EAL Support and Funding

Student learning needs

The needs of the EAL learner cohort across the school should be a primary consideration for developing a program.

Questions to be considered include:

• What is the range of needs across the EAL learner cohort?
• Which students need a specialised EAL program?
• Which students could be adequately supported in mainstream classrooms?
• Who will be targeted for a specialist EAL program?
• Are any students preliterate or beginning readers and writers who need to become literate in English as well as develop language skills?
• Do students need to develop ‘learning to learn’ skills or become familiar with classroom routines and behaviours?
• Are there any students from a refugee background who may have significant pre-migration, migration or settlement issues impacting on their capacity to learn?
• Have students encountered the technology used in the classroom before?
• Does the school have adequate and appropriate resources for the learners, in terms of literacy, language and content level, as well as culturally appropriate content and imagery?
• Does the school have resources in the students’ first or additional languages?