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ASSESSINGENGLISHPROFICIENCYOFEALLEARNERSINLAMBETH

GuidanceNotes

1.Introduction

EnglishProficiency is amajorfactorin understandinghowpupilswith EALachieve.Fromautumn2016onwards, all schoolswill havetoincludedetailsoftheEnglishproficiencyofpupils with EALaspart ofthe SchoolCensus.Thispaperaimsto reviewthecurrentEALassessment systemsin Lambethand offerguidancein using thenewnationalEnglishProficiencyscales.

Thepapercovers:

•Existing Lambeth 4 StagesofProficiencyandassessment descriptors

•Newnational 5StagesofProficiency andassessmentdescriptors

•Proposednewdescriptorstobeused in Lambeth schools

2.ExistingLambeth4StagesofProficiencyandassessmentdescriptors

TheEALlearning needsofpupils varygreatlyfrombeginners to advancedlearners.Throughoutthe1990sand2000s,fourStages ofEnglishhavebeenwidelyusedinLambethtodescribe thedifferentstagesof Englishthrough which pupilscommonlyprogress(seeDemieetal2013).

Thesefourstagesrangefrombeginnerto fluent and aredescribedbelow:

Stage1NewtoEnglish-BilingualEnglishlearnerswhomightbeabletoengageinclassroomlearning activitiesusing theirownmothertongue,butneedsupporttooperate in English.

Stage2BecomingfamiliarwithEnglish-BilingualEnglish learnerswhocanengageinalllearning activitiesbut whosespoken and/orwrittenEnglishclearlyshowsthatEnglish is nottheirfirstlanguage. Theiroral English iswell developedbuttheirliteracydevelopment in English is such thattheyneedconsiderablesupporttooperatesuccessfullyin written activities intheclassroom.

Stage3Becomingconfident asuser ofEnglish-Bilingual pupils whose oral andwrittenEnglish is progressing welland who can engagesuccessfully in bothoral andwrittenactivities,butneed further supportfor avariety of possiblereasons,forexamplepupilswhoareachieving considerable success in subjectssuch asmathematicsandsciencebutmuch lessin otherssuch asEnglish orin Humanities,which aremoredependent upon agreatercommand ofEnglish.

Stage4FullyfluentinEnglish-Bilingual pupilswhoseuseofEnglish and engagementwiththe curriculumareconsidered successfuland whodonot requireadditionallanguagesupport.

Thefourstages arealso widelyused inLambethschoolsasa diagnostictooltoanalyseneeds forfutureteaching,tracking progress and to providebaselineinformation forstatisticalpurposes.Ingeneral it isaverypopularassessmentwith localschoolsand hasbeen used in Lambethsince1988.

3.New DfEnational5StagesofProficiencyandassessmentdescriptors

Thenewstatutory measure ofEnglishLanguageProficiencyhasbeen introducedbytheDfE,todistinguish betweenthose pupils at earlylevelsofEnglishdevelopment andthose atthemoreadvancedstages. It is suggestedthat thiswillenablefunding tobebettertargeted andas theDfEstates ‘thenewdatawill providestatisticsonthe groups ofchildrenwithEAL,ontheir attainmentand destinationsandidentifyanyadditionalchallenges theyortheirschoolsface.’

It is thereforeessentialthat all schoolsusethe same measure,sothe DfEhasadoptedthe five-stagescaleof Englishproficiency,whichmapsprogressfrom beginnertofluentusersofEnglish.Thelistofnational'Proficiencyin English' codesand descriptorsareas follows:

CodeA.NewtoEnglish-Mayusefirstlanguageforlearning andother purposes.Mayremaincompletelysilent in theclassroom.Maybecopying/repeatingsomewordsorphrases.Mayunderstandsome everydayexpressions inEnglishbutmayhaveminimalor noliteracyin English.Needs a considerableamount ofEALsupport.

CodeB.Early acquisition-May followday today socialcommunicationinEnglishand participate in learningactivitieswith support.Beginning tousespokenEnglishforsocial purposes.Mayunderstand simpleinstructionsandcanfollownarrative/accountswith visualsupport.Mayhavedevelopedsomeskills in reading andwriting. Mayhavebecomefamiliar with somesubjectspecific vocabulary.Stillneedsa significantamountofEAL supporttoaccessthe curriculum.

CodeC.Developing competence-May participateinlearningactivitieswithincreasing independence.Able to expressselforally in English,butstructuralinaccuraciesarestill apparent. Literacywillrequireongoing support,particularlyforunderstanding textandwriting.MaybeabletofollowabstractconceptsandmorecomplexwrittenEnglish.Requiresongoing EALsupporttoaccessthecurriculumfully.

