Demystifying "Academic" Language:
Supporting candidates and colleagues in the
everyday events of school
Laura A. Hill-Bonnet, Stanford University
edTPA Conference
November 2, 2013
University of San Diego
Goals and Orientation
• We will approach AL from a contextual point
of view rather than a linguistic one, identifying
it and defining it by the tasks we ask students
to do in school.
• That is, once we are able to identify what we
do in schools, only then we can then examine
how we do it (i.e. what we say and the words
we use).
Laura Hill-Bonnet, STEP (Stanford Teacher
Education Program), 11/2/13
“Although content based instruction, sheltered
instruction, and academic language instruction
are valuable attempts to bring together subject
matter instruction and second language
instruction, their predominate emphases have
been on the study and practice of language
elements rather than on immersion in rich
environments that use language for sense
making.” (Lee, Quinn, & Valdès, p. 9, 2013)
Laura Hill-Bonnet, STEP (Stanford Teacher
Education Program), 11/2/13
We make language choices.
When/
Where/
Who?
Context
Fluency
Why?
Purposes
Function
How?
Structures of
language
Form
Laura Hill-Bonnet, STEP (Stanford Teacher
Education Program), 11/2/13
Laura Hill-Bonnet, STEP (Stanford Teacher
Education Program), 11/2/13
Purposes of
Academic Language
Chamot and O’Malley, 1974/1994
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Seek Information - use who, what, when, where, how
Inform - recount information or retell
Compare - explain graphic organizer showing contrast
Order - describe timeline, continuum or cycle
Classify - describe organizing principles
Analyze - describe features or main idea
Infer - generate hypotheses to suggest cause/outcomes
Justify & Persuade - give evidence why “A” is
important
• Solve Problems - describe problem-solving procedures
• Synthesize - summarize information cohesively
• Evaluate - identify criteria, explain priorities, etc.
Laura Hill-Bonnet, STEP (Stanford Teacher
Education Program), 11/2/13
The work we do in classrooms…
• Take a look at the following video clip
• First, ask yourself what the teacher and
students are doing.
• Then listen for what the teacher and students
are saying to accomplish those tasks.
• What do you notice? What do you hear?
Laura Hill-Bonnet, STEP (Stanford Teacher
Education Program), 11/2/13
I left them by asking ,“If the chain just wrapped
around the tube, how could you calculate the
length,” with the aim of allowing them to use their
mathematical reasoning to identify this as the
circumference and potentially connect that to arc
length to find the curved part of the chain touching
the tube.
The conversation at [1:05]…., in which the boy
walks me through how they found that each of the
straight pieces of chain were 5 feet each because “if
this is a tangent too, then this would also be five
feet” when comparing it to the tangent length
found from half of the truck bed.
Laura Hill-Bonnet, STEP (Stanford Teacher
Education Program), 11/2/13
Context matters…
Laura Hill-Bonnet, STEP (Stanford Teacher
Education Program), 11/2/13
Same class, different tasks
• “students will describe characteristics of an ecosystem”
– the function is “to describe”
– student response: “In the dessert it is hot and dry and plants such as cacti
have adapted to live in those conditions.”
– students need access to forms such as adjectives that describe characteristics
(hot and dry), or exemplars like “such as.”
• “students will make a prediction about which ecosystem is in greater
danger.”
– the function is “to predict”
– student response: “I predict that if both desserts and wetlands experience a
decrease in water availability, then the dessert plants are more likely to
survive because they are better adapted to dry conditions.”
– students will need the forms necessary to perform a prediction, such as “I
predict,” “if…then,” or “more likely.”
• In both cases they need access to content specific vocabulary such as
“dessert, wetland, plant, adaptation, condition, etc.”
Laura Hill-Bonnet, STEP (Stanford Teacher
Education Program), 11/2/13
Supporting our Candidates in
identifying Academic Language
What does AL look and sound
like in classrooms??
Laura Hill-Bonnet, STEP (Stanford Teacher
Education Program), 11/2/13
Academic Language “demands”
in instruction
•For example:
–discussing ideas and asking questions,
–summarizing instructional and disciplinary
texts,
–giving instructions,
–delivering to a mini-lesson,
–explaining thinking aloud,
–sharing behavioral expectations (“raise your
hands”)
Laura Hill-Bonnet, STEP (Stanford Teacher
Education Program), 11/2/13
TCs are asked to:
• Consider language demands associated with content
understandings in the learning segment. These include the
oral and written academic language that students will need
to understand or produce in your learning segment.
• Identify the key academic language demand and explain
why it is integral to the central focus for the segment and
appropriate to students’ academic language development.
• Consider language functions and language forms, essential
vocabulary, symbols, and/or phrases for the concepts and
skills being taught, and instructional language necessary for
students to understand or produce oral and/or written
language within learning tasks and activities.
