in solving a mathematical story problem is quite distinct from the language of sequencing the events in a biography. It becomes apparent that students use language in many different ways throughout the day. Most important, however, academic language encompasses disciplinary discourse, and key uses of academic language assist in leveraging how oral and written text is organized and communicated.
While we have known about the critical role of language in learning and in academic achievement, we often presume students already have the language needed to engage in learning or that they will acquire it through their environment or exposure. While this may be true for some language development and some of the students, an intentional focus on language use ensures that of all students are included in teaching and learning. More specifically, an intentional focus on language provides more equitable opportunities for students to interact with academic discourse and assures that all students have the tools to participate meaningfully in activities designed to mediate learning.
Remember that for ELLs and ELLs with disabilities, academic language use is not necessarily confined to English but, in fact, should be inclusive of their home language(s) as well. These students have extensive linguistic and cultural repertoires that are resources to tap in expanding their thinking, knowing, and doing. So when we speak of academic language use, we are not language specific; we wish to acknowledge and encourage the potential transferability of thoughts and actions between languages.
Take the DARE
Here are some ideas to begin thinking about academic language use in your classroom:
Identify the various ways in which language is used in texts.
Observe how students use language(s) during group work or presentations.
Record yourself, and reflect on your own use of language in your classroom.
Review student work with a focus on their use of language.
Recognize how many opportunities your students have during class to use language with each other in meaningful ways.
Document student language in your classroom environment (e.g., word, phrase, or concept walls; posters; charts; and bulletin boards).
Educational Equity
As we mention throughout this prelude, there are countless ways of using language. The fact that many children come to our schools from minority backgrounds—racial, cultural, social, and linguistic—often means that they may have had different experiences and perspectives (Gutiérrez, 2007; Tate & Rousseau, 2007). With these experiences come different assets and strengths that students bring to school; however, these positive qualities and talents often become invisible when students walk in the door. Taking on the mission for educational equity means finding ways to make students’ resources visible, relevant, and connected to teaching and learning in meaningful ways (Rigby & Tredway, 2015; U.S. Department of Education, 2013).
In brief, educators’ direct access to academic language development is an avenue that contributes to educational equity. Key uses of academic language facilitates educators’ and students’ recognition, use, and expansion of linguistic resources. We DARE—discuss, argue, recount, and explain—teachers and school leaders to focus on the value of language, along with content for each discipline.
Take the DARE
Some resources or activities that take place in schools facilitate students’ academic language learning. Identify which of the following occurs in your school, and discuss with colleagues:
☐ Teams of educators identify the presence of academic language in your state’s academic content standards.How has it been made known to all teachers?How are these language demands distributed across units of instruction throughout a school year to ensure their coverage?
☐ Grade-level or instructional teams state language goals, language targets, or objectives for their units of instruction.How are these communicated to students and families?How are students involved in determining specific language objectives?
☐ Educators design activities that provide opportunities for students to develop their oral and written language during instruction.How are these lesson-based activities related to the larger language goals and/or language targets for units of instruction?How do these activities help determine whether a language goal and/or target has been met?
☐ Assessments contain language that is grade-level relevant yet accessible to students.How do assessments elicit language from students?How are students expected to use language in assessment?
☐ Educators monitor students’ language development, especially for ELLs and ELLs with disabilities.How are language data recorded or shared among educators?How is language development reported to families?
☐ Educators analyze the relationship between students’ language development and their academic achievement with careful attention to ELLs and ELLs with disabilities.How are language data analyzed and interpreted?How do language data impact content area instruction?
Whether you complete this DARE on your own or as part of a team, identification of language use is only the beginning. An extension activity would include determining plausible next steps, coupled with existing resources.
Global Interconnectedness
Reexamining the quadrant at the beginning of this prelude, we approach the last perspective for advancing our rationale for academic language use. For it is through global interdependence that we see our students of the 21st century absorbed in a fast-paced, ever-changing world. Being immersed in a global society means we are constantly being bombarded with new information—not only from our immediate surroundings but within a nanosecond of clicking a button on our technology-enabled devices, we are connected with the world. As teachers and school leaders in this international community, it is our responsibility to ensure that its newest members are prepared to participate, contribute, and thrive in our interconnected society.
Globalization of schooling entails focusing our efforts on elucidating and respecting wide-ranging perspectives as the intermingling of different languages, cultures, and religions becomes accepted practice in our diverse classrooms. To do so, we have to expand our dialogue, reflection, and creative engagement in intercultural and multicultural education and rely on its global networks as a vehicle for promoting global interconnectedness (Grant & Brueck, 2011).
Not only do our students access the worldview instantaneously, as meaning makers, they make sense of their world in multisemiotic ways by integrating language and images. So in our book, while we acknowledge the primacy of print in literacy development, we move beyond this traditional way of communicating to embrace media, visual design, and fine arts as integral to a multimodal literacy system.
Additionally, we believe that many of the 21st century skills are requisite to connecting with others around the world. The World Economic Forum has a comprehensive view of 21st century skills, categorically placing them within lifelong learning into three groups: (1) foundational literacies—cultural and civic literacy, financial literacy, scientific literacy, numeracy, and information (digital) literacy; (2) competencies—collaboration, communication, creativity, and critical thinking; and (3) character qualities—leadership, adaptability, curiosity, social and cultural awareness, perseverance, and initiative (Soffel, 2016). It is their contention and ours that many of the 21st century competencies and qualities are developed through
