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MEETING THE CHALLENGE OF MULTILINGUAL CLASSROOMS:

EXPLOITING PLURILINGUAL REPERTOIRES, MANAGING TRANSITIONS AND DEVELOPING PROFICIENCY IN THE

LANGUAGE(S) OF SCHOOLINGIntergovernmental seminar Strasbourg, 7-8 March 2012

www.coe.int/lang

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DEVELOPING ‘ACADEMIC LANGUAGE’ IN SECONDARY EDUCATION

Eike Thürmann

Predictor for mathematical competence

Variance: Prediction rate in %

   Socioeconomic status

16.5

Migration status 3.0

Cultural capital 2.0

Pre-school education 1.6

Family language 0.5

Employment father 0.3

Family structure ns

E. Thuermann: Developing ‘academic language’ in secondary education 3

What matters: Not the language per se, but the variety normally used for

teaching and learning in

formal education

(Prenzel et al. 2004)

E. Thuermann: Developing ‘academic language’ in secondary education 4

There is an urgent need to turn around this situation: What we need is a

PEDAGOGY OF RIGOUR AND HOPE

I maintain that it is possible for second language learners to develop deep

disciplinary knowledge and engage in challenging academic activities if

teachers know how to support them to achieve their potential.

Aída Walqui (2006)

CHANGE OF PARADIGM:

From „how teaching and learning of content

is organised“ to

„how content is taught and learnt

in a language-sensitive way“

E. Thuermann: Developing ‘academic language’ in secondary education 5

Principles Goals

Sustain academic rigour

Hold high expectations

Engage students in quality interactions

Sustain a language focus

Develop quality curriculum

Walqui, A., L. van Lier (2010). Scaffolding the Academic Success of Adolescent English

Language Learners: A Pedagogy of Promise.

WestEd

E. Thuermann: Developing ‘academic language’ in secondary education 6

LANGUAGE-SENSITIVE CONTENT TEACHING:Dual focus on content and language across the

curriculum – A whole-school language policy

Three strategies (and tools) to create awareness (also of non-language specialists!):

I. A Curricular framework for academic language competencesII. A Checklist for the evaluation of language-sensitive content teachingIII. A set of techniques for subject-based language scaffolding

E. Thuermann: Developing ‘academic language’ in secondary education 7

I. ACADEMIC LANGUAGE SKILLS TO BE ACQUIRED BY THE END OF MANDATORY SCHOOLING

1. General classroom interaction: negotiation of meaning and participation

2. Information retrieval and processing3. Basic cognitive-communicative strategies and

discourse functions4. Documenting, presenting and exchanging of learning

results

5. Availability of linguistic means and language elements

Extensive analysis of curricular documents – Chamber of Commerce requirements for vocational training – random

sample of task-setting in school-/textbooks - …

E. Thuermann: Developing ‘academic language’ in secondary education 8

I. ACADEMIC LANGUAGE SKILLS TO BE ACQUIRED BY THE END OF MANDATORY SCHOOLING

task

negotiation of meaning

information retrieval

cognitive activities

presentation of results

Semiotic systems

genre diagram Picture

Basic cognitiv-communicative

functions

Name describe

…

Availability olf linguistic means

Word level Sentence level Text level

What can we do to protect our ground-water? Make a class poster and write all the things we can do …

E. Thuermann: Developing ‘academic language’ in secondary education 9

1. Basic General classroom interaction: negotiation of

meaning and participation

Students can clarify conditions for handling and completion of tasks, organise their work procedures effectively and arrive at results..

putting relevant questions and asking for clarification where

necessary

reacting appropriately to statements by other peers or teacher

reading carefully through instructions for work and tasks to be

carried out in order to be certain what is expected and under what

conditions

…10 indicators

E. Thuermann: Developing ‘academic language’ in secondary education 10

3. Basic cognitive-communicative strategies and discourse

functions

Students can use appropriate language strategies and tools to process information, experience, and ideas applying basic language/discourse functions.

This entails mastering the following cognitive and language skills in particular:

NAMING/DEFINING – DESCRIBING – REPORTING/NARRATING – EXPLAINING –

ARGUING/TAKING (UP) A STANCE – JUDGING/VALUING – MODELLING/SIMULATING

25 indicators

E. Thuermann: Developing ‘academic language’ in secondary education 11

3. Basic cognitive-communicative strategies and discourse functions: e.g ARGUING/TAKING (UP) A STANCE

e.g. clarifying the advantages and drawbacks of differing facts and ways of behaving, weighing (up) and discussing the pros and cons to arrive at a personal viewpoint .

e.g. taking a stance for real-life situations which demand crucial decision-making (e.g. abortion, medicide) by resorting to arguments based on Christian ethics.

