Real-World Task Guidelines:
EAL Literacy
CLB 4L
Home and Neighbourhood
Possible Topics
This theme may include these topic areas:
And so on
Planning Context
Learners may require the following:
- Slow to normal rates of speech
- Face-to-face or digital interactions (that are usually one-on-one or in small groups)
- Personally-relevant topics
- Non-demanding contexts
- Relatively short texts
- Vocabulary limited to common, factual and concrete terms
Instructors may need to:
- Teach all concepts and vocabulary orally first
- Create simplified versions of stories, texts and audio clips/ recordings
- Adapt resources to simplify social interactions
- Modify instructions to limit to 4 to 5 steps
- Speak clearly at a slow to normal rate
- Provide texts which are clearly organized and easy to read with simple layout
- Provide scaffolding and support
Comprehending Instructions
Understand short descriptive or narrative communication on topics of personal relevance.
- Identifies words and phrases that indicate movement, location, manner, frequency and duration.
- Recognizes and identifies correct sequence of steps.
Getting Things Done
Understand short communication intended to influence or persuade others in familiar, everyday situations.
- Identifies purpose, main ideas, factual details and some implied meanings in simple announcements, commercials or infomercials.
Sharing Information
Give brief descriptions of personal experiences, situations or simple processes, such as getting goods or services.
- Sustains about 5 to 7 sentences, which are adequately connected as discourse.
- Gives descriptions in coherent narratives.
Interacting with Others
Participate in short, very simple phone calls.
- Asks and responds to routine questions.
- Uses a range of small talk phrases and expressions.
Interacting with Others
Understand simple personal social messages within predictable contexts of daily experience.
- Gets the gist.
- Identifies specific important details (such as sender, date and response required).
Getting Things Done
Get information from simple, formatted texts.
- Identifies layout and specific information.
- Compares facts and information to make choices.
Reproducing Information
Copy or record an expanded range of information from short texts for personal use.
Texts to copy are up to about 2 paragraphs and have a clear layout.
- Follows standard conventions for capitalization and punctuation; accurately copies other elements of formatting.
- Copies text legibly, causing only slight uncertainty in decoding for the reader.
Sharing Information
Write a short paragraph to describe a familiar situations, event, personal experience or future plan.
- Uses basic paragraph structure.
- Conveys main ideas and supports them with some detail.
Literacy Learner Considerations
Listening and Speaking
4L learners are meeting the requirements of CLB 4 in listening and speaking. It is important for 4L learners to develop all new language orally first so that it is familiar to them when they read it and use it in print. Listening and speaking should be taught and assessed orally and not through the skills of reading and writing. There is a focus on an increasingly broad vocabulary for basic communication and a wider range of grammatical structures that are familiar through rhythm and repeated patterns.
Reading
To be successful in 4L reading tasks, 4L learners can work towards the development of reading skills in the context of real-world tasks, such as:
- developing oral vocabulary related to the task
- applying onset-rime knowledge to decode unfamiliar words in context
- attempting to break unfamiliar multisyllabic words into syllables while reading in context
- beginning to recognize common but irregular spelling patterns (height, although)
- identifying contractions and their connection to long forms
Writing
To be successful in 4L writing tasks, 4L learners can work towards the development of writing skills in the context of real-world tasks, such as:
- developing oral vocabulary related to the task
- forming letters and numbers with automaticity
- varying writing size and line spacing depending on context
- using root words to attempt to write new words independently (happy, happiness)
- applying spelling rules for inflectional endings with accuracy
Additional Sample Real-World Tasks and Competency Areas
Listen to a few simple instructions for unclogging a drain. (Comprehending Instructions)
Describe a household problem to your landlord and ask him to fix it. (Getting Things Done)
Read a simple story about housing shortages in Canada. (Comprehending Information)
Write an email to a friend or family member to describe your home in Canada. (Interacting with Others)
Additional Resources
- Avenue
- CCLB
- Tutela
- LINC 4 Classroom Activities.
- At Home in Our Community and the World p. 3-40
Digital Literacy Strategies
Successful completion of some tasks may require some baseline digital knowledge and skills.
Learners may need to:
- Look at a website.
- Read information from a screen.
Instructors can:
- Introduce websites that are relevant to the task(s).
- Support learners in finding, navigating and using websites.
- Teach reading strategies such as skimming and scanning to find information on websites.
- Share knowledge and strategies to ensure online safety.
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Strategies
Instructors Can:
- Use diverse representations of people in all learning resources and images, including people who are 2SLGBTQIA+, Indigenous, Francophone and of other cultures, and people who have disabilities or who are neurodivergent.
Trauma-Informed Strategies
Triggers:
- Filling in forms and dealing with authority can be triggering for learners who have experienced trauma, especially for learners who have been in unsafe situations or have been in a political regime. Make sure that learners are always aware of the purpose of the form and be ready to provide support if needed.
Strategies:
- Learners who have experienced trauma often benefit from having routine.
- Learners who have experienced trauma benefit from having choices.
- Learners have the right to choose if, when and what they share about themselves.
Sample Real World Tasks
This information is aligned with the Canadian Language Benchmarks (CLB) and is designed to help guide you in the planning process. You can use these sample real-world tasks to guide and inform your selection or creation of skill-building activities, skill-using tasks and assessment tasks.
These sample real-world tasks include the following: skill, real-world task, competency area, one competency statement and two sample indicators of ability. This is not an exhaustive list: there are more indicators of ability and information about this CLB level in Canadian Language Benchmarks English as a Second Language for Adults. Consult this resource for more information and to select your own competencies or indicators of ability. Remember, you can use more learner-friendly language in your materials and assessments.
This is NOT a lesson plan, module plan or curriculum.
