Academic Language! Academic Literacy!

A Guide for K–12 Educators

Eli R. Johnson

• Publisher: Corwin
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN: 9781412971331, 9781412971324
• eBook ISBN: 9781452273556
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Éducation
• Subtopic: Méthodes pédagogiques

"Academic language and literacy are essential keys to conceptual understanding and ultimately to student success. Eli Johnson provides a foundation that all teachers and school leaders can use for improvement that will reach every classroom and every student."
—Peter Dallas Finch, Assistant Superintendent
West Valley School District, Yakima, WA

Develop students? understanding of academic language and watch literacy skills soar!

To achieve higher levels of learning, students must be able to understand academic language—the formalized language of instruction found in classrooms, textbooks, and standardized tests. Eli R. Johnson conveys a powerful message of the need for teachers to provide explicit academic language instruction for all students, especially English language learners or those struggling with reading.

Filled with 36 hands-on strategies, this practical, solidly researched guide helps teachers make the critical connection between academic language, literacy, and student achievement for all learners, regardless of home language or socioeconomic status. Explained in reader-friendly terms, each strategy helps teachers give their students the tools and skills necessary to decipher academic language in reading, writing, listening, and speaking. This K–12 book also includes:

• A strategy matrix to help teachers select appropriate strategies for their grade level
• A description of each strategy, with information on how it works in the classroom and why it is effective
• Collaborative protocols to help infuse academic language throughout the content areas
• Lists of words that can be introduced at each grade level to build students? vocabulary

Academic Language! Academic Literacy! helps teachers instruct students on the language of education so they have a chance to demonstrate what they know and experience success.

Academic Language and Academic Literacy

1

Literacy is at the heart of sustainable development … Acquiring literacy is an empowering process, enabling millions to enjoy access to knowledge and information which broadens horizons, increases opportunities, and creates alternatives for building a better life.

—Kofi Annan, 2001 Nobel Peace Prize Winner

Words are tools of learning. When words are organized effectively into language, they can become the most powerful tools in the world. Words can open up whole worlds of increased awareness and greater understanding. Words organize our actions and define us as humans. When used effectively, words contain the ability to inspire individuals and to lead nations. Words can have a tremendous impact on how people operate and learn. We also know that words act as the basic building blocks of language and learning at school. The words one chooses can create the leverage for a life of understanding and learning. Schools have their own special words and languages that coincide with the context and culture of learning. The words used in school should reveal the purposes and the pathways to success at school and beyond. So, what are the words in our schools that can have the longest lasting and greatest impact on student learning? The words that impact school the most are those that reveal academic language.

ACADEMIC LANGUAGE

Academic language is the formalized language of school. Academic language builds a foundation that helps our students define terms, form concepts, and construct knowledge. As key elements of academic language are emphasized and understood by all students, our schools will provide a more defined direction for learning. Dictionary.com defines the term academic as “Of or pertaining to college, academy, school, or other educational institution especially one of higher learning.” Language is defined as “a body of words and the systems for their use common to a people who are of the same community or nation, the same geographical area, or the same cultural tradition.” When used effectively in schools, academic language provides everyone a much clearer focus, so we, as teachers, communicate better, our students learn better, and our schools achieve better results. As we work together to improve academic language, each one of us can collectively impact student learning and make a significant difference in academic achievement. Creating this type of improvement within our schools takes a complete understanding of both the components and principles that make up academic language and academic literacy.

Academic language is becoming a more and more important issue in education because of the demands it places on our students to perform cognitively complex actions. For example, academic language includes words like analyze, analyzing, and analysis; interpret, interpreting, and interpretation; compare, comparing, and comparison; and identify, identifying, and identification. These words require that students understand complex concepts, take action, and engage in learning patterns that stretch their thinking and learning abilities to greater heights. Gersten and colleagues (2007) define academic language as “the language of the classroom, of academic disciplines (science, history, literary analysis), of texts and literature, and of extended, reasoned discourse. It is more abstract and de-contextualized than conversational English” (p. 23). Students need significant academic language support to scaffold their learning for greater understanding. Hu (2008) shares the following story, which tells one student’s tale of academic language and academic success at one struggling school.

