Based on the article, “Academic Achievement for English Learners”, provide a 2-paragraph response supported by evidence from the text, to the following question:
What is the relationship between academic language and academic content proficiency?
English language learners don’t learn English to help them speak the every-day social language. A holistic approach to learning English means that students learn to use academic language to help them “negotiate multiple academic environments, make sense of complex content, articulate their understanding of that content in academic forms, and assess their own growing understanding” (Cook, Boals, & Lundberg, 2011, p. 66).Students need to learn beyond content-specific vocabulary, and learn the nuances of the various disciplines in their writing and thinking. For example, science tends to write with the passive voice to show objectivity. Not only do students need to read and write using the specific language of science, but they also must learn to think in the specialized manner of science. This is true for all core classes.
Before a student may be considered proficient on state content assessments, they must first acquire content knowledge (including content vocabulary) and proficiency in academic English. Recognizing that not all English language learners become proficient at the same time, proficient has been re-defined in “terms of the language demands of academic class-rooms” (Cook, Boals, & Lundberg, 2011, p. 69) and in terms of how long it takes for the child to meet the demands. A child’s proficiency is based upon comparisons between English language proficiency and academic content proficiency with the understanding that you can’t have one without the other, and both are needed to be considered English proficient.
What does it mean to be “English Proficient” and how does this impact your planning for instruction?
English proficient is an overall label for a student who is both academically fluent and academically proficient. As a teacher, this means that I must speak with the language of the content I am teaching. A lesson that has science content is taught as a scientist would relate it; in the passive voice, objectively removed from the learning. I must also realize that even if students are from the same country, or even the same city, their progress is not the same. Each child’s circumstances (time in this country and level of parental assistance for example) must be considered when placing them with other academically equivalent students so that they are challenged at their level to read, speak, and think with academic proficiency.
References
Cook, H.G., Boals, T., and Lundberg, T. (2011). Academic achievement for English learners: What can we reasonably expect? Phi Delta Kappan, v93 n3 p66-69 Nov 2011