Blog Post: Chapter 7 Language for Academic Reading
Comments(1) At this point in our education, many of us have become fairly proficient in academic reading and writing within our disciplines. It has becomes so familiar and so far to say ingrained in our minds that it is easy to forget that this type of academic language is learned, and would not come naturally to many native English speakers, never mind English Language Learners. I am becoming aware that some of the vocabulary and terms used in art, such as objectivity, aesthetics, formal, might have incredibly different contexts outside the discipline.
Keeping this in mind, teachers must play the careful game of simplifying and explaining complex terminology and paraphrasing them into more digestible sentences, as well as building up their tolerance to these sorts of texts. One suggestion that I would make for the more visually inclined learners is to associate themes to colors. For example you may ask students to group things like statements, predictions, persuasions, and questions, into red, blue, green, and purple instead of simply highlighting through an academic text. Anything that helps make stronger connections between the words and the ideas will increase understanding of the subject.
I like the texts suggestion of using kinesthetic activities to break down complex texts. These include the more, some might argue, intuitive gestures such as hand motions and emphasizing word intonation, as well as involving gestural metaphors, swooping hand gestures for broader concepts, abrupt or condensing motions for simpler ideas.
Kathy
I can definitely relate to what you said about how our subject specific language has become ingrained in us and how we can sometimes forget that at some we too had to learn the language. My background is in physical education and I have found it difficult to relate to students who have less athletic experience as well as with students who’s second language is English. During my practicum, I observed one of my SAs 9/10 split P.E classes and came to find out that over half of the students are ELLs and it was evident that many of them had little to no prior experience with athletics. I did not get to teach that class, but I did teach the grade 8 block and my SA noted to me that I am a fast talker. I had never considered myself to be a fast talker, however it definitely made me reflect on how this may have affected the students understanding of my activities. Getting back to the 9/10 class, I definitely noticed that my SA used a lot more body language and extended demonstrations with minimal verbal explanation to facilitate understanding. Now I realize this does not completely address academic reading, however as you mentioned, the text suggested the use of kinesthetic activities to break down complex texts, and I feel like in a physical education classroom the ‘complex text’ is often supplement or in the form complex movements – as typically physical education does not use textbooks. Because I am in physical education I may be a bit biased towards this suggestion, but I think using hand gestures and body language to explain concepts or in my case, movement tasks, is incredibly helpful especially when communicating with ELLs. Based on discussion with my SA and some of the information presented in this chapter, I want to work on breaking down my explanations better and incorporating more gestures and movement and less verbal explanation, especially for that specific class. Although many students respond well to and prefer verbal explanations, for my specific subject, and especially with a class full of ELLs, I hope to use the kinesthetic approach to help my students understand P.E specific language. If they are able to understand how a movement feels, I think it will be easier for them to explain the important points of the movement verbally, regardless of the level of the English language.