ESL students need to learn English as a second or further language and have to learn English across the curriculum so that they can effectively participate in Australian society.

Commonwealth Government funds are used to support students who are permanent residents or holding temporary protection visas. Students on temporary visas who are the children of visiting academics or professionals are required to pay a fee that entitles them to ESL tuition if this is considered necessary. These students are not part of the ESL program but are supported by ESL staff.

ESL students may be:

• newly arrived refugee students with little or no English.

• newly arrived migrant students with little or no English.

• adopted children with little or no English.

• children born in Australia, but living in a family where a language other than English is spoken.

• children whose parents speak a restricted English at home, as this is the only language they have in common. In such cases the parents have come to Australia from different ethnic backgrounds speaking different languages as their first language.

• children who have lived in Australia for several years but are experiencing difficulties with literacy due to limited experiences and insufficiently developed first language.

The time taken for ESL students to become independent learners in the mainstream classroom is dependent on many factors including:

• age on arrival in Australia;

• years of schooling prior to arrival;

• ethnic background; and

• traumatic experiences prior to arrival.

Currently most ESL students in Tasmania are refugees. These students may have had:

• no formal schooling, and therefore no literacy in their first language and limited numeracy skills.

• a disrupted educational background and therefore limited literacy and numeracy skills in their first language.

• schooling, but in languages other than their first language.