An Educator’s Perspective on English Learners and Academic Language
How to Successfully use Academic Language in the Classroom
By EL Teacher and Guest Blogger Joylynn Nesbitt
October is Celebrating the Bilingual Child Month! We’re celebrating the achievements of bilingual children across the country, and the dedication of the educators who teach them.
Learning a new language while in grade school is quite a challenge in this day and age with all the standardized testing and academic language the students need to know in such a short period of time. As English Learners (ELs) enter the classroom, it is natural for them to start making friends and conversing with their classmates. They start learning English as they speak with other students. However, their conversations do not generally include academic vocabulary from the classroom. Therefore, we, as teachers, need to teach them how to use and understand the content vocabulary in academic settings. All students in the classroom will excel in the content you are teaching. They will be able to speak and write using more than just simple English. As you teach your content, thread these key ideas into your planning and throughout your lessons each day.
Academic Word Wall
You need to consistently use academic language in your lesson so that students will use this vocabulary more often in their speech and writing. The students are not going to remember the academic vocabulary because it is not natural for them to use this style of language on a daily basis. Putting all the academic language in a notebook is only going to help them if they forget the meaning. The students need to actually see the academic language as you refer to it daily.
Start by going through your state’s standards on the subject or unit you are about to teach. Looking through these standards will give you between fifteen and twenty different key content vocabulary words that the students need to know by the end of each unit. This list of academic vocabulary words will become a part of your word wall. The students need to know and see these words all year. So, the list needs to be displayed on your wall for the whole year. Refer to the list daily, ask higher order thinking questions using the list, and guide the students to use the list if they are stuck on a question. By the end of the year, your wall will be full of academic word lists.
Academic Sentence Structure
As the students become accustomed to seeing academic vocabulary all the time, they need to start using these specific vocabulary words. Along with using the vocabulary, students need to use complete sentences in their speech and writing too. They will learn the structure, grammar, and vocabulary of the English language faster if they are taught how to speak and write properly. Beginner and advanced students alike will benefit from this strategy; all students should be using complete sentences.
Students do not automatically speak or write in complete sentences. This type of skill needs to be modeled and used by the teacher also. You as the teacher need to speak using complete sentences that include the academic vocabulary. You also need to provide academic sentence structures or examples for the students to follow too. This is especially important when you are first introducing the strategy and expectations to your students. One way to introduce using complete sentences with academic language as an expectation is for you to have large printouts or posters available for the students to use, reference, or follow as they are working on constructing their sentences. However, I caution you to not introduce too many academic sentence structures at a time.
An English Language Arts teacher might provide a sentence while teaching persuasive techniques. An example of this type of academic sentence structure would look as follows: The author’s claim is _____ and he supports his claim by explaining that _____. This academic sentence structure provides the student with a proper idea of how to construct their sentence using academic vocabulary (i.e. claim, support); however, it does not give them the answer. They still have to know what the claim and support mean. They also have to look in the article on their own and determine what the claim is and what the author uses to support his claim before the student can answer the question. When the student finds the correct information, they will be able to use the academic language and answer the question in a complete sentence. This strategy helps them learn how to properly construct sentences while speaking. If the student uses this type of strategy often enough, they will naturally transfer this skill and information into their writing. Their writing will also improve immensely.
Other content area examples include:
Science: The net force of the object is _____ because _____.
The advantages of using a pulley are _____.
Social Studies: _____ is an example of how human migration influenced the region of _____.
When analyzing the US and Canada, the similarities include _____. The differences include _____.
Math: The decimal _____ is greater than 1 because _____.
Dividing and multiplying integers is similar because _____.
By implementing these types of academic sentence structures into your classroom every day, students will understand and use the academic vocabulary. They will also learn how to correctly construct English sentences. Both native speakers and ELs need this skill. As the students use complete sentences in the classroom, they need to be able to write using the academic sentence structure also. Explain to the students that they will sound like and write like college scholars when they use the academic vocabulary and sentences correctly. They love to hear that! It is difficult for students to get into the habit of speaking and writing in complete sentences. Nonetheless, do not make it a choice. If they are answering a question, do not accept an answer unless it is in the sentence structure that you have provided. If they are writing an essay or a short answer, do not let them finish or turn their work in unless they have used the correct sentence structure. The key component is that the academic vocabulary that you are teaching is also in the sentence structure. The students will not use academic vocabulary on a daily basis unless they are in the classroom and you are requiring it! As they continue to use the academic vocabulary in your sentence structures and answering the questions, they will become more accustomed to the vocabulary and not forget what it means. When you use the content vocabulary again weeks later, you will not have to spend as much time teaching and reteaching the vocabulary.
As you implement academic word walls and sentence structures into your classroom, consider these common mistakes.
1. Do not take the word wall down after the unit is over. Students will forget about the words if they are not displayed all year.
2. Do not use the word wall as a spelling or dictionary skills exercise. They need to use these words in the context of the content, not isolated.
3. Do not simplify the words for beginner ELs or struggling readers. These students also need to learn to understand and use the academic language.
4. Do not make the students memorize or recite the academic sentences from memory. This is a brand new skill that they do not normally use; they need a guide and model to help them. You as the teacher need to speak with the complete sentences, and the students need to see what it looks like on the board.
5. Do not give the students too many examples at one time. Only use 2–3 sentence structures for each lesson. Giving the students a whole paper full of sentence structure examples will overwhelm them and they will not know what to say.
6. Do not accept one word or phrases for answers. Be consistent. The students need to speak and write in complete sentences using academic vocabulary 100% of the time.
Use these key ideas and stay away from the common mistakes and I can guarantee that you will see improvement in all of your students throughout the year. They will become more excited about answering questions, writing, and learning in general. The ELs will become more confident in the English language and thrive in your classroom.
My name is JoyLynn Nesbitt, I am married and have two beautiful daughters. I am from Warsaw, Indiana. After graduating from college and traveling to Thailand, I moved to San Antonio, Texas to get my Masters in Teaching English as a Second Language at the University of Texas at San Antonio. I have experience teaching all levels of the English language and a wide variety of students. Presently, I am working in a middle school in the Northside district of San Antonio. I have a large role in the ESL population at the middle school and am becoming more involved in the ESL program at the district level too.
To be reminded why your work is so very important and for more stories and advice, visit our collection of teacher perspectives at The Art of Teaching.
You can view the McGraw-Hill Education Privacy Policy here: http://www.mheducation.com/privacy.html. The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author, and do not reflect the values or positioning of McGraw-Hill Education or its sales.
