Author: lucyyang

During the practicum there were many instances where I observed classroom teachers encouraging academic writing development as discussed in this week’s chapter. One of the most effective strategies I found in terms of student understanding and applicability is an essay outline developed by my sponsor English teacher. The structure addresses a typical literary analysis essay, breaking down into one thesis supported by 2-3 premises, each of which is supported by at least 2 proofs which are then linked back to the thesis through explicit explanations and analyses. The premise is defined by the teacher as a literary tool such as character, plot, atmosphere, etc. which form the topics of the body paragraphs of the essay; within each body paragraph, proofs — or textual evidence mostly in the form of direct quotations — are given, explained and analysed with respect to the thesis. The teacher went over this outline with three different classes: IB English 11 as well as regular English 11 and 12.

I felt this outline was effective mostly in how prescribed and methodical it was; the way the teacher presented it was almost scientific. He did stress though that top marks require more than the bare structure given. He gave some examples of where students could show their own creative flair such as in their use of language and sentence variation. In terms of addressing the needs of ELLs, I feel that giving such a solid and detailed structure for the typical English essay is extremely helpful in orienting these students who may be unfamiliar with the English academic writing style.

Lucy Yang

This week I found the focus on classroom discussions particularly interesting. Most teachers take advantage of the educational benefits of student discussions, though the way teachers go about facilitating these discussions can be very different. I have been in many classes where teachers would initiate a class discussion with a few questions and wait until someone responds, with little or no prompts; often in these scenarios the class is silent except for the one or two students that would maintain the discussion.

On the other side of the spectrum, I have had a class where the teacher insisted that all students must speak and at the beginning of each seminar we would go around and respond individually to the readings, the teacher often supplying additional questions related to each student’s response. There was virtually no group interaction save the conversation the teacher was having with the student while the rest of the class watched.

Clearly neither is ideal: a more balanced approach would be much more effective in encouraging the collaborative development of ideas. In our education classes we would often use the think-pair-share approach where students can gather their thoughts and discuss with a small number of people before sharing with the class. This method is highly applicable to the high school classroom in that it allows students the opportunity to prepare and organize their thoughts before sharing; in addition, it gives shyer and/or ELL students a chance to share their thoughts in a lower-risk setting, allowing these students to feel that they have contributed to the discussion even if they do not choose to share in front of the class later. Oftentimes unwillingness to share in class does not necessarily indicate that students have nothing to say, but rather they do not feel comfortable enough to share. Therefore, it is the teacher’s/facilitator’s responsibility to ensure a safe environment where students do not feel the pressure to give the “right” responses.

In reading the article on vocabulary, one thing that really resonated with me is the strong connection between reading and incidental accumulation of vocabulary. Coming from a family that did not use English as a primary language, my oral language experience in the home environment provided little support in building my English lexicon. However, conversations with my family members are typically highly interactive — detailed accounts of what has been happening at school are encouraged and described regularly at the dinner table. In addition, my parents took me to the library every week and I prowled the shelves in search of my next favourite author or series. Reading to me was an obsession, and I attribute my steady increase in vocabulary to reading on a daily basis.

However, many children of non-English speaking families may encounter difficulty in adjusting to language used in school — this relates back to the idea of a teacher’s “invisible criteria” or expectation of a certain level of language proficiency not explicitly taught in the classroom. Some ways to ameliorate the struggles experienced by these students — who may in fact be quite proficient in common oral language (e.g. BICS) — can include the teacher directing students to reading resources that target specific areas of language weakness or giving general guidelines to the types of reading material that best suit the student’s level. In an English classroom, such reading material would typically include the more literary pieces such as prose and poetry.

Lucy Y.

As a biology teacher, I am well aware that this discipline requires secondary students to understand and develop a large repertoire of scientific terminology that may be completely novel to them. Along with this accumulation of technical vocabulary, students are also expected to understand complex concepts and relationships which are typically presented in densely packed language. In this respect, Fang & Schleppegrell’s (2010) suggestion for teachers to walk their students through academic language patterns specific to the discipline is effective in promoting student learning in the long run. In my future classroom I hope to incorporate periodic lessons focusing specifically on how to effectively read academic texts through using literacy exercises similar to the ones provided by Fang & Schleppegrell (2010).

In one of my undergraduate linguistic courses, we were introduced to Functional Language Analysis and initially, because the concept was foreign to us, we found it to be quite difficult. However, breaking the language down into workable pieces allows more efficient processing of information; once a student masters this procedure of breaking down dense text into small sections, he or she would be able to apply this technique across disciplines which would serve as a catalyst for further development in academic literacy.

Something I have found students struggle with in particular in understanding academic text is the use of synonyms or synonymic phrases to describe the same thing. Often these struggling students only need to be made aware that this is an academic technique used to avoid repetition and to introduce new vocabulary (usually in the form of a nominalization). If students are more aware of this pattern, they may be more conscious of these equivalent pieces of information when they read, allowing for more efficient information processing and organization.

Lucy Yang

The introductory chapter of the Zwiers text highlights the connection between students’ academic language skills and the social and cultural context of their home environment. The text mentions that it is common for teachers to expect a certain level of academic language in the classroom which may not have been explicitly taught in school. Given this, students whose home environments differ drastically from the school environment will be at a disadvantage, namely children of non-mainstream families (e.g. those with English language learner parents). The problematic element of this expectation is that academic language proficiency may often be linked with academic performance; teachers may fall into the habit of grading content based on language abilities. I feel that content and expression should be separately graded, especially if there is a wide range of social, cultural and linguistic backgrounds in the classroom. This separated assessment may allow teachers to distinguish more clearly whether the student is struggling with the content taught or the language necessary to express his or her ideas.

In relation to English (one of my specializations), expression usually plays a decisive role in academic performance at the high school level: those students who communicate in ways other than a linear, topic-driven fashion will be reprimanded as being “unclear”; however, many cultures express ideas in nonlinear ways, therefore it is important to acknowledge the value of different patterns of expression in different contexts. Like Zwiers points out, it is beneficial to approach teaching academic language as providing another register of expression to the student’s repertoire rather than as teaching to replace. However, it is nonetheless important to guide students in recognizing the appropriate registers in different settings. While acknowledging the student’s own way of expression as legitimate in certain contexts, the teacher may focus on academic language properties that are necessary to express more complex and abstract ideas in formal settings.

Lucy Yang