ESLC2025ONTHEMOVE

The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in education presents both exciting opportunities and significant challenges, particularly for EAL students. On the one hand, we can shift the focus away from their desire to only focus on grammar! On the other hand, there are concerns that there is a lack of critical thinking being used. This presentation will explore some strategies to enhance online writing tasks, wile also addressing ethical considerations and teacher boundaries. This will be done through the lens of an online writing course, but many of the ideas presented could be applied to an in-class setting.
Through collaborative activities and case studies, attendees will gain insights into creating engaging and responsible AI-generated writing tasks that empower EAL learners to navigate the digital landscape effectively. By the end of the session, participants will be equipped with practical strategies to enhance online writing instruction for EAL students, fostering both language development and digital literacy in an increasingly AI-driven world.

This session is designed to empower educators with the tools and strategies needed to effectively use Alberta’s new K-12 English as an Additional Language (EAL) Proficiency Benchmarks 2.0. The focus will be on how to intentionally plan for the academic success of EAL learners by utilizing these benchmarks to guide instruction and support language development. Objectives:

• Understanding Benchmarks 2.0: Gain an understanding of the new EAL Proficiency Benchmarks and their application in the classroom.
• Intentional planning: Use the benchmarks data to create targeted lesson plans that address the specific language needs of EAL students.
• Progress monitoring: Tracking and assessing our EAL learners’ language proficiency progress.
• Best Practices: Explore best practices and practical strategies for integrating the benchmarks into your lessons.

Vocabulary knowledge and acquisition has often been seen in black and white terms: a word is either unknown/unlearned or it is known/learned. But vocabulary knowledge is too complex to be understood in a dichotomous manner. Rather it is Complex (there are many things to know about a word), Integrated (different aspects of word knowledge are interrelated with each other), Incremental (vocabulary knowledge is learned incrementally over time in a bit-by-bit manner), and a Process (vocabulary learning is a process, rather than a one-off event).

By themselves, these characteristics are well-known to the field. But the implications of these characteristics have not generally been acknowledged. The presenter proposes a unified approach, called a CIIP perspective. He will then outline what a CIIP perspective means in terms of a range of pedagogic and assessment issues. For example, a CIIP perspective has implications for the way vocabulary exercises are designed over time to enhance both a range of word knowledge aspects, and their degree of mastery.

In his plenary talk, the speaker presented the CIIP perspective of vocabulary knowledge and acquisition. In it, he touched on some implications of this perspective for vocabulary assessment. In this breakout session, he will go into much more detail about how to evaluate vocabulary test items, based on a CIIP viewpoint. The session will be workshop-based and hands-on in style, as the presenter takes the audience through a number of popular vocabulary test formats, together working out what each format does (and more importantly does not!) tell us about learners’ vocabulary knowledge. He will introduce the audience to a number of extant vocabulary size tests, and will offer advice on writing bespoke vocabulary tests if none of the existing ones are suitable for your context.

This session will go through ways to infuse physical literacy in any classroom environment (not just in PE class!). We will focus on games and activities that promote team building, sense of belonging, communication, resiliency, social-emotional learning and movement skills to help foster an inclusive, supportive and encouraging environment for EAL learners. The Alberta Health and Physical Education Council is here to support EAL learners and teachers with infusing physical literacy in their classes. Get ready to leave this session feeling inspired, empowered, and ready to elevate your teaching!

Verbal communication is only one of many forms of representation that can be used to communicate mathematical ideas! To support English as Additional Language (EAL) learners, we’ll explore how to embed multiple forms of mathematical representation and high impact strategies within task design to engage all learners in understanding and communicating their mathematical thinking. We will model and debrief how multiple representations in mathematical routines and problem solving might be used to ensure EAL learners can fully participate in rigorous mathematical thinking and learning. (The principles we’ll explore in the session will apply to K-12 teachers; however, the examples and content used will be applicable to K-9 teachers.).

In this workshop, we will work together to create instructional materials for developing vocabulary in both mainstream and ESL classes.  I will begin by outlining key principles to guide instruction and show how these can be used to underpin the selection of texts, the choice of exercises, and methods of assessing achievement.  Participants will work in small groups to create a set of materials that can serve as a template for developing materials in their own settings.

Bring your device to explore AI tools with us in real time! Discover how to leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI) to enhance support for English as an Additional Language (EAL) learners. This interactive session will showcase how AI can assist in creating lesson materials, assessments and resources tailored to best EAL practice. We will also present the advantages and limitations of AI from the teachers' perspective. Whether you're new to AI or looking to expand your toolkit, this session will provide actionable insights to make teaching more effective and engaging for EAL learners.

Why is writing so difficult for second language learners?
A) It’s demanding
B) It takes effort and requires knowledge in quite a few areas—all in all, a heavy cognitive load.
C) Students must simultaneously think about vocabulary, grammar, and meaning, as they create original sentences and connect ideas by spelling each individual word, and applying rules around capitalization and punctuation. (And don’t forget editing and tone…)
D) All of the above!
Developing writers face a myriad of challenges that can impact the writing process. This presentation will review and tackle some of these challenges. We will consider strategies, examine engaging writing activities and have a look at actual ELL writing samples to practice feedback and determine next steps.