Hello colleagues, We are being challenged to support all levels of learners to accelerate their language development for postsecondary training/education and work by integrating informational text and critical thinking into our instruction. Betsy Parrish and Kim Johnson laid out the issues for us in 2010 in this important article, "Promoting Learner Transitions to Postsecondary Education and Work: Develop Academic Readiness Skills from the Beginning." (Follow the link to find a review and a link to the article in the LINCS collection.)
As I've thought about ways to support adult English learners, one educator I have looked to is Jeff Zwiers, senior researcher at the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University. Zwiers' research and writing has been focused on English learners in K12. However, I have found Zwiers' books and many of the tools he has designed and made available online to be quite helpful. Permission to copy the tools has been given for classroom use.
One such tool is the Constructive Conversation Skills Poster that features conversation prompts to help learners with the language they need for academic discussions. Here are some examples of prompts that feature the language students can use to clarify and/or elaborate on points during their discussions with one another, e.g., Can you clarify the part about ...? Let me see if I heard you right. Can you be more specific?
I've included some of this conversational language in my teaching, and I've found that learners are super eager to learn and be able to use this language. Please share your thoughts, questions, and ideas with our community on this timely topic.
Cheers, Susan Finn Miller
Moderator, English Language Acquisition CoP