Building Academic Language through Quality Talk NDNU Originated from Welton Kwong Administrator for English Learners Fremont Union HSD

Country of origin for a majority of students in U.S. schools who are designated“Limited English Proficient”?

The United States

Academic Language English language learners And...

Academic Language just vocabulary

Learning, practicing, and using academic language Thinking Learning content knowledge and skills

Lev Vygotsky ( ) the primacy of linguistic mediation in the development of higher mental processes language is the main vehicle of thought and that all language use is dialogic thought is restructured as it is transformed into speech, and completed in the word

Success in school and beyond Acquisition of academic language Substantive academic conversations

What is academic language ?

The grass got burned up, so the grasshopper has nothing to eat; now the birds have nothing to eat and the animals that eat birds have nothing to eat. A sudden decrease in the population of one type of organism in the food chain will affect all of the other organisms in the food chain.

Text 1 There was no rain for a very long time. The farmers had planted crops like maize and wheat and corn, but because it didn’t rain, all the crops died. Because there were no crops there was nothing for children to eat, and they became very hungry. Because they didn’t have enough to eat, many of them died, especially the children and old people.

Text 2 The extended drought caused the crops to fail resulting in a widespread famine and many deaths, especially among the children and elderly.

Text 1 There was no rain for a very long time. The farmers had plated crops like maize and wheat and corn, but because it didn’t rain, all the crops died. Because there were no crops there was nothing for children to eat, and they became very hungry. Because they didn’t have enough to eat, many of them died, especially the children and old people. Text 2 The extended drought caused the crops to fail resulting in a widespread famine and many deaths, especially among the children and elderly.

Text 1 There was no rain for a very long time. The farmers had plated crops like maize and wheat and corn, but because it didn’t rain, all the crops died. Because there were no crops there was nothing for children to eat, and they became very hungry. Because they didn’t have enough to eat, many of them died, especially the children and old people. Text 2 The extended drought caused the crops to fail resulting in a widespread famine and many deaths, especially among the children and elderly.

So… What do we do ?

Substantive speech/dialog Acquisition of academic language Increased literacy

50%-66%

Type and percentage of talk in English by English Learners

Not just talk…

…QUALITY talk

Base Group KWL What do you know about African art? What would you like to know about African art? What have you learned about African art?

Base Group. KWL Round Robin. One thing I know about African art is… One aspect of African art I am familiar with is… One thing I want to learn about African art is…. I wonder why/how… One aspect of African art I am curious about is (noun)…. I find it interesting that…

Take turns reading a section of your assigned text aloud. After reading your section, say: This part is tricky, but I think it means…. I’m not sure what this is about, but I think it may mean…. The main points of this section are…. Two questions I have about this section are…. Expert Group. Interacting with the Text

My reading contains several important points. First, the author explains…. S/he subsequently describes…. Lastly, s/he informs the reader that…. The author of my reading first explains X. After his/her explanation of X, s/he describes…. Before s/he concludes her article, s/he informs the reader that…. Base Group. Summarizing the readings.

QuestionSentence Starter What is it?I think it is a…. It appears to be a…. What color is it?It has a…color. It has a similar color to…. What shape is it?It is in the shape of a…. It has the shape of a…. What do you think it is made of? It appears to be made of…. It seems that … is used to make this object. What details do you see?Some details I notice are…. What are some other aspects you notice? Other aspects about the artifact I notice are…. Other aspects about the artifact I find interesting are…. Expert Group. Describing the Benin artifacts

The object I examined was a(n)…, a(n)…, that has a…color similar to…. – The object I examined was a(n) statue, a(n) horse with a saddle, that has a gold color similar to summer wheat. It was in the shape of a…. It appeared to be made of…. It appears to be made of…. Some details that I noticed were…. For example, on the left…. I also found interesting…. Base Group. Reporting artifact details.

Stories have a title. There is a central character and others. In your story, the OBA is the central character. The setting is the Benin empire. Something happens to the character. The event transforms the character. All 4 artifacts must be interwoven into the story. Including 3 or more academic sequence words (e.g., subsequently, after…). Use past tense verbs. Guidelines for your short story Base Group. Writing short story.

Base Group KWL What do you know about African art? What would you like to know about African art? What have you learned about African art?

SDAIE Strategies Used in Lesson Background building Graphic organizers Modeling Manipulatives and hands-on materials Active participation and quality talk in various group and individual configurations Print-rich environment Authentic and meaningful tasks Opportunity for reflecting and verbalizing thoughts with academic language models

Why Cultural Competency? It is most important to know about lives that seem, on the surface, unlike our own. --Naomi Shihab Nye (Palestinian poet) Unless the schools of the world can engage in a common effort to rebuild the spirit of common understanding of mutual sympathy and goodwill among all peoples and races, to exorcise the demons of prejudice, isolation and hatred, the schools themselves are likely to be submerged by the general return to barbarism, which is the sure outcome of present tendencies if they go unchecked by forces which education alone can evoke and fortify. --John Dewey (1934)

Crucially important… students engage in quality talk. Working in small groups, students solve problems together, struggle, and make mistakes as they “apprentice to the language” and eventually “own the language.”

For Further Reading… Gibbons, P Bridging Discourses in the ESL Classroom. Gibbons, P English learners academic literacy and thinking: Learning in the challenge zone. Krashen, S The Input Hypothesis: Issues and Implications. Long, M. and Porter P “Group Work, Interlanguage Talk, and Second Language Acquisition.” Swain, M “Three Functions of Output in Second Language Learning.” Swain, M “The Output Hypothesis and Beyond: Mediating Acquisition through Collaborative Dialogue.” Vygotsky, L Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Process. Zwiers, J Building academic language: Essential practices for content classrooms.