Demystifying "Academic" Language:: Supporting Candidates and Colleagues in The Everyday Events of School

Demystifying "Academic" Language:
Supporting candidates and colleagues in the

everyday events of school
Laura A. Hill-Bonnet, Stanford University
edTPA Conference
November 2, 2013
University of San Diego
Goals and Orientation
• We will approach AL from a contextual point
of view rather than a linguistic one, identifying
it and defining it by the tasks we ask students
to do in school.
• That is, once we are able to identify what we

do in schools, only then we can then examine
how we do it (i.e. what we say and the words
we use).
Laura Hill-Bonnet, STEP (Stanford Teacher

Education Program), 11/2/13
“Although content based instruction, sheltered
instruction, and academic language instruction
are valuable attempts to bring together subject
matter instruction and second language
instruction, their predominate emphases have
been on the study and practice of language
elements rather than on immersion in rich
environments that use language for sense
making.” (Lee, Quinn, & Valdès, p. 9, 2013)

We make language choices.
When/
Where/ Context Fluency
Who?
Why? Purposes Function
Structures of Form
How?
language

Purposes of
Academic Language
Chamot and O’Malley, 1974/1994
• Seek Information - use who, what, when, where, how

• Inform - recount information or retell
• Compare - explain graphic organizer showing contrast
• Order - describe timeline, continuum or cycle
• Classify - describe organizing principles
• Analyze - describe features or main idea
• Infer - generate hypotheses to suggest cause/outcomes
• Justify & Persuade - give evidence why “A” is
important
• Solve Problems - describe problem-solving procedures
• Synthesize - summarize information cohesively
• Evaluate - identify criteria, explain priorities, etc.
The work we do in classrooms…
• Take a look at the following video clip
• First, ask yourself what the teacher and
students are doing.
• Then listen for what the teacher and students
are saying to accomplish those tasks.
• What do you notice? What do you hear?

I left them by asking ,“If the chain just wrapped
around the tube, how could you calculate the
length,” with the aim of allowing them to use their
mathematical reasoning to identify this as the
circumference and potentially connect that to arc
length to find the curved part of the chain touching
the tube.
The conversation at [1:05]…., in which the boy

walks me through how they found that each of the
straight pieces of chain were 5 feet each because “if
this is a tangent too, then this would also be five
feet” when comparing it to the tangent length
found from half of the truck bed.
Context matters…

Same class, different tasks
• “students will describe characteristics of an ecosystem”
– the function is “to describe”
– student response: “In the dessert it is hot and dry and plants such as cacti
have adapted to live in those conditions.”
– students need access to forms such as adjectives that describe characteristics
(hot and dry), or exemplars like “such as.”
• “students will make a prediction about which ecosystem is in greater

danger.”
– the function is “to predict”
– student response: “I predict that if both desserts and wetlands experience a
decrease in water availability, then the dessert plants are more likely to
survive because they are better adapted to dry conditions.”
– students will need the forms necessary to perform a prediction, such as “I
predict,” “if…then,” or “more likely.”
• In both cases they need access to content specific vocabulary such as

“dessert, wetland, plant, adaptation, condition, etc.”
Supporting our Candidates in
identifying Academic Language
What does AL look and sound
like in classrooms??
Academic Language “demands”
in instruction
•For example:
–discussing ideas and asking questions,
–summarizing instructional and disciplinary
texts,
–giving instructions,
–delivering to a mini-lesson,
–explaining thinking aloud,
–sharing behavioral expectations (“raise your
hands”)
TCs are asked to:
• Consider language demands associated with content
understandings in the learning segment. These include the
oral and written academic language that students will need
to understand or produce in your learning segment.
• Identify the key academic language demand and explain

why it is integral to the central focus for the segment and
appropriate to students’ academic language development.
• Consider language functions and language forms, essential

vocabulary, symbols, and/or phrases for the concepts and
skills being taught, and instructional language necessary for
students to understand or produce oral and/or written
language within learning tasks and activities.
Language Demands
(lesson components that are challenging)
Language Functions
(what we ask students to DO in those
challenging components)
Language Forms
(linguistic structures of those
functions)

Functions (genres/purposes)
– The tasks or purposes AND uses of language.
– We use language to accomplish something in formal or

informal settings, for social or academic purposes.
– Social purposes include: exchanging greetings, expressing

needs, making jokes, indicating agreement or
disagreement, participating in personal conversations, etc.
– Academic purposes include:

Identifying AL Functions and Forms
• To identify the key AL demands we ask credential

candidates to think about the following areas of
their lesson plans:
– Content Standard(look at the verb)

– Learning objectives (look at the verb)
– Assessment

Identifying AL Functions and Forms
• What is it that you want students to

do/read/write/say/draw?
• Say/write/draft what an “appropriate” student

response might be.
• What content words does it contain?
• What grammatical structures does it contain?

