ELT 201

What is language awareness?

For many learners following Cambridge programmers, English is an additional
language. For some, it might be their second or perhaps their third language.
Depending on the school setting, students might be learning all of their subjects
through English or just some of their subjects.
For all students, whether they are learning through their first language or an
additional language, language is a vehicle for learning. It is through language that
learners access the content of the lesson and communicate their ideas. So, as a
teacher, it is your responsibility to make sure that language isn’t a barrier to
learning
One way to achieve this is for teachers to become more ‘language aware’. Being
language aware means you understand the possible challenges that language
presents to learning. These challenges might arise because a student is learning a
subject through an additional language or it might be the first time a student has
come across certain vocabulary or structures in their first language. A teacher
who is ‘language aware’ understands why students face these difficulties and
what they can do to support students
In this resource, we will look at the basics of language awareness in more detail.
We will explore theories that help us better understand the language needs of our
students. We will look at some common misconceptions about students who are
learning through an additional language and discuss the benefits of teaching and
learning through an additional language. In the final section, we will look at some
practical examples of how you can become more language aware in your
everyday teaching. Along the way, we will hear from experienced practitioners
who will be sharing their ideas about what they do that works.

Throughout the resource we will ask you questions that will help you to think
about the specific needs of your learners and how you can take steps to become
more language aware. At the end there is a glossary of key words and phrases
What are the benefits of teaching and learning
through an additional language?
Teaching and learning through an additional language encourages understanding
between cultures, improves students’ cognitive ability and prepares them for life
beyond school.

If students’ language is sufficiently well developed and supported by the teacher,

learning through an additional language can be cognitively stimulating. In contrast
to many traditional language lessons, students are learning meaningful content
through the language rather than simply learning the language itself. The
language becomes a tool for critical thinking and communication and allows
students access to authentic and relevant subject content and terminology.
Research suggests that the existence of more than one language in the brain leads
to improved cognitive control. This has a positive effect on working memory,
selective attention, processing information, and mental flexibility. Studies have
demonstrated that bilingual children develop the ability to solve problems that
contain conflicting or misleading clues at an earlier age than children who speak
only one language.

The ability to use more than one language means we can communicate with
people from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Knowledge of other
languages encourages new ways of thinking and of perceiving the world. We live
in an increasingly global world and language skills make travel easier, provide
opportunities to study abroad, and improve career prospects.
What is the theory behind language awareness?
Conversational and academic language
Language expert Jim Cummins distinguishes between two types of language:
conversational language and academic language.

Conversational language requires skills to understand and take part in everyday

conversations and activities. These basic language skills are used in informal
communication, such as buying lunch at school, talking on the phone to friends,
or playing sports. Conversational language is ‘learned’ fairly quickly. This is
because, in day-to-day conversation, certain clues from other people and clues
from the context help us to understand meaning. In a face-to-face conversation,
gestures, intonation and facial expressions support meaning. Situations or points
of reference offer hints to the meaning of a conversation. This might be items of
food available in a canteen for example, or the score at a football match. These
social interactions are not very cognitively demanding and rarely require
specialised language. Learners often get a lot of exposure to this type of language
and as a result their social language skills are often good compared with their
academic language skills. Conversational language is sometimes referred to as
BICS (basic interpersonal communication skills).

Academic language refers to more formal language which is essential for students
to successfully demonstrate what they have learned and achieved. This includes
listening, speaking, reading, and writing about content in a specific subject area,
for example reading about a particular event in history or discussing a new
mathematical concept. In activities related to academic work, clues that help
decide meaning are often reduced or absent. For example, a passage in a
textbook may not include any pictures to support what learners are expected to
read. Language also becomes more complex, and new ideas, concepts and
language are all presented to students at the same time. Academic language also
requires deeper thinking skills, such as comparing, classifying, analysing,
evaluating and inferring. As learners progress through school, they are
increasingly expected to use language in situations where they cannot rely on
context and which are cognitively demanding. Academic language is sometimes
referred to as CALP (cognitive academic language proficiency).

Cummins’ work suggests that learners are most successful at understanding

content and language not only when they are challenged cognitively but also
when they are provided with the appropriate context and language supports (or
‘scaffolds’ – see below).

Scaffolding
The theory of 'social constructivism' says that people learn mainly through social
interaction with others, such as a teacher or other students. One social
constructivist, Lev Vygotsky (1896–1934), developed the idea of the zone of
proximal development. This zone lies between what a learner can achieve alone
and what they can achieve with the expert guidance of a teacher or a more able
student. Skilled teachers focus learning activities in this zone. They ‘scaffold’
learning by providing guidance and support that challenges students based on
their current ability, helping them to gain confidence and independence in using
new knowledge or skills. This helps students to develop their understanding in
stages.
In order to scaffold learning, you need to be able to assess learners’ current
knowledge, skills and understanding. Based on this, you can set appropriate
targets and plan suitable activities and individual support along the way.

It is important that you consider the language demands of the activities and
materials you have chosen for your lesson and provide appropriate support to
help with these demands. The language skills that learners will be using (listening,
reading, writing and speaking) will influence the type of support that you provide.
Letter B ELT 201

The thesis is concerned with the contribution and incorporation of the teaching of
culture into the foreign language classroom. More specifically, some
consideration will be given to the why and how of teaching culture. It will be
demonstrated that teaching a foreign language is not tantamount to giving a
homily on syntactic structures or learning new vocabulary and expressions, but
mainly incorporates, or should incorporate, some cultural elements, which are
intertwined with language itself. Furthermore, an attempt will be made to
incorporate culture into the classroom by means of considering some techniques
and methods currently used. The main premise of the paper is that effective
communication is more than a matter of language proficiency and that, apart
from enhancing and enriching communicative competence, cultural competence
can also lead to empathy and respect toward different cultures as well as
promote objectivity and cultural perspicacity.