length with type of writing.

Findings - ‘bare’ noun phrases

Focus and EMT groups use short and simple phrases:the school, the adults, a good idea

KS 4 high EAL use longer phrases with more interesting wordsan easly quick simple waya larger number of young people

Findings - Words and phrases

Greatest differences between EAL and EMT writing was in accuracy at word and phrase level.

EAL errors formulaic phrases and collocations ‘small’ words endings and agreements consistency of verb tense and modality

Formulaic phrases

are words that are ‘bound’ togetherthey waited for long (for a long time)for a lot of time after some couple of weeks (a)

Strong differences between EAL and EMT; as at KS4. At least twice as many errors.

from KS2 Script 1

his class girllots of people at the front of himvery amazedI am not going to buy you a game

any more

‘small’ words

prepositions e.g. in, with, uphelp on pollutionregret of what they did

delexical verbs e.g. make, put, doit will do a really good help to usschools don’t give enough interest

Learning formulaic phrases

Students should meet / notice / learn words as parts of phrases, as well as separately.

Errors in phrases should be corrected, in speech and writing, sensitively and consistently.

Explicit teaching of thematic sets of phrases may be useful e.g. time phrases

articles

omitted

used wronglyit will decrease (the) traffic

A statistically significant difference between EAL and EMT at KS4 but not at KS2

Agreements

Subject -Verb agreementsthere are so much trafficEveryone else are lookingNoun-pronoun agreementsI think bike-friendly measures should be

introduced.. Because it willPluralsNext times he is going to

Agreements: findings

At KS 4, EAL made significantly more errors than EMT writers.

This persisted even for High EAL writers.At KS 2, there were very few errors and

no significant difference.EMT made more errors, largely due to

spoken language influence:in’t theyhe hurt his self

Verb endings and tenses

Verb endingsriding bikes doesn’t only helpsthe girl knewed

Particular problem for some students at KS4 and for level 3 at KS 2.

consistency in modality

It would be a great idea if you all make some kind of meeting … and should pay £1

if you can’t ride a bike you can (should) not go to main Roadsbecause you can (might) have an accident

Verb tenses and narrative

it was the gameeveryone was longing for since last

month(had been)

Peter was becoming tired… since, he queued up at seven in the morning

(had been queuing from)

All the adults queue at the counterto get ready to pay (were queuing)

His family were not as wealthy… he did not buy accessoriesNevertheless, he saved up his money since he was seven(had saved)

Comparatives and superlativesthe most easiest, more oftenly, very

less

Metaphors and similes

In 70 of 264 stories at KS2.Mostly similes

glooming eyes like oval pebbleshe ran like a bullet

Mostly one-off; some parallel pairs (script 2).

EAL Level 5 used most (5 per story)time flew by like pigeons and I was a rock

laying under a tree

Animal metaphors and similes

the children rushed in like if loads of elephants saw one little rat

like a group of cheetahs

Errors in figurative language

Comparison doesn’t quite work: eyes sparkled like fireworks looked like dog’s eyes

Inaccurate:burst into happinesspouring with tears down their faces

Conclusions

Written language makes different demands from spoken language. to organise long stretches of text to imagine the reader to use variety of clause and sentence types visible accuracy

EAL students had learnt what had been taught

Teaching writing

We need to teach written English.Different aspects of written English

need different teaching approaches awareness raising strategy training practice explicit instruction corrective feedback

Awareness raising

exposure to good writing through readingdirected attention - ‘noticing’

range of genres how writers end their stories how they express their ideas how paragraphs are signposted how verbs show the timing of events

the use of task materials and pictures

Strategy training

thinking yourself into the role and voice of the writer

generating ideas through brainstorming pictures key words in task materials

plan the end before starting to write

Practice

Extended writing needs practice in writing - fast and at length

with gradually reducing supporton realistic (for the students!) tasksspotting errors

Explicit instruction / modelling

• sets of phrases / collocations• structuring paragraphs• punctuation as part of subordination• the use of Adverbials in clauses • agreements and endings (KS4)• building text development e.g. the

timeline of a story with verbs, time phrases and clauses

Corrective feedback

Writing makes correct and incorrect forms visible; is slow enough to notice.

Feedback on errors + modelling of correct forms: prepositions and formulaic phrases articles (KS 4) agreements (KS4 and KS 2 level 3)

The process of writing?

How do pupils find ideas to write about?

How do they interpret pictures?How do they organise their ideas?Do they think themselves into the

genre?How do they compose sentences?Do they check their writing for errors?

Research reports:

(1) Writing in EAL at Key Stage 4 and post-16.+ Inspection report “More advanced learners

of EAL in secondary schools and colleges.” www.ofsted.gov.uk (Publications)

(2) Writing in EAL at Key Stage 2.www.dfes.gov.uk/research

+ Inspection report “Could they do better? The writing of advanced bilingual learners at KS2: HMI survey of good practice.”