Example- H/SS
• CA H/SS 10.5.4
– Understand the nature of the WWI
• Students will be able to evaluate the causes of

the 1st World War in writing.
• Students will be able to use sentence structures

that include phrases such as “more important
than,” and “on the one hand...,” “however.”
Forms (linguistic structures)
– Content-specific vocabulary
– The words that hold our language together and

are essential to comprehension. They are words
that determine relationships between and among
words.

For example…
• Connecting words: because, then, but, sometimes,
before, therefore, however and whereas
• Prepositions and prepositional phrases: on, in, under,
behind, next to, in front of, between, among and in the
background
• Basic regular and irregular verbs: leave, live, eat, use,
saw, and went
• Pronouns: she, he, his, their, it, each other, and
themselves
• Academic vocabulary: notice, think, analyze, plan,
compare, proof, and characteristics

Social Studies
• In social studies, long sentences with multiple
embedded clauses are common.
• Cause and effect statements are frequent.

– Because there will be more people in the world in the future, we
will need more land on which to build towns and cities.
• Various verb forms are used:

– “I found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble.”
Augustus is supposed to have spoken these words as he lay
dying. He was Rome’s first emperor, and started the first of its
great building programs. He claimed that he had had over 80
temples rebuilt.
• Frequent use of pronouns it and they as

referents.
Mathematics
• Comparatives:
– 6 is greater than 4
– Maria earns six times as much as Peter
– Lin is as old as Roberto
• Prepositions:
– (divided) into, divided by,
– 2 multiplied by 6 and X exceeds 2 by 7
• Passive voice:
– X is defined as a number greater than 7.
• Reversals: The number a is five less than b.
• Logical connectors: if…then

– If a is positive then -a is negative.
Science
• Use of passive voice
• Multiple embeddings
• Long noun phrases serving as subjects or
objects
• If…then constructions
• Logical connectors (if, because, however,
consequently)

Science
The Calvin cycle is sometimes referred to as
the “light-independent reactions”
because, unlike the light reactions, it does
not require light to begin. However, this
does not mean that the Calvin cycle can
continue running in a plant kept in the dark.
The Calvin cycle requires two inputs
supplied by the light reactions, ATP and
NADPH.

References and Resources
• Chamot, A.U. & O'Malley, J.M. (1994). The CALLA Handbook:
Implementing the Cognitive Language Learning Approach. Reading,
MA: Addison Wesley.
• Hill-Bonnet, L. (2013). Not just more words, but more functional

words. Education Week Teacher
http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2013/08/01/fp_hill-
bonnet_vocab.html
• Lee, O., Quinn, H., & Valdes, G. (2013). Science and Language for
English Language Learners in relations to Next Generation Science
Standards with Implications for Common Core State Standareds for
English Langauge Arts and Mathematics. Educational Researcher
http://ell.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/3_EdResearcher%2011%2
0April%202013%20Lee_Quinn_Valdes%20copy.pdf

Thank you!
• laurahb1@stanford.edu


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Demystifying "Academic" Language:

Supporting candidates and colleagues in the

Laura A. Hill-Bonnet, Stanford University

• That is, once we are able to identify what we

Laura Hill-Bonnet, STEP (Stanford Teacher

Laura Hill-Bonnet, STEP (Stanford Teacher

Why? Purposes Function

Laura Hill-Bonnet, STEP (Stanford Teacher

• Seek Information - use who, what, when, where, how

Laura Hill-Bonnet, STEP (Stanford Teacher

The conversation at [1:05]…., in which the boy

Laura Hill-Bonnet, STEP (Stanford Teacher

• “students will make a prediction about which ecosystem is in greater

• In both cases they need access to content specific vocabulary such as

• Identify the key academic language demand and explain

• Consider language functions and language forms, essential

Laura Hill-Bonnet, STEP (Stanford Teacher

– The tasks or purposes AND uses of language.

– We use language to accomplish something in formal or

– Social purposes include: exchanging greetings, expressing

– Academic purposes include:

Laura Hill-Bonnet, STEP (Stanford Teacher

• To identify the key AL demands we ask credential

– Content Standard(look at the verb)

Laura Hill-Bonnet, STEP (Stanford Teacher

• What is it that you want students to

• Say/write/draft what an “appropriate” student

• What content words does it contain?

• What grammatical structures does it contain?

• Students will be able to evaluate the causes of

• Students will be able to use sentence structures

– The words that hold our language together and

Laura Hill-Bonnet, STEP (Stanford Teacher

Laura Hill-Bonnet, STEP (Stanford Teacher

• Cause and effect statements are frequent.

• Various verb forms are used:

• Frequent use of pronouns it and they as

• Reversals: The number a is five less than b.

• Logical connectors: if…then

Laura Hill-Bonnet, STEP (Stanford Teacher

Laura Hill-Bonnet, STEP (Stanford Teacher

• Hill-Bonnet, L. (2013). Not just more words, but more functional

Laura Hill-Bonnet, STEP (Stanford Teacher

Laura Hill-Bonnet, STEP (Stanford Teacher

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