Acquisition of Academic Language in Mathematics and Science
Research Team:
Faculty: Dr. Cecilia Silva, Dr. Kathy Smith, and Dr. Molly Weinburgh
School faculty: Mrs. Joanne Gabel
Graduate Students: Tammy Oliver and Valerie Wielard
Project
While academic language development is critical for all students, supporting the acquisition of this type of discourse becomes essential for the increasing number of immigrant students enrolling in schools in the United States today. Statistics suggests that as this population grows, it continues to experience high rates of academic failure—44% of immigrant children do not complete high school (PEW Hispanic Center, 2002). These statistics, in addition to findings demonstrating that it takes English language learners (ELLs) from four to seven years to develop academic language, have led to the development of instructional programs that systematically integrate language and content objectives.
In many science classrooms, doing and thinking are fore grounded while language is ignored or pushed to the background (Gee, 2004). Gee suggests, ‘…schools need to focus on the acquisition of academic language within specific social practices and not on literacy as a general thing or as only reading and writing’ (Gee, 2004, p13). Words not only have general meanings but also situated meanings. Barsalou (1999) suggests that situated meanings are rooted in experiences that allow us to understand a pattern that can be pulled from the concrete data of experience. In order for these patterns to become ‘visible’, students need lots of practice with experiences. In addition, students need explicit instruction on how to read expository texts (Lemke, 2004) and how to use the language of science in speaking and writing.
This research focused on the acquisition of content knowledge and academic language about erosion and fractions. During a 3-week summer experience, we ‘…married scientific activities with scientific ways of using words rather than with lifeworlds languages.’ (Gee, 2004, p. 25). The participants for the first year of this research were 6 boys and 13 girls ages 9 to 11 with advanced levels of English language proficiency. All students were enrolled in the local school district’s Language Center (LC) program. The LC is structured as a “school-within a school” and aims at gradually transitioning third through fifth grade ELL students into mainstream classrooms over a two to three-year period. Through this research we hope to gain a better understanding of how to help ELL students develop academic language and mathematics/content knowledge.
For more information contact Dr. Silva
References
Barsalou, L.W. (1999). Language comprehension: Archival memory or preparation
for situated action. Discourse Processes, 28, 61-80.
Gee, J. P. (2004). Language in the science classroom: Academic social
languages as the heart
of school-based literacy. In. E. W. Saul (Ed.). Crossing Borders
in Literacy and Science Instruction. Arlington,
VA: NSTA Press.
Lemke, J.L. (2007). The Literacies of Science. In. E. W. Saul (Ed.). Crossing Borders in Literacy and Science Instruction. Arlington, VA: NSTA Press.
Pew Hispanic Center. (2002). Educational attainment: Better than meets the eye, but large challenges remain. Washington, DC: Author.
Retrieved July 5, 2007, from http://pewhispanic.org/files/factsheets/3.pdf