Hakim’s Story

Relief turned to satisfaction that Newton was not just another failing school with low test scores. This time, nearly 80% of its fourth graders had passed math, 69% language arts, and 77% science, all double-digit increases from the previous year, and one of the biggest overall gains in the Newark school system. Buried beneath the numbers were hard-won victories by students like Hakim McKenzie, 10, who repeated third grade this year. The third-grade scores also rose, with 56% passing math and 67% language arts (there is no third-grade science test). Hakim failed the math test last year because he did not understand the questions, stumped by words like “estimate” and “reduce.” This year, he not only passed math but also scored high enough to earn an “advanced proficient” designation. “It’s the first thing I’ve been good at,” said Hakim, a shy boy with a toothy grin who has earned the nickname Little Teacher among his classmates because he helps them with math homework. “My friends say, ‘How did you get that good in math?’ I say that I use books and my teacher, Mr. Kilgore, helps me. I feel like I’ve achieved something really good.” (p. A1)

Knowing key academic language words like estimate, reduce, analyze, and conceptualize support student’s abilities to be successful in school. If our schools are going to meet the literacy demands of an increasingly challenging global environment, then academic language must be understood and mastered by all learners (Wong-Fillmore, 2007). Furthermore, academic language is important to academic literacy and the reading comprehension of students as they engage in textbooks, narrative stories, and informational texts. Academic language provides us an essential framework for developing our student’s formal literacy skills for both school and career. Understanding the types of academic language and developing content-area literacy are necessary skills for constructing the learning resources that everyone needs to succeed in today’s schools.

LANGUAGE GAP

As we very well know, no issue in education seems to grab people’s attention today more than the academic achievement gap. The achievement gap describes many of the differences between the achievement results by students in low socioeconomic circumstances versus their peers. Large numbers of students in poverty are often two grade levels or more behind their peers, and a lack of academic language affects their achievement at school. Closing the achievement gap has become both a moral imperative for our students and an economic imperative for our country. Hirsch (2003) notes, “It is now well accepted that the chief cause of the achievement gap between socioeconomic groups is a language gap” (p. 22). Most definitely, the language of learning at school is an academic language that is both precise and purposeful. Using academic language effectively means that we help learners recognize the function of language, the structure of language, and the demands of language in our classrooms. Pollock (2007) notes that the academic language of school needs to be very clear and we should use “precise terminology to describe what students will learn” (p. 3). The more accurate and precise the language used by teachers, the more students will understand the purposes of school. If our students are unable to comprehend the words and grasp the academic concepts that serve as a bridge for learning, then our students will face an ever-increasing, uphill battle in school.

LITERACY GAP

Developing powerful literacy for all of our students is at the heart of closing the achievement gap. Many students personally express that they sorely lack the language and literacy structures to succeed in school (Moats, 2000). The academic literacy gap exists because so many students of poverty struggle with basic literacy skills, and these students lack the literacy strategies to succeed. Pinkus (2008) notes the importance of literacy and learning:

Literacy is the gateway skill that students must have mastered if they are to be successful in any course; low literacy levels translate into poor grades, grade repetition, and eventual disengagement from school, all of which tend to precede a student’s decision to drop out. (p. 4)

The achievement gap, which may be measured by a myriad of different assessments, reveals a large gap in literacy that separates student success from student frustration. Without the academic literacy skills to read, write, and communicate with confidence, our children will struggle to compete academically now and financially in the future. Students definitely feel the pressure created by the increasing gaps in their literacy and achievement. Every one of our students must fully develop a framework of academic literacy so that they can assume a place of learning and leadership within our communities and within the global economy.

ACHIEVEMENT GAP

Gaps in language lead to larger gaps in literacy and learning, and gaps in literacy and learning lead to gaps in achievement. When students fail to fix gaps in their language and learning, these gaps often widen and become chasms where students eventually drop out and are academically lost. Most important, our students need to develop academic language and literacy skills so that they can participate effectively in content-area classrooms, in our democratic society, and in the global economy. The lack of academic language has created a dire situation for so many of our students who come from poverty. Elmore (see Crow, 2008) notes that the achievement gap finds at its core a language gap: “In Boston, we’ve got about 40% of the population who … don’t have the academic vocabulary needed to do the work” (p. 46). Directly stated, the language gap leads to a literacy gap, while the literacy gap leads to a gap in academic achievement. As the conditions grow more desperate, students need a systematic and strategic plan to directly increase their academic language and literacy, or many of them will be lost. Needless to say, American education will only realize its tremendous potential when we put language and literacy in their proper place within every classroom. If our students never get a grip on the academic language and literacy of the classroom, they will lose their grip on their educational opportunities and may never seem to hold onto life’s opportunities.

