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ld Coast in Queensland. There are approximately 400 students enrolled in the Senior School (years ten through to twelve) at present.

On the grounds, and affiliated with the Senior School is an “International TESOL Centre” that runs intensive English language classes from beginner through to advanced levels.

As mentioned, the school in question has a number of ESL classes it runs each year for international NESB students. When the students are deemed by the school and TESOL faculty to have reached a satisfactory level of English language skill, they are ‘mainstreamed’ in the adjoining Senior School also on campus.

Some of these ‘mainstreamed’ ESL students struggle academically in the mainstream environment, particularly in senior English, and the purpose of this study is to identify what some of these problems and obstacles are, and propose/instigate ways of facilitating improved learning outcomes and experiences for these students.

Relevant Literature on the Topic:

A significant amount of research and literature relevant to this topic is available.

Zamel and Spack (Zamel & Spack, 2002) have done much work on the teaching and learning difficulties encountered in the ESL and mainstream classroom. They discuss the advantages and disadvantages of mainstreaming ESL students – and in particular explore the experiences of both students and teachers, and suggest possible strategies to address these through their work.

Enriching the learning experiences of NESB students is a major theme in their work, which studies recent language research and teaching principles, observations of second language learners and classrooms in its analysis of the issues.

Suggestions are made in their work on teaching spoken and written language in the English classroom, and include having teachers draw and build on the students’ background knowledge before studying written texts and literature. Another suggestion made is that extended discourse is promoted through writing and discussion in the classroom to gauge NESB students’ understanding of literary techniques. In their work comparisons are made with teaching methods frequently used by ESL teachers, such as pre-teaching vocabulary and making use of visual clues in the classroom, and those utilized by mainstream teachers (Zamel & Spack, 2002).

Also of interest in their research, is the discussion of the work of fellow educational researcher Linda Harklau – some compelling and pertinent comment is made in her study ‘ESL Versus Mainstream Classes’.

This study found that NESB students were “often placed in mainstream classrooms long before they develop the degree of language proficiency necessary to compete on an equal footing with native speakers”…and makes suggestions that ESL and mainstream teachers might consider working collaboratively to develop a curriculum that responds to the needs of ESL learners in mainstream classes.

Responding to some of these needs has been addressed by Education authorities in Australia in the recent past. Documents such as The Department of Education, Training and Development manual on ‘ESL in the Mainstream’(Dept. Education, Training & Employment, 2000) have been developed and are in place in various schools. This document explores what some of the educational needs of ESL learners are, and what educators