Immersion Education & Bilingualism
English Language Expectations & Goals
Our goal is to have…
ALL1 students use MORE2 English with increasing
COMPLEXITY3 and ACCURACY4.
The above statement succinctly expresses our instructional goals in the English Immersion & Bilingual Program. There are four key words in this statement:
- ALL: All students should have equal opportunities to produce English - not just a few of the more able students. All students should be engaged and speaking in English.
- MORE: Students should have frequent opportunities to use English and students should produce a greater quantity of English - with longer utterances that go beyond short phrases and single sentences.
- COMPLEXITY: Students should have opportunities to produce increasingly complex and sophisticated language. This includes compound sentence forms, more expressive vocabulary, and more complicated grammatical forms.
- ACCURACY: Students should monitor their language, self-correct their mistakes in grammar and usage, use more precise vocabulary, and aim for more target-like pronunciation.
English Language Proficiency Expectations & Goals
Kindergarten
We assume children entering the kindergarten have little or no experience with English. Most students who complete the kindergarten program are able to understand basic language related to classroom activities and communicate in simple one / two word sentences or short phrases.
Elementary
Generally speaking we assume most children entering Grade One from outside Katoh School have little or no English proficiency. By the end of Grade Six nearly all students are able to pass Eiken Level Pre-2 and many students are able to pass Eiken Level 2 or higher.
Junior High
Students applying to enter the junior high from outside Katoh School should have English language proficiency equivalent to at least Eiken level 3 or higher. At the completion of junior high school most students are able to pass Eiken Level 2 and many are able to pass Eiken Level Pre-1.
Senior High
Students who wish to apply from outside Katoh School should have English language proficiency equivalent to at least Eiken level 2 or higher. By the end of high school most students are able to pass Eiken Level Pre-1 and some may be able to pass Eiken Level 1. Most students would be expected to achieve a minimum score of 85 or better on the TOFEL iBT.