TWO CATEGORIES OF ACADEMIC LANGUAGE

Most important, understanding the language of learning at school is the beginning of building an academic foundation and framework for achievement. Overall, academic language includes two primary categories, which are critical for succeeding in school: specific content language and general academic language. The first category covers the particular terminology of a specific subject matter. Specific content language includes the specialized terms that are unique to math, science, language arts, and social studies, or those used within other school subjects. The second category of language covers the general academic language that cuts across all of the content areas at school. General academic language is commonly referred to as academic language. Academic language engages students in the key actions and processes of learning. Academic language develops necessary cognitive connections within the minds of our students and simultaneously develops their internal structures of knowledge (Marzano, 2004). Knowledge structures provide the schemata or background information needed to develop further conceptual knowledge. Academic language can help each student build deeper comprehension and connect concepts across the curriculum at school. Specific content language develops our students’ depth of learning, while general academic language develops their breadth of learning.

(Specific) Content Language

First of all, specific content language is the type of academic language at school that sets math, science, language arts, social studies, and other subjects apart from each other. Specific content language provides our students with the challenge of learning the key terms and concepts of a particular subject matter. The prospect of learning specific content language increases in difficulty as our students advance through each grade level and the subject matter becomes more narrow in its focus. The narrowing of focus also leads to a greater depth of understanding. It takes a focused effort for students to learn the academic terminology that can be used as the key resources for developing concepts within a specific content area.

In addition, specific content language provides the essential building blocks from which conceptual knowledge can be built. The more a student understands the specific content language of a particular subject matter, then the faster and more efficient they can learn additional knowledge (Willingham, 2006). Providing explicit instruction in language at school is often seen as a domain only for the language arts class; yet, each subject area has its own unique academic language demands that it places on students. These specific language demands set each content area apart from other disciplines and make each discipline unique. Following are examples of content-area language.

Types of Specific Content Language

• Social Studies (i.e., democracy, civilization, communism, geography, and legislature)
• Mathematics (i.e., fraction, equation, division, angle, addition, and factor)
• Science (i.e., photosynthesis, friction, compound, plate tectonics, and force)
• Language Arts (i.e., alliteration, plot, genre, author’s voice, theme, and irony)

Let’s look at comments from several authors as they outline a few of the specific content-language challenges found in various core subjects.

Ogle, Klemp, and McBride (2007) outline several language challenges: “Social studies texts also contain a great deal of academic vocabulary—content-specific terminology with meanings specific to history or government. Social studies texts are filled with abstract ‘-isms’ about economics, religion, government, and culture” (p. 14).

Schleppegrell (2007) notes that “Learning mathematics and the language of mathematics is a challenge for all students, but is especially challenging for students who have no opportunities to use academic language outside of school” (p. 141).

Bailey, Butler, Laframenta, and Ong (2004) emphasize the importance of academic language for science educators: “During science lessons, teachers exposed students to academic language within a range of instructional contexts” (p. 24).

As we have noted, specific content language serves as a basic building blocks for learning. Specific content language strengthens the depth of our student’s conceptual understanding within a discipline. Learning specific content language will help our students throughout their school career and will open up more options and opportunities in a chosen field of work (Hambrick & Oswald, 2005). In college, students select a chosen field of study, and this choice often leads to a job in a chosen profession like engineering, journalism, psychology, or physics. As our students progress in their academic careers from high school to college, the academic language becomes more specific and precise. Knowing the specific content language of various disciplines can lead to greater success for our students in school and beyond.

(General) Academic Language

General academic language provides a foundation for educational success. The more academic language our students know and use, then the stronger their foundations become. The words included in general academic language act like mortar or cement. These words hold and bind specific content-area language and concepts together within the minds of students. General academic language helps our students cement the building blocks of specific content language into conceptual knowledge that in turn produces both educational and rea...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Academic Language! Academic Literacy! Strategy Matrix
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• 1. Academic Language and Academic Literacy
• 2. Academic Language and Learning
• 3. Academic Literacy Challenges
• 4. Academic Reading: Inferring Strategies
• 5. Academic Text Structure
• 6. Academic Listening Strategies
• 7. Academic Speaking Strategies
• 8. Academic Writing Strategies
• 9. Creating an Academic Culture
• Resource A: Academic Language Grade-Level Lists
• Resource B: Specific Content Language Resources
• References
• Index