E. Thuermann: Developing ‘academic language’ in secondary education 12

2. Information retrieval and processing

4. Documenting, presenting and exchanging of learning results

Genre-based curriculum stream

(Hammond 2001)16 indicators8 indicators

E. Thuermann: Developing ‘academic language’ in secondary education 13

5. Availability of linguistic means and language elements

• level of individual words and collocations : e.g. o using one’s knowledge about the structure of composite nouns and

adjectives to decipher the meaning of technical terms (e.g. burn-able, in-flamm-able], acid-resistant]

• Sentence level: e.g.o indicating the impersonal nature of statements through the use of

the passive or other appropriate forms of expression (such as “X can be measured” and “it should be added that”)

o accurately describing features (for example by adding attributes and attributive clauses)

• Level of the text: e.g. o avoiding presuppositions o introducing new topics/content in a well-ordered fashion 38 indicators

E. Thuermann: Developing ‘academic language’ in secondary education 14

Religious Education

BOTTOM-UP VERIFICATION

• appropriately labelling living things, objects, processes, events, topics and viewpoints

• assessing and specifying their specific characteristics

• Identify and correctly name seasons and most important festivities of the Christian Church Year (e.g. Lent, Passion Time, Pentecost, Advent, Christmas …)

• Identify and denote most important Jewish and Muslim festivities

E. Thuermann: Developing ‘academic language’ in secondary education 15

II. A CHECKLIST FOR THE EVALUATION OF LANGUAGE-SENSITIVE CONTENT TEACHING

1. Dual-focussed transparent target-setting  =  6 indicators2. Teacher´s use of language = 9 indicators3. Classroom interaction and opportunities for verbal action = 13 

indicators4. Subject-specific language scaffolding = 7 indicators5. Linguistically adequate materials and media for teaching and 

learning = 7 indicators6. Assessment of language competences = 6 indicators

Areas of observation

E. Thuermann: Developing ‘academic language’ in secondary education 16

1. In my geography classes I communicate the specific language requirements of content teaching to my pupils in such a way that they fully understand which language activities they are expected to perform and which language competences they are supposed to acquire.

++ + - --

1.1 At the beginning of a teaching unit I clearly point out and explain what we want to find out (= geography content) as well as which language competences and activities are relevant for successfully dealing with tasks and assignments. e.g. →in the shape of dual/focused advance organizers

Indicators 1.2 – 1.6

E. Thuermann: Developing ‘academic language’ in secondary education 17

Glossary for subject specialists (language pedagogy)

e.g.: Advance organizer = information that is presented prior to learning and that can be used by the learner to organize and interpret new incoming information. They provide the necessary scaffolding for students to ….

In language-sensitive content teaching a. o. have a dual focus and raise students´awareness for subject-specific content as well as pertinent language competences.

Focus on content Focus on language

At the end of the up-coming teaching unit we will have learnt

in which way water is distributed across the globe

how we specify measures of quantity in absolute and relative terms (e.g. water covers 70.9% of the Earth's surface) and how we transform diagrams (bar charts, pie charts) into descriptive statements

in which states water appears on earth and which properties can be attributed to ….

how to connect to connect single descriptive statements and arrive at a short coherent written text …

E. Thuermann: Developing ‘academic language’ in secondary education 18

II. A CHECKLIST FOR THE EVALUATION OF LANGUAGE-SENSITIVE CONTENT TEACHING

Self-evaluation

Reflective teaching

Peer-evaluation

classroom developmentteacher training

E. Thuermann: Developing ‘academic language’ in secondary education 19

III.A SET OF TECHNIQUES FOR SUBJECT-BASED LANGUAGE SCAFFOLDING

• Task-based organisation of learning• Extend  periods  of written work  (writing  across  the  curriculum, 

writing to learn science)• Decelerate rate of classroom interaction• Make use of plurilingual competences (language awareness)• Terminology: visualise subject-specific cognitive concepts• Extend repertoire of „grammar words“ (synsemantica)• Offer list of functional „chunks“ to choose from• Extend wait time• Open up triadic dialogues (IRF-cycles)• Discover the distinctive features of subject-specific genres• …

E. Thuermann: Developing ‘academic language’ in secondary education 20

Hammond, Jennifer (ed.) (2001). Scaffolding. Teaching and Learning in Language and Literacy Education. Newtown, Austr. (PETA).

Walqui, A., L. van Lier (2010). Scaffolding the Academic Success of Adolescent English Language Learners: A Pedagogy of Promise. WestEd

Walqui, Aida (2006).Scaffolding Instruction for English Language Learners: A Conceptual Framework. In: The International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 9/2. 159-180. http://www.educacion.gob.es/exterior/centros/losangeles/es/series/201003-Scaffolding-Walqui.pdf