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 develop literacy skills in English as well as developing 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? Are the literacy, language and content levels of resources appropriate for the students’ learning? Is the content culturally appropriate? Are the images culturally appropriate?
• Does the school have resources in the students’ first or additional languages?