CodeD.Competent-Oral Englishwill be developingwell, enablingsuccessfulengagement in activitiesacross the curriculum.Can readandunderstand awidevarietyof texts.WrittenEnglishmaylackcomplexityandcontainoccasionalevidenceof errors in structure.Needssomesupportto accesssubtlenuancesofmeaning, to refineEnglishusage,andtodevelop abstractvocabulary.Needs some/occasionalEAL supportto accesscomplexcurriculum material and tasks.

CodeE.Fluent-Canoperateacrossthecurriculumtoalevelof competenceequivalentto thatofa pupil whousesEnglishashis/herfirstlanguage.OperateswithoutEALsupportacrossthecurriculum.

CodeN.Notyetassessed-TheDfE will accept"N -Not yetassessed"where therehasnotbeenenough timefortheassessmentsto takeplacefortheAutumnCensus2016

4.DifferencesbetweenexistingLambeth andnewDfEscale

Teachersin Lambeth areveryexperienced in assessingthelevelsofa child’sproficiencyinEnglishusing theLambethStagesofEnglish.However, they willneedtoconsiderfourmajordifferencesbetween thetwoscales.

  • TheLambethscalehas4 stages ofproficiency,whilstthenewscalehas 5.
  • TheLambethscalehasdifferentdescriptorsfor eachkeystagewhilstthe newscalehasonlyone setof descriptorstobe usedforchildren in reception classesthrough tothose in KS4.
  • Both scalesare based onthebest-fitprinciple.However, theLambethscalesmeasuredevelopment and progressin threeseparateareas–speakingandlistening,readingandwriting,whilstthenewscalehasonesetofgenericdescriptors,whicharebasic andonlytouch oneachof theseareas.
  • Lambeth scalesshownumbered progression, stages 1 to 4, in contrasttothenewscale whichusestheletters AtoE.

Tosupportaccurateassessmentandhelp teachersadjust,amoredetailed setofdescriptorsof the5StageProficiency in Englishscaleisbeing providedto schools survey

5.Recommendationsandrationalefortheuseofthe5StageProficiencyScale

Followingan exercisewhich mappedthebasicdescriptorsfromthenew5stage scaleonto thecurrent LambethStages ofEnglish, the followingbecameapparent:

  • Lambeth stage1 wassimilar to theProficiencyScalecode A
  • Lambeth stage2 wassimilar to theProficiencyScalecode B
  • Lambeth stage4 wassimilar to theProficiencyScalecode E
  • However,Lambethstage 3containeddescriptorsfromboth codesCandD. In triallingwithcase studies, it did appearthat thechildren atthe earliestlevelofstage3arebestdescribed ascodeC,withthoseatthemoreadvancedlevelsof stage 3 atcodeD.

Therecommendation fortheautumntermSchoolCensus is as below.It ishoped thatthiswillfacilitatea smoothtransition,avoidingre-assessmentofallpupils with EALand alsoprovide timebeforethespring SchoolCensusforstaffto ensuretheaccuracyof theirassessmentsusing thenewProficiencyScale.Thiswillalso besupportedbymoderation visitsto someschools.

ExistingLambethStage ofEnglish
for childrenwithEAL / NewNationalProficiencyinEnglish CodeforchildrenwithEAL
Stage 1 / CodeA
Stage 2 / CodeB
Stage3 / Code CCode D
-
Stage 4 / CodeE

It is importanttorememberthat ittakeson average5–7yearstodevelop fluency in anadditionallanguageand although pupilsmaypassthrough stagesA andB inacoupleofyears,they arelikelytoremainatstages CandD forlonger.Aswith theearlierlevels in theLambethStages,no child atthestagesAand B will beattaining age-relatedexpectations. However,theremaybechildrenatstageDworking atage-relatedlevelsand who willexceed expectationsoncetheybecomefullyfluent(codeE).

Although proficiency inEnglish is onlyrequired forchildren in receptionclassesupwards,teachers inLambethnurseryschoolshavealsoused theLambethStagestoassess EALfluency. A revisedsetofdescriptors,whichhavebeenadapted to meetthe requirementsofthenew5 stagemodel,arethereforebeing introduced tonurseryschools.

