Austin Peay
State
University
September 28.2012
Academic Language 101
D r. M e l a n i e H u n d l e y
Va n d e r b i l t
University
Task
2 Q u e s t i on s
How do you define academic
language?
How do you learn the
“academic language” of your
classes?
Two Questions
Setting the Stage—Student Voices
Agenda
What is Academic Language?
 Multiple areas of academic language
 Academic Language in planning
 Academic Language in assessment
Resources for Academic Language
Overview of Academic Language in
edTPA
Student
Voices
Secret
Language
School is where you go to
learn a secret language but
they don’t tell you that it’s
there. You have to figure it
out on your own. It’s like
an initiation to a secret
club. Maya, 8 grade.
th
Research
Voices
Language is the primary
vehicle for learning,
instruction, and overall
intellectual development. It
is not only a means for
communicating information,
it is also a vehicle for
deepening their
understanding of important
ideas. K er sa int, T h o ms p on, & Petko va , 2 009 , p .
46.)
Language of
School
Student
Voices
Secret
Language
I knew I was gone fail that
test when I got to the third
question and I didn’t even
know what they was asking
me. K arah, 11 grade
th
It ain’t that I don’t know
nothin’, it’s that I can’t say it
right. Mitch, 7 grade
th
So the test question asked
for my hypothesis about the
character’s behavior and I
got confused cause I hadn’t
done no experiment. Emmet, 10
grade
th
Student
Voices
Secret
Language
Academic language is the oral and
written language that students
need in order to
Definition
 understand (read, listen, think)
 communicate (listen, speak, write,
connect)
 Perform (think, read, write, listen, speak,
create)
 Academic Language is necessary to
participate in the content
 think
 question
 talk
 learn
Language Use
Purposes of
Language
Set of words
Grammar
O r g a n i z at i on al
S t r a t eg i e s
purposeful
intent
Language is used
to accomplish something
 in formal & informal settings
 for social & academic purposes.
Task
What are
the
language
purposes
at work
here?
Social
Purposes
for
Language
 Exchanging greetings
 Making jokes
 Indicating agreement/disagreement
 Retelling stories
 Participating in personal conversations
 Persuading
 Social Purposes:
 Exchanging greetings
 Making jokes
 Indicating agreement/disagreement
 Retelling stories
 Persuading
Task
Choose one
of the social
purposes
listed here.
Select a social
language
purpose from
the list.
What are
some ways to
express it?
Write a
“sentence
frame” for
this social
purpose.
 Seek Information - use who, what, when, where, how
Academic
Language
Purposes
Chamot and
O ’ M a l l e y, 1 9 7 4
 Inform - recount information or retell
 Compare & Contrast – identif y similarities & differences
 Order - describe timeline, continuum or cycle
 Classif y - describe organizing principles
 Analyze - describe features or main idea
 Infer - generate hypotheses to suggest cause/outcomes
 Justif y & Persuade - give evidence why “A” is important
 Solve Problems - describe problem-solving procedures
 Synthesize - summarize information cohesively
 Evaluate - identif y criteria, explain priorities, etc.
 Academic Purposes:
 Seek Information
 Inform
 Compare & Contrast
 Order
 Classify
 Analyze
 Infer
 Justify & Persuade
 Solve Problems
 Synthesize
 Evaluate
Task
Choose one
of the
academic
purposes
listed here.
Select an
academic e
purpose from
the list.
What are
some ways to
express it?
Write a
“sentence
frame” for
this academic
purpose.
 Teachers and students use language in
specific ways to participate in learning and
assessment tasks:
Instructional
Language
Language to
p a r t ic i p a t e
another facet
o f a c a d e m ic
l a n g u ag e
 discussing ideas and asking questions
 summarizing instructional and disciplinary texts
 following and giving instructions
 listening to or presenting a mini-lesson
 explaining something
 giving reasons for a point of view
 writing essays to display knowledge on tests
 communicating behavioral expectations (“raise
your hands”)
15
15
 If we accept that teachers & students use
language in specific ways to participate
in learning and assessment tasks, what
are some ways to express the following?
 Discussing ideas and asking questions
 Summarizing instructional and content texts
 Giving instructions
 Listening to or presenting a mini-lesson
 Explaining something
 Giving reasons for a point of view
 Communicating behavioral expectations
Task
Choose one of
t h e c l a s sroom
p r a c t ic e s f ro m
the list.
Create an
ex a m p l e f ro m
your content
area.
