Academic Language -Used in the Classroom and Workplace

It is the oral and written language needed for academic purposes.

JoAnn Cosentino, Adelphi University

• “… educators have begun to realize that the mastery of academic subjects is the mastery of their specialized patterns of language use, and that language is the dominant medium through which these subjects are taught and students’ mastery of them tested.”

• (Lempke, 1988)

Informal Language Academic Language

repetition of words variety of words, more sophisticated

sentences start with “and” or but”

sentences start with transition words, such as “however”, “moreover”, and “in addition”

use of slang such as “whatever” and “like”

replaces slang with accurate descriptions

appropriate for use in casual, social settings

appropriate for use in all academic and work places settings

can vary greatly by ethnicity, region, gender, age

common language register for all (K. Kinsella, 2007)

• Leslie: In order to divide two fractions, take the reciprocal of the second one and multiply by the first. Before multiplying, though, see if any numerators and denominators have common factors that cancel out. For example, if a nine is above and three below, divide by three and you end up with three on top and one below. Multiply the numerator across the top and the denominators across the bottom. See if the answer can be further reduced.

• Martin: Like, to divide em, you turn the second one over and times it by the first one. But ya gotta see if any numbers fit into the top and bottom to cross em out and get em smaller so you don’t get big numbers at the end. At the end you see if you can make the top and bottom as small as possible.

(Zwiers, 2008)

• Academic language is distinguished from English in other settings on at least three key levels:1. academic vocabulary level: content specific and

general vocabulary2. grammar or syntactic level3. the discourse or organizational level

• (Bailey, 2007)

Characteristics of Effective Vocabulary Instruction: Marzano’s Six Steps (2009)

1. The teacher provides a description, explanation, or example of the new term.2. Students restate the explanation of the new term in their own words.3. Students create a nonlinguistic representation of the term. Students can draw or

use a picture, show a video, use a graphic organizer, make a web map, demonstrate with a real thing.

4. Students periodically do activities that help them add to their knowledge of vocabulary terms.

5. Periodically students are asked to discuss the terms with one another.6. Periodically students are involved in games that allow them to play with the terms.• These strategies are particularly important to use with our English Language

Learners.• Ask how likely are students to encounter or to need to use these words in the future.

Teaching Channel College Talk: Improving Students’ Vocabulary

Word Walls--Visual Tool for Building Academic Language

• Specialized Academic Vocabulary (Bricks)– Content Specific/

Technological Words

• General Academic Vocabulary (Mortar)– Words across a variety of

domains

One season, there was a shortage of producers in a food web. As a result, the number of deer and wolves decreased. The reason that both the deer and wolf populations declined is that:1. producers are not as important as consumers in a food web2. more consumers than producers are needed to support the food web3. organisms in this food web are interdependent4. populations tend to stay constant in a food web

• (New York State Regents High School Exam: Living Environment Item 3, August 13, 2008).

Deepen the Talk that Happens in our Classrooms

• Think aloud• Use Gestures and Facial Expressions• Metaphors• Personification• Paraphrase• Turn & Talk (Provide Sentence Starters)

1. Based on _________, I infer that…2. I can picture…3. This reminds me of…4. So the big idea is…5. The conclusion I am drawing is…6. One question that the text raises is…

Syntax

• the combining of words, phrases and symbols into structures such as sentences, formulas,

graphs.Getting beyond the technical vocabulary to the function

and form of our language.

SCALEStanford Center for Assessment, Learning, & Equity

Function and Form of our Language• The function of our language is associated with verbs found in learning

outcome statements. Functions are the purposes for which language is used.– For example:• summarize information• predict outcomes• classify information• draw conclusions

When we look at language form, we are looking at what the language looks like or sounds like to accomplish its function.

If the function is to explain or describe, some forms would be Sentence starter, “First I _______, then I ______.” Signal the conclusion with, “Finally I _______.”

Language Functions in edTPA Handbooks

• English– Analyze, Argue, Describe, Evaluate, Explain, Interpret, Justify,

Synthesize• Social Studies

– Analyze, Compare/Contrast, Construct, Describe, Evaluate, Examine, Identify, Interpret, Justify, Locate

• Math– Compare, Conjecture, Describe, Explain, Prove

• Science– Analyze, Explain, Interpret, Justify with Evidence

What is the edTPA asking us to do in regard to academic language?

• Rubric 4: Identifying and Supporting Language Demands (Focus)– How does the candidate identify and support language demands

associated with a key English-Language Arts learning task? (Guiding Question)• Level 1 – 5 Performance Levels (Not Ready to Teach – Highly

Accomplished Beginning Teacher)

• *Level 4 - Candidate identifies vocabulary and additional language demand(s) associated with the language function. Plans include targeted support for use of vocabulary as well as additional language demand(s).

