About LEAP

Kia orana, fakaalofa lahi atu, taloha ni, talofa lava, malo e lelei, bula vinaka, kia ora, and welcome to LEAP – Language Enhancing the Achievement of Pasifika students.

LEAP is a professional learning resource developed for New Zealand teachers at all school levels who work with bilingual Pasifika students in their classrooms. In particular, it is intended for teachers who have bilingual Pasifika students in mainstream classrooms – those classrooms in which English is the language used for instruction.

Teachers do not need to be bilingual or to know a Pasifika language in order to use this resource. However, parts of the LEAP resource may also be useful to teachers of bilingual classes who use a Pasifika language as the medium of instruction.

LEAP’s approach to language is cross-curricular. The resource assumes that language is integrated throughout the curriculum and that it is a key issue at every level and in every learning area. In LEAP, the focus is on working with bilingual Pasifika students in mainstream classes to ensure they access curriculum learning. Teachers who provide explicit instruction in using the language of the curriculum will find that this assists all their learners, not just those for whom English is an additional language.

The aims of the LEAP resource

The LEAP resource aims to bring together for mainstream teachers all the factors that research has shown can support bilingual Pasifika students’ learning, especially those that relate to students’ Pasifika languages and English. The resource:

• provides mainstream teachers with information about proven teaching and learning principles and practices for working effectively with bilingual Pasifika students
• suggests ways in which mainstream teachers can explore, in practical ways, research-based language teaching and learning principles that can help them work effectively with bilingual Pasifika students
• suggests ways in which mainstream teachers can address the particular learning needs of their bilingual Pasifika students
• suggests ways in which mainstream teachers can enhance the academic achievement of bilingual Pasifika students in mainstream New Zealand classrooms.

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By using the LEAP resource, mainstream teachers can:

• discover more about recognised ‘best practices’ for teaching culturally and linguistically diverse students
• develop deeper knowledge of their bilingual Pasifika students’ cultural and linguistic backgrounds
• find ways to recognise and draw on bilingual Pasifika students’ languages in the classroom
• incorporate proven approaches and activities for second-language teaching into their classroom programmes
• use curriculum-based learning activities to develop bilingual Pasifika students’ reading, writing, speaking, and listening proficiencies in English
• develop ways of analysing bilingual Pasifika students’ current proficiency in English and ways of developing the proficiency in academic English that they need for educational success
• plan and implement classroom programmes that meet the needs of a range of bilingual Pasifika students.

Using LEAP can also make teachers more familiar with relevant research and planning documents, language resources, and other tools that can assist them to meet the academic needs of their bilingual Pasifika students.

The research basis

The central principles that guide LEAP are based on the following research findings:

• The languages that bilingual students bring with them are a key linguistic resource and a crucial foundation for their learning.
• Bilingual students learn better when they are able to use their first or home language at school.
• Teachers are more effective when they understand how bilingual students learn and when they know and implement the principles of effective language teaching and learning.
• To succeed at school, students must know and understand academic language. While this is true for all students, it has specific implications for bilingual students and their teachers.
• Teachers can make academic language accessible to their students through deliberate, explicit instruction.
• Students learn English as an additional language at school better and faster when they are taught in effective and focused ways and not just left to ‘pick the language up’.
• Teachers can help their students learn English as an additional language through deliberate, explicit instruction.

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These principles, which the LEAP resource draws on and develops further, are derived from the following four interrelated strands of research and teaching:

• bilingualism and bilingual learning
• second-language teaching and learning (including ESOL principles)
• literacy
• teaching diverse students.

The LEAP resource complements such key Ministry of Education teacher resources as Quality Teaching for Diverse Students in Schooling: Best Evidence Synthesis; the English Language Learning Framework; Non-English-Speaking-Background Students: A Handbook for Schools; Effective Literacy Practice in Years 1 to 4; Effective Literacy Practice in Years 5 to 8; and Effective Literacy Strategies in Years 9 to 13: A Guide for Teachers. These documents include key guidance for teachers on the pedagogy of effective language teaching. LEAP is also supplemented by an extensive literature review (Franken, May, and McComish, 2005).

How to use the LEAP resource

The resource is presented in five main sections:

1. Pasifika in New Zealand
2. Being bilingual
3. What helps students to learn?
4. Language and school
5. Supporting language development

Within each of the five sections, there are two or more subsections, each based on a particular topic. A topic includes two or more inquiries, introduced by an overview. The inquiries introduce teachers to key research relating to an aspect of the topic and explain how teachers can apply the research. In some cases, the information is illustrated by video clips.¹

Most of the inquiries have related investigations – small, action-research investigations, which teachers can carry out in their classes or schools within a week or two. Some of these investigations involve trialling a particular kind of learning activity with students. In some cases, there are also links to associated material. The main references are listed alongside each inquiry.

In this way, LEAP integrates key language-learning principles with practical activities that teachers can carry out independently or with their students or colleagues.

The LEAP resource also has:

• a list of Ministry of Education Pasifika and ESOL resources
• research links to key articles that are available on websites
• a glossary of terms used in the main body of the resource (these terms are shown in bold and linked to the Glossary )
• a Sitemap giving access to all the elements of the resource.

If possible, teachers should use LEAP in the context of their professional community, working with colleagues in their teaching area or level, department, school, or local cluster of schools. Information about professional communities is available at Professional communities

Groups of teachers working together could:

• explore sections, topics, and inquiries collaboratively
• report on their findings at a staff or group meeting
• discuss the implications of their findings for teaching and learning practices in their classrooms and their school.

It may be that, to begin with, only one teacher in a school uses LEAP. The teacher could work individually with the resource at first and then inform other staff by telling them about the experience of working with LEAP.

It is not intended that teachers use the resource in isolation or ‘mine’ it for specific activities. However, they are encouraged to move around the resource, following threads that are of interest and relevance to them and their students.

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