What are the
ke y s t r u c t u re s
( w o r d s,
p h r a s e s,
p u n c t u a t io n ,
etc.) that are
part of this?
Academic
Language
Te r m s
L i n g u i st ic
Pro c e sse s
Pa t t e rn s
“When we teach a subject, or
any topic or text within that
subject, we must teach the
academic vocabulary for
dealing with it—not just the
words, but also the linguistic
processes and patterns for
delving deeply into and
operating upon that content”
(Wilhelm, p. 44).
Academic
Language
Set of words
Grammar
O r g a n i z at i on al
S t r a t eg i e s
Zwiers’ describes academic
language as “the set of words,
grammar, and organizational
strategies used to describe
complex ideas, higher-order
thinking processes, and abstract
concepts” (p. 20).
What are the words & structures
that students need to know to
understand & make meaning in
your content area?
Instructional Language
Verbs
Terms used in directions
Blooms Expanded Chart
“Command” Terms
example
Student
Voices
I can do the work for a class as
long as I know what the teacher
means by what she says and what
she asks. When a teacher makes
things clear for me, I think I am a
good student . L e a h , 1 2 g r a d e
th
Making
Ac a d em ic
Language
Vi s i b l e
Student
Voices
Making
Ac a d em ic
Language
Vi s i b l e
 Most of the time I don’t even know
how to start or what to do. It’s more
than just sometimes not knowing the
words in the directions. It’s knowing
what I am supposed to use when I talk
in the class or when I write something
for class. M a t t , 1 2 g r a d e
th
List command terms that you might
use in your classroom that could
cause students problems.
Annotate
 In English—you add notes and/or
commentary to text, usually explaining
something or going deeper into the
specific meaning, make connections,
identify and/or explore key literary
elements
 In Science—add brief notes to a diagram
or graph
Task
Think about
when you were
in middle and
h i g h s c h oo l.
What words in
t h e d i r e c t i on s
c a u se d y o u
p ro b l e m s?
Think about
your content
area. What
w o r d s c o u ld
c a u se s t u d e n t
p ro b l e m s?
Student Notes
Example
Developing
Academic
Language
 Academic language development is
making the language explicit to
expand students’ control over
language and improve their language
choices according to the purpose and
audience for the message.
 Academic language also involves
discipline-specific vocabulary and
language structures for understanding
and expressing, explanations,
evaluations and analyses.
 Providing purposeful opportunities for
students to develop and use academic
language. This provides access to the
“language of school” and supports
academic success.
So?
How do we put it
together?
Academic
Language
in Planning
and
Assessment
Focus on Student Learning
Planning
edTPA
Vi s i o n o f
Te a c h i n g
 Use knowledge of students
 Build content understanding
 Design assessments to monitor
student learning
Instruction
 Student engagement
 Student thinking
 Subject-specific pedagogy
Assessment
 Analysis of student learning
 Provide feedback
Academic Language
edTPA
Terms
Discourse
Ac a d em ic
Language
D i s c ou r se
Language Demand
Language
Demand
Language
Fu n c t io n s
Language Functions
S y n t ax
Syntax
Academic Language
edTPA
Terms
Ac a d em ic
Language
D i s c ou r se
Language
Demand
Language
Fu n c t io n s
S y n t ax
Oral and written language used
for academic purposes
Discourse
edTPA
Terms
Ac a d em ic
Language
D i s c ou r se
Language
Demand
Language
Fu n c t io n s
S y n t ax
Structures of written and oral
language
How members of the discipline talk,
write, and participate in knowledge
construction
Discipline-specific
 Distinctive about features/way of
structuring language (text structures)
 Elementary Mathematics
 English
 Math
 Science
 Social Studies
Language Demands
edTPA
Terms
Ac a d em ic
Language
D i s c ou r se
Language
Demand
Language
Fu n c t io n s
S y n t ax
Specific ways that academic
language is used by students to
participate in learning tasks
 reading
 writing
 listening and/or speaking
 demonstrate/perform
Are the language demands
high or low?
 High = lecture, writing a
paragraph, reading from a content
text or primary source document.
 Low = dramatization, illustration,
filling in a graphic organizer or
labeling with a word bank
Language
Demands
 In order to demonstrate their
understanding of terms that can be
used to describe geographical
features, the learners will write a
paragraph summarizing the
geography of Italy.
 The learners will find the roots of a
quadratic equation by factoring.
