BFIS has implemented the inclusion model for EAL services.  This model allows children full access to regular classroom instruction. The EAL specialists and classroom teachers collaboratively plan lessons and facilitate activities in a variety of ways.  You may notice an EAL specialist teaching alongside the regular classroom teacher, or working with small groups of students, on the same activities. Classroom teachers and EAL specialists modify activities and implement strategies in order to meet each student’s language needs. Even at beginning levels EAL specialists teach English through the content areas such as literature, science, social studies and math.  EAL teachers may offer small group instruction in the EAL classroom when appropriate.

While social language is easy for students to acquire, specialized academic language is much harder for students to learn and use.  Research shows that the inclusion model is a way to help students acquire academic language more efficiently. Experts agree it takes about one year to acquire the English needed for basic communication and an additional four to six years to reach competency in academic English.

Research also shows that older students often need a basic knowledge of English to allow them to build further academic vocabulary and language concepts.  For students entering an English medium curriculum in the higher grades, where the language gap between native speakers and English Language Learners is quite wide, small group instruction in the EAL classroom can allow students to master this basic knowledge and give them tools with which to approach the grade-level content.

You may have noticed that our department title has changed from English as a Second Language (ESL) to English as an Additional Language (EAL). This change reflects our community’s diverse cultural and linguistic background, as well as our school’s international identity. The reality is that our EAL students arrive in our classrooms speaking more than one language, and as a result, English becomes not the “second” language, but an additional means of communication both socially and academically.