What is the edTPA asking us to do in regard to academic language?

• Rubric 14: Analyzing Students’ Language Use and English-Language Arts Learning (Focus)– How does the candidate analyze students’ use of language

to develop content understanding? (Guiding Question)• Level 1 – 5 Performance Levels (Not Ready to Teach –

Highly Accomplished Beginning Teacher)• *Level 4 - Candidate explains and provides evidence of

students’ use of the language function, vocabulary, and additional language demand(s) in ways that develop content understandings.

Comparing and ContrastingLanguage Frames:1. One similarity/difference between _________ and __________ is …2. _________ and _________ are similar because they both …3. Whereas ___________ is … __________ is ...4. ________ is … Similarly/In contrast, ________ is …

Language of Agreeing:1. My idea/explanation is similar to/related to …2. I agree with (a person) that …3. My idea builds upon (a person’s) idea …4. I don’t agree with you because …

(K. Kinsella, 2007)

Discourse

Discourse includes the structure of written and oral language and focuses on how members of

disciplines talk, write, and participate in knowledge.

We speak of argumentative writing expository, informational and narrative writing. In Math, we

speak of numbers, equations, and proofs.SCALE

Stanford Center For Assessment, Learning,& Equity

Common Core Standards-call for high level classroom discourse

Common Core State Standards focus on:• Reasoning abstractly and quantitatively• Constructing viable arguments and critiquing

reasoning of others• Constructing explanations and designing solutions• Engaging in argument from evidence; and • Asking questions and defining problems (Hakuta, 2011)

Student Sample: Grade 1, Informational/Explanatory WritingStandards for English Language Arts and Literacy in History/S.S. & Sci./Appendix C

My Big Book About Spain

Spain is in Europe. Spain is located in the south western tip of Europe. Europe is a far away place from here. Spain has a lot of fiestas. In some of the fiestas they make masks and make special food too. Spain has bull fights and I would want to see one. I think Spain looks like a upside down hat. In some of the fiestas the people are loud. Some of the fiestas are even beautiful and colorful. Spain has a lot of different people. In the bull fights they make the bulls tired and make them fall out. Spain is very colorful even if you go there you will see I’m right. Spain has 5 neighbors. Spain’s neighbors are France, Andorra, Algeria, Portugal and Morocco. One day when I am a researcher I am going to go to Spain and write about it!

What specific vocabulary might have been taught?What general vocabulary is evident?What support(s) could we use to build students’ academic language within this task?

Annotation• The writer of this piece:

– provides a title to establish the topic– supplies facts and information about the topic– provides a conclusion

• This piece illustrates the writer’s awareness of beginning-of-sentence capitalization and end-of-sentence punctuation as well as the use of capital letters in proper nouns.

Teaching Suggestions:– Use of linking words – Organization: successful grouping of like facts (Spain looks like a

upside down hat and Spain has a lot of different people.)

Academic Language Questions for Lesson Planning

English/Language Arts Vocabulary & Representations

• What are the key words and phrases my students will need to understand, read and use in my lesson? (For TPA, learning segment)

• Which of these words/phrases will be new to my students? • Which of these words/phrases have different meanings in other

contexts? Which might be confusing for students?• Is there a non-jargon, student-friendly way to explain this to

students? • What non-English/Language Arts disciplinary words or phrases will

my students need to understand in order to make sense of the task/texts in my learning segment?

Genre (i.e., Purpose) and Linguistic Features• How (i.e., for what purpose) will students be using language in the lesson?• What key words/phrases will students need to understand in order to follow the

directions in the lesson, and which of these will be new to my students? • Which might be used differently in another content area?

• What key words/phrases will students need to understand in order to work with texts in the lesson?

• What key words/phrases will students need to understand in order to:– talk about the texts? – write about the texts?– create similar texts?

• Write some sentences (to develop into sentence frames) that capture how you expect students to be using academic language to achieve a particular purpose during the learning segment.– How will they talk about texts?– How will they write about texts?– What texts will they create?

Hundley, 2011

Guided Interaction for Academic Language Development

An activity that creates opportunities for students, specifically English Language Learners, to interact is Think, Pair, and Share.

1. Students listen while the teacher poses a question

2. Students are given time to think of the response.

3. Students are told to pair with their classmates and discuss

their responses.4. Students share responses with the whole group.

(Wagner, 2008)

If you want them to hear it, you talk. If you want them to learn it, they talk. - Spencer Kagan