 Given a word problem with a
quadratic equation, the learners
will be able to find maximum or
minimum values.
Sample
Objectives
W h a t s u p p ort s
m i g h t a s t u d en t
need?
 If the language demand is high,
you will need to state
specifically how you are going to
provide scaffolding and support
for students who need it.
 For example:
 Re-write text or condense text
 Provide sentence frames or stems
 Provide graphic organizers
 Provide a template or model for
students to imitate
 CLOZE note-taking guide for lecture
 What are some other ideas?
Scaffolds
In order to demonstrate their
understanding of terms that
can be used to describe
geographical features, the
learners will write a paragraph
summarizing the geography of
Italy, using both words from
the vocabulary worksheet and
a list of adjectives they will
have generated.
Sample
Objectives
Language Functions
edTPA
Terms
Ac a d em ic
Language
D i s c ou r se
Language
Demand
Language
Fu n c t io n s
S y n t ax
content and focus of the learning
task
Represented by action verb within
the learning outcome (describing,
comparing, summarizing, etc.)
English
Math
Science
Social Studies
Syntax
edTPA
Terms
Ac a d em ic
Language
D i s c ou r se
Language
Demand
Language
Fu n c t io n s
S y n t ax
Set of conventions for organizing
symbols, words and phrases
together into structures (e.g.,
sentences, graphs, tables)
Purpose: Compare/Contrast
Content-Specific vocabulary
Have lungs
Vertebrates
Have gills
Live births
Excellent
swimmers
Hatch from eggs
Warm blooded
Mothers
produce milk
Marine Mammals
Live in
groups
Cold blooded
Do not produce
milk
Ocean Fish
Linguistic Features sentence frames
 Providing sentence frames will allow students to express
compare/contrast.
 ________ have __________, whereas________ have
_____________.
 Marine mammals have lungs, whereas ocean fish have gills.
Building Words/Structures
 Although hydrogen is explosive and oxygen supports
combustion, a compound of them puts out fires.
 Unless hydrogen and oxygen form a compound, they are
explosive.
 If hydrogen and oxygen form a compound, they lose their
original properties of being explosive and supporting
combustion.
 Ty r e , P. ( 2 0 1 2 ) . T h e w r i t i n g r e v o l u t i o n . T h e A t l a n t i c .
Yet another
consideration of
language demands…
Characteristics
of textual
resources
 In social studies, long sentences with
multiple embedded clauses are common.
 Frequent use of pronouns it and they as
referents.
 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.
Social
Studies
 Use of passive voice
 Multiple embeddings
 Long noun phrases serving as
subjects or objects
 If…then constructions and logical
connectors (if, because, however,
consequently)
 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.
Science
 Comparatives:
 6 is greater than 4
 María 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.
Mathematics
 Vocabulary
 Text, character, plot, theme, thesis,
characteristics, genre, metaphor, simile,
gerund
 Narrative Structures
 Quotatives
 Descriptors
 Inferential language in metaphors
 The use of “like” or “as” in similes
 Literary Response
 Generating/Justifying an opinion
 Citing evidence
English
Language
Arts
Teacher
Candidate
Rephrase
E n g l ish /
Language Arts
Te r m s &
Phrases
 What are the key words and phrases my
students will need to understand, read
and use in the learning activity?
 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?
Handout
Teacher
Candidate
Rephrase
Te r m s
Phrases
Using Language
 How (i.e., for what purpose) will
students be using language in the
learning activity?
 What key words/phrases will
students need to understand in order
to follow the directions in the
learning activity?
 What key words/phrases will students need
to understand in order to work with texts
in the learning activity?
 What key words/phrases will students need
to understand in order to
 talk about the texts?
 write about the texts?
 create similar texts?
Math
Example
(Emily)
Mathematical
Vo c a b u l a r y &
Representations
 What are the key mathematical words
and phrases my students will need to
understand and use in the learning
activity?
 Which of these words/phrases will be new to
my students?
 Which of these words/phrases have different
meanings in informal/non-mathematical
conversations?
 What are “kid-friendly” ways of describing
each of these?
Handout
Emily’s Notes
Math
Example
(Emily)
Mathematical
Vo c a b u l a r y &
Representations
 Which new mathematical
representations (including notation)
will students need to learn to “read”
and use in the learning activity?
 What “non-mathematical” words or
phrases will my students need to
understand in order to make sense of
the task scenarios in the learning
activity?