Laura Hill-Bonnet, STEP (Stanford Teacher
Education Program), 11/2/13
Language Demands
(lesson components that are challenging)
Language Functions
(what we ask students to DO in those
challenging components)
Language Forms
(linguistic structures of those
functions)
Laura Hill-Bonnet, STEP (Stanford Teacher
Education Program), 11/2/13
Functions (genres/purposes)
– The tasks or purposes AND uses of language.
– We use language to accomplish something in formal or
informal settings, for social or academic purposes.
– Social purposes include: exchanging greetings, expressing
needs, making jokes, indicating agreement or
disagreement, participating in personal conversations, etc.
– Academic purposes include:
Laura Hill-Bonnet, STEP (Stanford Teacher
Education Program), 11/2/13
Identifying AL Functions and Forms
• To identify the key AL demands we ask credential
candidates to think about the following areas of
their lesson plans:
– Content Standard(look at the verb)
– Learning objectives (look at the verb)
– Assessment
Laura Hill-Bonnet, STEP (Stanford Teacher
Education Program), 11/2/13
Identifying AL Functions and Forms
• What is it that you want students to
do/read/write/say/draw?
• Say/write/draft what an “appropriate” student
response might be.
• What content words does it contain?
• What grammatical structures does it contain?
Laura Hill-Bonnet, STEP (Stanford Teacher
Education Program), 11/2/13
Example- H/SS
• CA H/SS 10.5.4
– Understand the nature of the WWI
• Students will be able to evaluate the causes of
the 1st World War in writing.
• Students will be able to use sentence structures
that include phrases such as “more important
than,” and “on the one hand...,” “however.”
Laura Hill-Bonnet, STEP (Stanford Teacher
Education Program), 11/2/13
Forms (linguistic structures)
– Content-specific vocabulary
– The words that hold our language together and
are essential to comprehension. They are words
that determine relationships between and among
words.
Laura Hill-Bonnet, STEP (Stanford Teacher
Education Program), 11/2/13
For example…
• Connecting words: because, then, but, sometimes,
before, therefore, however and whereas
• Prepositions and prepositional phrases: on, in, under,
behind, next to, in front of, between, among and in the
background
• Basic regular and irregular verbs: leave, live, eat, use,
saw, and went
• Pronouns: she, he, his, their, it, each other, and
themselves
• Academic vocabulary: notice, think, analyze, plan,
compare, proof, and characteristics
Laura Hill-Bonnet, STEP (Stanford Teacher
Education Program), 11/2/13
Social Studies
• In social studies, long sentences with multiple
embedded clauses are common.
• Cause and effect statements are frequent.
– Because there will be more people in the world in the future, we
will need more land on which to build towns and cities.
• Various verb forms are used:
– “I found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble.”
Augustus is supposed to have spoken these words as he lay
dying. He was Rome’s first emperor, and started the first of its
great building programs. He claimed that he had had over 80
temples rebuilt.
• Frequent use of pronouns it and they as
referents.
Laura Hill-Bonnet, STEP (Stanford Teacher
Education Program), 11/2/13
Mathematics
• Comparatives:
– 6 is greater than 4
– Maria earns six times as much as Peter
– Lin is as old as Roberto
• Prepositions:
– (divided) into, divided by,
– 2 multiplied by 6 and X exceeds 2 by 7
• Passive voice:
– X is defined as a number greater than 7.
• Reversals: The number a is five less than b.
• Logical connectors: if…then
– If a is positive then -a is negative.
Laura Hill-Bonnet, STEP (Stanford Teacher
Education Program), 11/2/13
Science
• Use of passive voice
• Multiple embeddings
• Long noun phrases serving as subjects or
objects
• If…then constructions
• Logical connectors (if, because, however,
consequently)
Laura Hill-Bonnet, STEP (Stanford Teacher
Education Program), 11/2/13
Science
The Calvin cycle is sometimes referred to as
the “light-independent reactions”
because, unlike the light reactions, it does
not require light to begin. However, this
does not mean that the Calvin cycle can
continue running in a plant kept in the dark.
The Calvin cycle requires two inputs
supplied by the light reactions, ATP and
NADPH.
Laura Hill-Bonnet, STEP (Stanford Teacher
Education Program), 11/2/13
References and Resources
• Chamot, A.U. & O'Malley, J.M. (1994). The CALLA Handbook:
Implementing the Cognitive Language Learning Approach. Reading,
MA: Addison Wesley.
• Hill-Bonnet, L. (2013). Not just more words, but more functional
words. Education Week Teacher
http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2013/08/01/fp_hillbonnet_vocab.html
• Lee, O., Quinn, H., & Valdes, G. (2013). Science and Language for
English Language Learners in relations to Next Generation Science
Standards with Implications for Common Core State Standareds for
English Langauge Arts and Mathematics. Educational Researcher
http://ell.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/3_EdResearcher%2011%2
0April%202013%20Lee_Quinn_Valdes%20copy.pdf
Laura Hill-Bonnet, STEP (Stanford Teacher
Education Program), 11/2/13
Thank you!
• laurahb1@stanford.edu
Laura Hill-Bonnet, STEP (Stanford Teacher
Education Program), 11/2/13