ELL students bring a variety of learning preferences and levels to the classroom. To address these differences, teachers rely on social language and background knowledge to connect with students. Often left behind is academic language.

Authentic academic language and text can be challenging for ELLs. The vocabulary is more difficult because it is so specific and at times abstract. Socially, students may learn what a lunch table is, but the term “table” might be confusing in an academic setting when talking about a multiplication table or the periodic table. Contextualized language instruction is an effective approach for enhancing academic vocabulary. Students skim and scan to identify high-frequency key words and use the context to understand meaning.

The free web and mobile resources from Curriculum Pathways use academic language across disciplines. The lessons allow students to develop “word wealth” by offering what Todd Finley calls “repeated encounters” with specific words in various contexts and by using a range of structures such as glossaries, key terms, and roll-overs. Strategies for using the resources to teach instructional language and content-specific academic vocabulary include aligning objectives, adapting curricular materials, and implementing creative outputs for all proficiency levels.

Want to learn more?

Are you attending iNACOL this year in Orlando? If so, swing by our session hosted by Mimi Stapleton and Staci Lyon, Strategies for Teaching Content-Specific Academic Language to ELLs on Wednesday, October 25th, from 2:15-3:15 p.m. (room Oceanic 6). To show how academic language is used across disciplines, we will

• Give an overview of academic language.
• Introduce a suite of free standards-based resources and show how academic language is used in all four domains (reading, writing, speaking, and listening).
• Model effective instructional steps for moving from word level > to sentence > to paragraph.
• Offer outcomes that teachers can use immediately.

We will also explore other instructional approaches that support and enhance the reading experience (e.g., visual cues and self-explanatory illustrations).

Hope to see you there!