Home / Latest News /
Our weekly blog has been written by Ms Rendall-Jones, Head of EAL. Pupils who have English as an additional language are the topic this week and the blog celebrates their successes so far this school year.
The international pupils at Bethany school come from many different countries. Here are some written examples of their languages. Can you guess which country they are from?
As an added challenge, can you translate the sentence into English?
All these pupils are studying for their GCSEs, BTECs and A Levels in English, alongside their native speaker colleagues. These exams are very challenging but for the EAL (English as an Additional Language) pupils who are studying in a second language, the challenge is augmented. For some pupils, such as Gabor and Gregoire, being the only speakers of their language in the whole school, there is no opportunity to converse in their first language. Despite this challenge our international pupils fully participate in every aspect of school life. For example, Theo and Kathy were the EAL representatives at the recent Sixth Form open evening, answering questions and giving explanations regarding the study of IELTS. Valeria was one of the tour guides for the last Bethany open day and received a great deal of praise for her excellent level of English and her ability to communicate. Dio has continued to be a team member of the very successful Bethany rugby squad, which has required him not only to understand the rules of rugby (not a school sport in mainland China) but also the shouted commands of his team mates during the games.
All of the sixth form international pupils have aspirations to go to university in an English speaking country. They will be given offers, exactly the same as the other pupils at Bethany, but in addition, they must pass an exam to assess their level of English. This exam is called IELTS – International English Language Testing System. Every university course requires a minimum level of IELTS for the pupils to gain before they will be accepted onto their chosen course. IELTS tests the pupils’ listening, reading and writing skills in a gruelling three hour exam, and then their speaking skill in an interview. Congratulations to Nicole who has already gained above the requisite requirement for her chosen course, and good luck to all of our international pupils in all of their exams this year.
Answers to the quiz: 1. Chinese 2. French 3. Korean 4. Arabic 5. Ukranian 6. Hungarian 7. Spanish 8. Dutch
Sentence in English: It’s a lovely day today