Math
Example
(Emily)
Genre (i.e.,
Pu r p ose ) a n d
L i n g u i st i c
Fe a t u re s
How (i.e., for what purpose) will
students be using language in the
activity?
 Which key words/phrases will my students
need to understand in order to follow
directions during the learning task, and which
of these will be new to my students?
 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.
 What are “kid-friendly” ways of describing
each of these?
Academic
Language
Tools
Sentence
Fr a m e s
Sentence Stems
Phrases
 Sentence Frames are tools that can help
give students the words and the
structures to use as they are initially
developing fluency.
 Since the square root of __ is __, then
__ squared must be ___. (Math)
 The __ is an important symbol for __
because __. (ELA)
 In the experiment, the __ acted on the
__ and caused a __ . (Science)
 The war was caused by __ , __ , and __
because __ .(Social Studies)
Generate hypothesis
Academic
Language
Tools
Looking at one
task
Sentence
Fr a m e s
Language Arts
Math
Social Studies
Science
In order to do this task for each
content area, requires that
students
Know what a they are being asked
to do
Have something to say
Have the words to say it, or
Have the structures to write it
Identifying Cause/Effect in Language
Arts
Sentence
Frames
Tex t u a l t o o l s
 I think the character did that ________ because
________.
 Even though many people thought that the cause
was ________, I believe it was ________.
 Each ________ played a key role. First, ________
did ________. Then, ________ did ________.
 Teacher candidates must reflect on how
language is used for a range of purposes
in their lessons.
Premises
Restated
 Teacher candidates need to identify the
essential academic language
purpose/genre required of students in
order for them to access texts and
express their developing understanding
of the newly learned content.
 Students must be provided with
opportunities to use and practice the
new language in order to develop
fluency.
Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity
Focus of
edTPA
Assessment
 A meaningful chunk of instruction
around a big idea or essential question
for the students in the class
 Support for both content and academic
language development
 Strategies and materials tailored to the
students in the class
Conceptual
Framework
of
Assessment
 What? – candidate describes plans or
provides descriptions or evidence of
what candidate or students did
 So what? – rationale for plans in terms
of knowledge of students &
research/theory, explanation of what
happened in terms of student learning
or how teaching affected student
learning
 Now what? – what candidate would do
differently if could do over, next
instructional steps based on assessment,
feedback to students
 Pre-Service Teachers are asked to:
Academic
Language—
edTPA
 Select one key language function essential for
students to learn within the central focus.
 Identify a key learning task from plans that provide
students opportunities to practice using the
language function.
 Language Demands (consider language function &
task) describe the language demands (written or
oral) students need to understand and/or use.
 Vocabulary
 Syntax
 Discourse
 Language Supports: Describe instructional supports
that will help students understand and use language
function & additional language demands.
 Assessments: What formal and informal assessments
will provide evidence of students’ understanding
and fluency?
TPA Glossary: Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity
Resource Slides
Discourse—
English
 Discourse: Structures or ways of organizing
oral or written language serve a particular
function within each subject area.
 In English-language arts, language forms
include
 expository, narrative, poetic, theatric,
journalistic, film, and graphic print materials;
 video and live presentations.
 Language forms can be at the sentence
level, paragraph or genre level. If the
function is to interpret character
development, then appropriate language
forms could include literacy essays or a set
of sentence frames like “ The author used
(action, dialogue, and/or description) to
introduce (main character). One example
of (action, dialogue, and/or description)
was ________, which suggested that the
character was __________.”
TPA Glossary: Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity
Discourse—
Elementary
Mathematics
 Discourse: Structures or ways of organizing
oral or written language to serve a
particular function within each subject
area.
 In mathematics, language forms include
 symbolic representations such as numbers,
equations, and two-column proofs (which can
be translated into words),
 tables and graphs (which are shorthand
language for summarizing complex sets of
data),
 and narrative (e.g., explanations of problem
solutions).
 If the function is to compare, then appropriate
language forms could include Venn diagrams or
pattern sentences like “The _____ is
longer/larger/heavier than the ______.”
 If the function is to explain, then students might use
sentence starters like “First, I…”, “Then I…” to
structure the explanation, and use “Finally I…” to
signal the conclusion.
TPA Glossary: Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity
 Discourse: Structures or ways of organizing
oral or written language serve a particular
function within each subject area.
