Everyday language and academic language
· 2 min read
A student learning English can sound fluent in the hallway and still struggle with a science textbook. Research helps explain why.
What the research found
- Two kinds of proficiency. Cummins distinguished everyday conversational skills, such as fluency and accent, from the academic language proficiency that school learning draws on, and proposed that this academic proficiency is shared across a learner’s first and second languages.
- Reading instruction isn’t the whole story. A national panel review edited by August and Shanahan found that teaching the key components of reading is necessary but not enough for students learning English: oral proficiency in English is critical too.
These studies are about how students learn language, not about SubjectPath.
Why it matters for diagnosis
If conversational fluency and academic language are different things, a diagnostic should not mistake one for the other.
How SubjectPath will apply this idea
The English Language Learners Path is coming soon. It will be built on the WIDA English Language Development Standards, aligned with Common Core ELA, and will use the same method as every Path: a map of which skills build on which, answer choices written to reveal specific misconceptions, and practice that starts where understanding breaks down.
An example
A student learning English may chat easily with friends and follow classroom routines, yet struggle when a question asks them to explain how an author supports a claim, or to compare two processes in a science text. The everyday language is in place; the academic language the task depends on is still developing.
Why it matters for a diagnostic
If a diagnostic only measures conversational fluency, a student can look further along than their academic language is, or further behind than their content knowledge is. Separating the two gives a clearer starting point for each student learning English.
Sources
- Cummins, J. (1979). Cognitive/academic language proficiency, linguistic interdependence, the optimum age question and some other matters. Working Papers on Bilingualism, 19, 121–129.
- August, D., & Shanahan, T. (Eds.). (2006). Developing literacy in second-language learners: Report of the National Literacy Panel on Language-Minority Children and Youth. Lawrence Erlbaum.