Videos

Workshop Synopsis

In Workshop 1 participants looked at how base words, suffixes and affixes can help our students understand how English spelling works and build their vocabularies. In this second workshop, Misty unpacks where English spelling has come from and how new words in English are invented. This webinar highlights how exploring the history and grammar of English words provides EAL/D learners with a fascinating and enlightening journey which supports their learning of new vocabulary and spelling. Finally, Misty discusses what a teacher constructed spelling program would look like, and its potential advantages over commercial spelling programs.

Dr Misty Adoniou

Dr Adoniou is an Associate Professor in Language, Literacy and Teaching English as a Second Language. She holds an adjunct position at the University of Canberra and is a Principal Fellow with the University of Melbourne’s Graduate School of Education.

In this webinar, Dr Mei French presents Reciprocal Multilingual Learning, a model of EAL/D teaching which has been developed from research into how multilingual students use their linguistic repertoires across their lives and learning. In this session, Mei presents some principles and an approach to planning and teaching that teachers can use to engage students’ multilingual resources through EAL/D teaching and across the curriculum. During the PL, Mei gives examples to show how these approaches work in practical ways, and can be connected to the Australian Curriculum. Examples are drawn from middle school classrooms, but the approach can be adapted to other contexts.