6. New Descriptors for Lambethbased on5Stagesof EnglishProficiency - ReceptiontoKS4

LAMBETH STAGE 1
(New to English) / LAMBETH STAGE 2
(Becoming Familiar) / LAMBETH STAGE 3
(Becoming Confident) / LAMBETH STAGE 4
(Fluent)
DfESTAGEA
(NewtoEnglish) / DfESTAGEB
(EarlyAcquisition) / DfESTAGEC:
(DevelopingCompetence) / DfESTAGED
(Competent) / DfESTAGEE
(Fluent)
SPEAKINGANDLISTENING
  • Silentperiod
  • Mayuse first language forlearning and otherpurposes
  • Copies/repeats some wordsand/orphrases
  • Uses single wordsorshortphrases
  • Hasvery basic,limited range ofvocabulary
  • Understands some everydayexpressionsand simpleinstructionsin English.
/
  • Uses spoken English for‘social’purposes
  • Participates in learning activitieswith support
  • Haslimited awarenessofgrammarsyntax
  • Vocabulary iswidening buttendstobe related to familiarcontexts
  • Is acquiring some topic/subjectspecific vocabulary
  • Follows daytoday socialcommunication in English
  • Understands simple instructions
  • Follows narrative/accounts withvisualsupport
/
  • Mayparticipate in learningactivities with increasingindependence
  • Uses spoken English confidentlybutstructuralinaccuraciesstillapparent
  • Hasa fairly wide vocabulary,whichincludesa growing bankofsubject-specificwords
  • Givesappropriate responsestoawiderrange ofsituationswithouttheneed forvisualsupport
  • Able to followmore complexverbalinputandsome abstractconcepts
/
  • OralEnglish is developing well,enabling successfulengagementin activities acrossthe curriculum,butmightneedsupportto refine English usage
  • Speech ismore complexandmostly demonstratesanawarenessand appropriate use ofthe rule ofgrammarand wordorder,with fewererrors
  • Hasa wide vocabulary
  • Some vocabulary gapsstill evident
  • Usually copeswith wide rangeofverbalinputfromvariety ofsources
/
  • Can operate across thecurriculum toalevelofcompetence equivalentto that ofa pupilwho uses English ashis/herfirst language
  • IsafluentspeakerofEnglish inafullrange ofsituations

READING
  • Minimalorno literacyinEnglish
/
  • Mayhave developed someskills in reading
  • Copeswith familiarwords/wordpatternsand able toextractbasicmeaning from a familiartext
/
  • Maybe ableto followmorecomplex written English
  • Readsaccuratelybuthas difficultyinterpreting complex textsrelatedto the curriculum
/
  • Can read and understand awidevarietyoftexts
  • Stillneeds somesupporttoaccess subtle nuances ofmeaning
/
  • Can operate across thecurriculum toalevelofcompetence equivalentto that ofa pupilwho uses English ashis/herfirst language
  • IsafluentreaderofEnglish,(withmatching understanding),ina fullrange ofsituations

WRITING
  • Minimalorno literacyinEnglish
/
  • Mayhave developed some skillsin writing
  • Can produce a smallamountofindependentwriting with supportfromteachers/peers
  • Haslimited awarenessofgrammar
  • Usesbasicpunctuation ie fullstopsand capitalletters
  • Isbecoming aware ofbasicphonemesand simple spellingpatterns
  • Usesbasicvocabulary
/
  • Literacywillneed ongoingsupport,particularlyforunderstanding text writing.
  • Strivestowardsmore developedpiecesofwriting forarange ofpurposes
  • Demonstratesa growing awarenessofgrammarbutsome errors
  • Generally usesbasicpunctuationcorrectly,e.g.capitalletters,fullstops,questionsmarksandisdemonstrating an awarenessofawiderrange ofpunctuation
  • Isproducing improved spelling forawiderrange ofwords
  • Developinga widerrange ofvocabulary
/
  • Writes competently fora variety ofpurposes
  • Writing contains onlyoccasionalerrors in grammariestructure
  • Written English maylackcomplexity
  • Generally usesa widerrange ofpunctuation (commas,apostrophes,inverted commas)and organizationaldevicesaccurately
  • Spellsmostwords correctly
  • Usesa wide range ofvocabulary,butneeds supportto furtherdevelop abstractvocabulary
/
  • Can operate across thecurriculum toalevelof
competence equivalentto that ofa pupilwho uses English ashis/herfirst language
  • IsafluentwriterofEnglish ina fullrange ofsituations

Needs aconsiderableamount ofEAL support / Needs asignificantamountofEAL support to accessthecurriculum / Requires ongoingEALsupportto accessthecurriculumfully / Needs some/occasionalEALsupport toaccesscomplexcurriculummaterialsand tasks / OperateswithoutEALsupportacross thecurriculum