English as an additional Language or Dialect EAL/D Program
At East Victoria Park Primary School, we acknowledge our community’s diverse cultures, backgrounds, and languages. We are fortunate enough to have an EAL/D Lead Teacher in our school who is able to support teachers to assess, plan and provide targeted support for our EAL/D students in their learning of Standard Australian English (SAE). This includes students who speak a dialect of English that differs from SAE, including Aboriginal English. While the development of SAE is crucial for us, with approximately 45 nationalities in our school, we also place high importance on developing our students’ first language.
English as an Additional Language/Dialect (EAL/D) students are those who have a home language background other than English. These students access additional support to assist them to develop proficiency in English. EAL/D students come from diverse multilingual background and may include:
- Overseas or Australian-born students who have a home language background other than English.
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students who have an Indigenous home language background, including traditional languages, creoles, or Aboriginal English.
At East Victoria Park Primary School, we use the EAL/D Progress Map as a planning and assessment tool. This is aligned to the Western Australian Curriculum and applies to all English learning areas. It considers approaches to teaching, learning and assessment at a national level correlating to the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) English as an Additional Language or Dialect Teacher Resource.
At East Victoria Park Primary School our EAL/D Lead teacher provides support for our families through enrolment interviews with new parents, information sessions and morning teas.