The board of education of the Prince Albert Catholic School Division wanted to better understand how English as an Additional Language (EAL) students are supported in the division.
During the board’s regular meeting on Monday, a delegation spoke about how the division supports EAL learners.
Student Support Service Coordinator Terri-Lynn Tremblay, Student Support Services Consultant Melissa Smith, and Superintendent Charity Dmytruk gave the presentation. Director of education Lorel Trumier said they made the presentation at the board’s request.
EAL students are in the process of acquiring English to be able to access the curriculum and learn. According to the Ministry of Education definition they are students whose first language is not English.
The presenters explained how the division uses the Common Framework of Reference (CFR), which is used by all education systems, to understand how each student learns. Differentiated instruction is provided at the level of the student’s language proficiency and the CFR results are used to monitor and support language progress and guide the targeted supports each student receives.
The CFR is a global scale that describes how well an individual uses the English Language. It offers a clear framework to track progress from beginner to advanced EAL learners and informs instructional planning and assessment.
“I would say this, that I do wish we had more available resources to support all students,” Trumier said.
The CFR gives educators an easy way to track progress. The CFR is not a test, it is a tool that shows how students use language in real life situations by observing what they can do. EAL learners need to have social and academic language development, instruction that is aligned to individual proficiency in the language and targeted support for reading, writing and listening.
The CFR has eight levels to track progress. In Saskatchewan, students are tracked until they reach a level that is considered proficient enough that they no longer need to be tracked.
The levels are also broken down into smaller steps so the progress can be tracked to a more finite level.
Trumier said that they have been intentional about the supports that are put in place.
“You heard strategies such as Strive for Five that even start in their early years to Rosetta Stone, to Talking Partners, to LLI (Levelled Language Interventions) and as well as some additional support in the high school where we have some language remediation for subject areas like science and math and English Language Arts,” Trumier explained.
In High School, students can earn a credit while receiving targeted language support in a class called Life Transitions, which Trumier called very practical.
She said the strategies are designed to get students who use EAL on stream no matter when they arrive in the system.
“They may be five years old, they might be 14, they might be 10, and at that point, there is an assessment of their language and to see how functional they are,” she said,
“Just because they’re not speaking English doesn’t mean they can’t be successful.
“You could see the board, I believe, was pleased with the strategies and we’re going to continue to refine our work in this capacity.”
The EAL has been a growing demographic across Saskatchewan and in the Catholic Division, which shows growing diversity in the classroom. According to statistics in the Catholic Division’s Annual Report in 2024-2025 there were 457 EAL students, which was a large increase from 2020-2021 when there were 196 EAL students.
“I don’t believe we’re unique in this province, and Charity mentioned it last night, that we do know our numbers have increased, but so have the numbers across the province. There’s been much more awareness and sharing of strategies that would support our EAL learners,” Trumier said.
michael.oleksyn@paherald.sk.ca