Discourse—
Science
 In science, language forms include
 symbolic representations such as chemical equations
(which can be translated into words),
 graphic and tabular representations (which is
shorthand language for complex sets of data),
 lists (e.g., materials lists), and
 narrative (e.g., analysis and conclusions sections in
a lab report).
 Language forms can be at the sentence,
paragraph, whole text, or symbolic levels.
 If the function is to draw conclusions, then
appropriate language forms to structure the content
could include charts of investigative results or
sentence starters to structure an analysis such as
“The results of the investigation show…” “This
suggests that…”
TPA Glossary: Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity
Discourse—
Social
Studies
 Discourse: Structures or ways of organizing
oral or written language to serve a
particular function within each subject
area.
 In the history-social studies, language
forms include expository, narrative,
journalistic, maps, and other graphic print
materials; presentations of data in text,
charts, and graphs; video and live
presentations.
 Language forms can be at the sentence
level, paragraph or symbolic level.
 If the function is to develop a document-based
argument, then appropriate language forms
could include written essays with specified
formats and pattern sentences like “The two
main causes of _____________ were
____________ and____________. For example,
the (author of) (document) stated that
_______________ (citation).”
TPA Glossary: Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity
 Discourse: Structures or ways of organizing
oral or written language serve a particular
function within each subject area.
Discourse—
Math
 In mathematics, language forms include
 symbolic representations including numbers,
equations, and two-column proofs (which can
be translated into words),
 graphic representation (which is shorthand
language for complex sets of data), and
narrative (e.g., to describe or compare).
 If the language function is to compare, then
appropriate language forms could include Venn
diagrams or an equation like x < 7.
 If the language function is to prove, then
appropriate language forms include formal two column proofs as well as informal explanations that
begin with a statement of the problem and known
information, followed by a series of statements like
”And then, I know _______ because _______”,
ending with what it to be proved.
TPA Glossary: Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity
Language
Functions—
English
 Language Functions: The function is the
purpose the language is intended to achieve in
the learning task.
 Functions are associated with verbs found in
learning outcome statements.
 Common language functions in the language
arts include:
reading/listening for main ideas and details;
analyzing and interpreting characters and plots;
writing narrative, informational, or poetic text;
using presentation skills to present a play, a speech,
or do a dramatic reading;
 evaluating and interpreting an author’s purpose,
message, and use of language choice, setting,
mood, tone, and other literary strategies;
 comparing ideas within and between texts,
 making sense of unfamiliar vocabulary through
pictures, word parts, and contextual clues.




TPA Glossary: Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity
Language
Functions—
Math
 Language Functions: The function is the
purpose the language is intended to achieve in
the learning task.
 Functions are associated with verbs found in
learning outcome statements.
 Common language functions in mathematics
include










describing mathematical phenomena,
predicting from models and data,
comparing based on common attributes,
summarizing mathematical information,
justifying conclusions,
evaluating data and mathematical representations,
classifying based on attributes,
explaining phenomena and processes,
drawing conclusions based on data,
representing mathematical information and
mathematical models, etc.
TPA Glossary: Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity
 Language Functions: The function is the
purpose the language is intended to achieve in
the learning task.
Language
Functions—
Science
 Functions are associated with verbs found in
learning outcome statements.
 Common language functions in science include
 reading investigative procedures, diagrams, figures,
tables, graphs, and dense authoritative text;
 writing or presenting causal explanations; modeling
scientific phenomena;
 predicting from models and data from scientific
inquiries;
 comparing based on common attributes,
summarizing scientific data from inquiries;
 justifying conclusions with scientific evidence;
 evaluating data and investigative procedures;
 classifying based on attributes;
 describing processes and procedures;
 drawing conclusions based on investigative results,
etc.
TPA Glossary: Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity
Language
Functions—
Social
Studies
 Language Functions: The function is the
purpose the language is intended to achieve in
the learning task.
 Functions are associated with verbs found in
learning outcome statements.
 Common language functions in history-social
studies include
 reading/listening for main ideas and details in
narrative, expository, and persuasive text;
 reading/interpreting maps, graphs, and data tables;
 evaluating and interpreting an
author/presenter/historian’s purpose and message;
 corroborating an author’s claims;
 examining evidence an author/presenter/historian
uses to support claims;
 analyzing arguments in favor of a perspective;
writing/presenting persuasive arguments;
 analyzing and/or describing causes of historical,
economic, geographic, and political events;
 supporting written or spoken claims with evidence
and warrants; etc.
TPA Glossary: Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity