Chapter 4 – Empowering ELLs through Teaching Academic Expressions
Comments(4) “Yet many diverse students struggle to understand persuasive elements, due in part to their lack of experience in reading and talking about controversial issues. Indeed, some cultures avoid any type of confrontation in public.” (p.75).
This quote sums up my experience. I never understood why we had to write persuasive essays in high school. I understood expository essays. Describe and explain? No problem. Take a side and make an argument? Problem.
I didn’t grow up in an environment in which taking a side on an issue in a discussion is an important, valued skill. I was implicitly taught that making counterarguments is synonymous with rebelling against authority figures. Arguing means open fire, consequently, disturbing the superficial peace between people. At school, debate was certainly not on my teacher’s agenda. The first and only time I participated in a debate was in my grade 11 social studies class. It was brief but memorable for whatever reason. Looking at my high school years, on the whole I lived in my own little universe struggling to conquer the English language. The political and social issues beyond the walls of my home and school—the comfort zones—were outside of me.
It was not until university that it hit me why it is important to discuss controversial issues. They concern people’s lives. Not just one person but many, many people. I met interesting people who are rebellious in their thinking. They are able to use academic language to express their viewpoints. I was then enlightened that learning English is not just about learning the grammar. It’s more than that. It is a way of empowering oneself to express through the use of academic language.
The lesson in Chapter 4 is incredibly important. ELLs are not learning academic expressions for the sake of learning them. Yes, they are learning them to pass courses so they can graduate from high school and move onto post-secondary education. Their ability to use academic expressions deeply affects their future, as Chelsea pointed out in class. It affects them on the professional, social and political levels. It affects the job they get, their social life, and the extent of their influence in political discussions that impact their lives. We need to learn how to scaffold to help ELLs master academic expressions so they can be empowered to make a difference for themselves and the world.
I think that your experience with persuasion in high school was mostly confusion about why you would need to write a persuasive essay. I had a family that was very different in its approach then yours was; my family is very big on arguing and challenging other people’s opinions. In fact, it’s not uncommon for someone in my family to argue a side that they completely disagree with just challenge the rest of the family to defend why their position is better, and to recognize that there are many other arguments that could be made.
In that sense, this chapter did highlight for me how different family experiences and backgrounds influence whether people understand and are receptive to certain forms of assignments. It also demonstrates that it is often important to make it clear to your students why you are asking them to complete a certain task, and what the benefits might be.
I also had a class debate in Socials 11 (I think one of the only ones that we were ever asked to do), and though I didn’t really question it at the time, a large percentage of the class did not fully engage with the activity. Looking back, it is probably because a number of the students didn’t understand the point of the format we were using or how to properly involve themselves in a debate. Knowing this now, I think before a class does any sort of debate activity it is important to teach them how to participate and practice using argumentative language in a way that is still constructive and appropriate.
I think you raised a great point about teaching academic language to ELLs and other students in order to help empower them in the larger social, political world. At the same time, I think certain domains of academic language are more relevant to people’s lived experiences than others. For sure, the types of persuasive, descriptive, and explanatory language we learn in English classes is useful in “real life” issues. Perspective-taking and cause and effect language learned in Socials and Science also come into play in everyday life. However, getting into some of the more technical brick terms and academic expressions may feel far removed from students’ lives. For instance, the language used to express abstract math concepts learned in higher grade levels can seem both daunting and not useful to students (especially ELLs). Similarly, identifying literary devices and using academic language to express theme are other common tasks in English that may make students question why they need to learn such material. And for teachers it may not always be obvious how we can link students’ learning of different kinds of academic language to real life empowerment. I guess the bigger picture idea, in my opinion, is that we use these different registers (whether academic or not) in order to communicate: to understand each other and to express ourselves. Perhaps our goals as teachers is to facilitate learning of many academic languages both in order to learn/apply those ideas, and in order to build a strong language foundation so that if students want to continue their studies in these areas, they have the tools to keep moving forward. This means empowerment can take the form of having the language tools available in many different subject areas so that students have options to choose from—options for their future paths.
In reading your post one thing that stood out to me is the intrinsic connection between language use and cultural values. Often in teaching ELLs we assume that it is just the mechanics of the English language we need to explain to students, however it is much more than that. ELL students are not individuals who simply lack English skills and the teacher is responsible for filling this linguistic void; these students have been immersed in their native languages and cultural discourses that may drastically differ from English conventions both in writing and speech. The example that you gave about not fully understanding the cultural significance behind persuasive and/or argumentative papers within an English context is completely understandable, because in many cultures being able to effectively conduct an argument is not valued and indeed may even be stigmatized.
For instance, coming from a Chinese background, the responsibility of the student lies chiefly in being submissive receivers of knowledge, and anyone who challenges either the content or the execution of the material taught is considered deeply disrespectful and uncultured. Given this contrasting cultural understanding of argument, it is clear that as English teachers we are responsible for much more than teaching language mechanics. The importance lies in addressing the types of discourse that is typically emphasized in an English-speaking context without undermining the legitimacy of other understandings. It is critical to equip students with the ability to code-switch — i.e. using different linguistic conventions in different contexts — effectively to better organize and structure their linguistic and cultural repertoires of communication and understanding.
In reading your post one thing that stood out to me is the intrinsic connection between language use and cultural values. Often in teaching ELLs we assume that it is just the mechanics of the English language we need to explain to students, however it is much more than that. ELL students are not individuals who simply lack English skills and the teacher is responsible for filling this linguistic void; these students have been immersed in their native languages and cultural discourses that may drastically differ from English conventions both in writing and speech. The example that you gave about not fully understanding the cultural significance behind persuasive and/or argumentative papers within an English context is completely understandable, because in many cultures being able to effectively conduct an argument is not valued and indeed may even be stigmatized.
For instance, coming from a Chinese background, the responsibility of the student lies chiefly in being submissive receivers of knowledge, and anyone who challenges either the content or the execution of the material taught is considered deeply disrespectful and uncultured. Given this contrasting cultural understanding of argument, it is clear that as English teachers we are responsible for much more than teaching language mechanics. The importance lies in addressing the types of discourse that is typically emphasized in an English-speaking context without undermining the legitimacy of other understandings. It is critical to equip students with the ability to code-switch — i.e. using different linguistic conventions in different contexts — effectively to better organize and structure their linguistic and cultural repertoires of communication and understanding.