Academic Language: We are like fish trying to describe water!

Hello friends, Many of us are now starting to look to the College and Career Readiness Standards (CCRS) to guide teaching and assessing. Communicating effectively with others through academic talk is deeply integrated into these standards in a variety of ways -- very explicitly in the English Language Arts standards as well as in the Mathematics Practices. I welcome this emphasis on talk since I have long believed that high quality literacy instruction should balance listening, speaking, reading and writing, so that students are talking about what they are reading and writing --and writing about what they are talking and reading about. The value of talk is not really a new idea, but it's great to see it receiving such strong emphasis in the CCRS.

What I do see as different, however, is the attention to "academic language." Academic language is inherent in academic content and is actually what mediates one's thinking about this content  If academic language is so important, then I want to understand what specific language is considered "academic." Academic language includes vocabulary, of course, but it is more than that. I have learned that the answer to this question is not necessarily that obvious!

In fact, I agree with Jeff Zwiers (2014) that we teachers are like "fish trying to describe water" when it comes to academic language. We are so immersed in academic language as a natural part of our daily lives that it is not always obvious what academic language needs to be taught. Zwiers explains that teachers need to become careful language watchers so we can identify the language required to engage with academic texts. For instance, what language do we use to compare and contrast? Here are some examples from Zwiers: Slavery led to the Civil War. What were the ramifications of the Emancipation Proclamation? As a result of the 13th Amendment, slaves were legally free. The underlined words reflect examples of the academic language sometimes used to compare and contrast.

What language might we use to interpret? How about these examples? The statement signifies ... The underlying message is ...  The author means that ...

What academic language would you say is needed to justify a point? to analyze? to evaluate? What language could we use to affirm and build on one another's ideas? What do you think?smiley

Many adult learners I've worked with over the years --  and NOT only English language learners-- are not familiar with this language. It's clear to me that I need to be a careful language watcher to first identify the academic language used in academic discourse and then design instruction so that students have the opportunity to use that language in meaningful interactions with one another, as well as in their writing.

I have some ideas for how to do that, but before I share my ideas, it would be great to hear from members on this topic. How does Jeff Zwiers' metaphor resonate with you? How important do you think it is to draw learners attention to this language? What might be a useful approach for doing so?

Looking forward to your thoughts.

Cheers, Susan

Moderator, Assessment CoP

Comments

Great post, Susan. I'm a Zwiers groupie and a Kinsella groupie and a Schmitt and Zimmerman groupie to boot! All four of these fine minds have insights into ways that we can integrate academic vocabulary instruction. CCRS focuses on the learner's autonomy in building her/his vocabulary and Schmitt (2000)  lays out five vocabulary learning strategy areas (VLS): determination, social, mnemonic, cognitive and metacognitive,  that we can teach and then have learners practice, starting at the very beginning levels of ESL.  Zimmerman in her slender tome, Word Knowledge, talks about what it means to know a word. Although the book is aimed at the higher-level ESL learner, the techniques she shares translate to lower-levels (for example, teaching the meaning of word in the context that it appears, rather than all its meanings). Kinsella, as I imagine everyone on this list knows, is queen of the academic sentence frame and advocates the use of precise language in classroom talk. A great way to get some of the more frequent academic language into common use.  Zwiers provides a great activity template on his site "Opinion Formation Cards" where learners use evidence cards (that incorporate academic language) as the basis of their opinion about a claim. For me, one of the best aspects of the CCRS' approach to vocabulary and grammar is that it is done within the context of the reading, listening passage, discussion, media, etc.  The relevance of the vocabulary instruction is more likely to be assured when it is the gateway to comprehension of the text (or meaningful discussion or writing.)

I look forward to seeing where this discussion leads!

Jayme

 

Hello all,  Jayme, thanks for your comments and for sharing additional information and resources about academic language. Jeff Zwiers has many great tools on his website, so I want to urge everyone who may be interested to check out the site. His books are also excellent. While Zwiers' focus is K12, it is very relevant to adult learners as well, particularly in light of the College and Career Readiness Standards.

Choosing complex texts for students to engage with and then jumping out of the fish bowl so we can become more aware of any language within the text that students need are the first two steps. Then we need to design learning activities to ensure that students are engaging with the language in meaningful interactions with one another. I'm most interested in how to support this engagement through conversation since I'm convinced this is an essential link to deepen learning. I would say this is true for almost all the learners I've worked with over the years, including ABE, HSE and ESL.

What are some ways we teachers can do this effectively? Since this is new territory for many (most?) of us, how can we assess the impact?

Cheers, Susan

Moderator, Assessment CoP