Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Understanding Academic
Language in Your Discipline
Area
Academic vs Social Language
( 3 minutes)
Strategies for using Academic language :
• Seeking • Inferring
information/informing • Justifying and
• Comparing persuading
• Ordering • Solving
•
Problems
Classifying
• Synthesizing
• Analyzing • Evaluating…
and more.
Bloom’s Taxonomy
Discourse and Syntax
Criticism or Criticize:
social language:
“I wish Sally would stop criticizing my hair! I can’t take her criticism
anymore.”
In the academic language of the visual arts:
“ Complete a criticism paper analyzing the messages the artist is
presenting.”
Compare and contrast:
social language:
“I’m comparing the prices and functions of cell phones to get the
best deal.
Activity: On your paper draw a picture with figures, graphs, symbols, numbers,
whatever you’re comfortable drawing. Then make them speaking cartoon
characters by adding their thoughts or comments in bubbles above so that
words and their meanings are associated with the picture.
(8 minutes)
Academic Language
Questions?
References:
Everhart, V.S. (2010). Moving beyond social language: How to
teach academic language. CASA Conference
Freeman,Y.S.,&Freeman,D.E.(2009). Academic language for
English language learners and struggling readers: How to help
students succeed across content areas. Portsmouth, NH:
Heinemann.
Zwiers,J.(2008).Buildingacademic language: Essential practices
for content classrooms. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.