The Foundation Stage of the programme is for beginning English Language learners. It can also address the learning needs of older students whose readiness for English language acquisition is likely to have been affected by factors such as learning disabilities, and no prior exposure to English.
Teachers of beginner intensive English classes may find Foundation Stage an appropriate additional tool for screening students’ entry level English language and literacy skills.
Methodology
Students at Foundation Stage require specific support to achieve the literacy skills which underpin all successful reading and writing, as well as explicit support in developing their oral language in a range of domains.
It should be noted that not all outcomes from one Stage may be achieved before the student moves from one stage to the next. Some students may be working at different levels in different modes, for example, they may be working at Stage 1 in Oral Interaction, and Stage 2 in Writing.
Oral Interaction
These texts are examples of the types of oral texts that learners are required to comprehend and produce in a variety of contexts, including community contexts. At Foundation and Stage 1, they include examples of interactions necessary for communicating at school.
Reading, Understanding and Responding
These outcomes apply to both silent reading and reading aloud, as the Teaching Components indicate. It should be remembered that silent reading is only possible when the text is at the independent reading level of the learner or when it is at instructional level and carefully supported with a variety of guided reading scaffolds, such as an advance organiser, or a set of question prompts. At Foundation and Stage 1, the Teaching Components strongly suggest a phonemic awareness programme, so that sound letter correspondences (including clusters and blends) are firmly established for both individual letters and vowel and consonant blends.
Writing
The Foundation Stage of Writing explicitly demonstrates the fundamental skills and understandings that learners will need to have established in order to begin to manage classroom learning.
Updated on: 13 Nov 2020
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Foundation and Stage 1 outcomes overlap especially in oral interaction because the Foundation Stage student typically achieves English oracy skills in the same way and at approximately the same pace as their Stage 1 counterparts. Particular focus is given at Foundation Stage to explicit teaching of the initial literacy and oral language skills which are essential for all beginning English language learners. These are specified in the Teaching Components for these stages and must include a systematic phonemic awareness programme which explicitly teaches the names and sounds and the written forms of letters, consonants, consonant clusters, vowels, and vowel blends. They will also need a systematic vocabulary teaching and learning programme which allows them to master the first 500-1000 most frequent English words.
