Delivering English language courses for overseas students in an independent school context.

This paper addresses a question being asked by a growing number of schools in the independent education sector about how to provide English language instruction within an Australian school context to international students who are from language backgrounds other than English. Although international students may complete English language courses in Australia, on commencing at a secondary school they can lack the proficiency in English to meet the linguistic demands of their content-based subject studies and find that they are unable to achieve the results required to further their education. In this paper the author evaluates the provisions made in Australian high schools for English language instruction and explores the implementation of a program in an independent school context to deliver English language courses for overseas students who are preparing for high school and further education studies.