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Professional Development Unit/Session Five
Academic and Conversational Language

Overview of Session

An important theme throughout Do You Speak American? is that the way people use language differs according to the setting (e.g., at work or at leisure), the modality (oral or written), and the purpose for communication. This unit focuses on differences between a type of language that is important for school success, what can be called academic language, and a type of language used in everyday conversational settings for the purpose of sociability called conversational language. Academic talk and writing is likely to be conceptually dense, whereas conversational language may draw more on the surrounding context to get meanings across. Dialect is one dimension of academic language. In general people associate Mainstream (Standard) American English with more formal academic situations. Students, then, need to master Mainstream (Standard) American English, and some may need more instruction than others for doing so. And all students need to learn academic language. Those who are learning English as an additional language may need more support with it than others.
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Topics

  • Language at school
  • Style shifting
  • Mainstream (Standard) American English

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Key Ideas

  • School places some special language demands on students.
  • English language learners who are proficient in the language used in social interaction may still have difficulty doing schoolwork in English. Teachers need to help English language learners acquire both academic and conversational English.

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Key Terms

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Objectives

Teachers will

  • Explore differences between academic and conversational language
  • Understand how these concepts relate to teaching diverse learners
  • Relate this segment's key ideas to their daily work in schools

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Video Sections Used in this Unit

Do You Speak American? is available on both DVD and conventional videotape. Guides for accessing specific sections of the video have been formatted as follows:

Description/Episode         DVD Section      VT Time Code     Running Time                        

Hip Hop (DYSA/1)                   2.6                        [01:27:19]              (8:43)
For more information on accessing the video click here.   

 

In this unit:   

Dialect in schooling, the 1979 Ann Arbor decision (DYSA/1)   
1.10    [01:44:21] (5:57)   


African American English in California (DYSA/3)   3.3   [01:9:12]   (5:52)


Movies and California Prestige  (DYSA/3)   3.4   [01:13:04]   (7:28)

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Description of Segments

Dialect in schooling, the 1979 Ann Arbor decision  (DYSA/1)  
1.10    [01:44:21] (5:57)
This section concerns the implications of ethnic speaking styles for education. It introduces key members of a class action lawsuit in 1977-1979, Martin Luther King Junior Elementary School Children v. Ann Arbor School District Board. Three African American mothers argued that their children were being treated unfairly in their suburban school because of the way they spoke. In interviews with three of the former students--a mother; the case social worker, Ruth Zweifler; and one of the prosecuting lawyers, Kenneth Lewis--MacNeil revisits the case and suggests its continuing implications for schools 25 years later. Mr. Lewis speaks about the need for different sets of language skills or styles depending on people’s occupations and his own speech as a marker of his identity as a lawyer.

African American English in California (DYSA/3)   3.3    [01:9:12]   (5:52)
This section begins with a brief interview with Steve Harvey, a radio DJ, actor, and stand-up comedian. He discusses the need for a range of speech styles to meet the communicative demands of various situations. Next, Daniel Russel, an elementary school teacher, uses a video game of Jeopardy to teach style shifting skills (sometimes called codeswitching, a term more appropriately applied to switching between two languages) to his Academic English Mastery class. Also interviewed is program director Noma LeMoine, who describes the success the program has had in teaching minority children Standard English by using their proficiency in their home dialects.

Movies and California Prestige  (DYSA/3)   3.4   [01:13:04]   (7:28)
Slang and jargon is associated with teenage talk in California and elsewhere. MacNeil interviews Amy Heckerling, who chronicled young people’s speech in the teen movie, Clueless, and Winnie Holzman, who did something similar in making the television series, My So-Called Life. For an update on teenage terminology, he convenes a group of teenagers and talks to them about what’s current.
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Background Information

What is Academic Language?

Educators generally acknowledge that school makes linguistic demands on students that are different from the language demands of other settings, where conversational language is expected. Students encounter written academic language in textbooks, which have specialized vocabulary and phrasing (math texts offer some clear examples of this), and students are expected to use an academic style in writing compositions (rather than the style they would use in writing e-mail, for example). They listen to teachers’ academic talk, and they take part in academic discussion during lessons. Academic language is generally learned at school, although many children develop academic language skills through reading and discussion of academic topics at home and elsewhere.

Academic Language, Conversational Language, and English Language Learners

It is particularly important that teachers of English language learners understand the contrasts between conversational and academic language styles (also called registers), especially in teaching students with limited experience in U.S. schools. Students’ proficiency in conversational English may develop faster than their proficiency in academic English, because they have more opportunities to practice conversational English.

The cognitive and academic demands of the classroom expand as students move from grade to grade: Students are expected to have more and more sophisticated background knowledge and the language resources to go with it. With each grade, academic work requires a larger vocabulary and greater knowledge of specialized phrasing and text structure. In writing, for example, students need to get better at developing paragraphs and essays that follow the school’s expectations about coherence. In speech, they may need to learn to ask questions, argue, defend, or debate a point of view according to the school norms. Cultures differ in systems of logic and coherence, and the system expected at school may be different from that of  some students. They will need to learn to convey meaning in a way that is quite new to them.

What Can Teachers Do to Support Diverse Learners as They Acquire the Language of School and Academic Content?

One way to support diverse learners is for teachers to learn more about language in general and about the language and culture of the students whom they teach. Teachers fulfill various functions, many of which demand linguistic knowledge. As communicators, teachers must be able to understand their students, including those who come from homes where the dialect or language is different from that of school. As educators, they must design instruction that takes students’ home dialect or language into account. As evaluators, teachers need to know what language behaviors they can expect from students so as not to confuse predictable language and dialect differences with language errors or developmental delay (Fillmore & Snow, 2002).

Teachers also need to know about their students as individuals―what language(s) and dialect(s) each one speaks and what kind of schooling s/he has had. This will provide important background information for teaching and learning. For example, if some students in the class have had less experience than others with school and thus with academic language, or if they have had limited experience in American  schools, teachers can pair them with peers who can serve as their advocates.  

There are many ways for teachers to learn more about their students’ backgrounds. Most obviously, they can look at student records. Many school districts have student intake centers or parent information centers where student and family background information is collected. Many districts with English language learners require parents or guardians to fill out a home language survey. This provides teachers with essential information about the language(s) spoken at home. Finally, some teachers visit their students’ homes at the beginning of the school year. This is particularly effective in building relationships between the home and the school that facilitate communication across the school year. 

Supporting Academic Language Development Through Instruction

An instructional approach called “sheltering” promotes language and academic development simultaneously. Students gain skills in academic language as they learn grade level content. Sheltering instruction involves combining a number of elements, including the following:

•     Planning lessons with both language and content objectives specified

•     Posting and reading lesson objectives aloud so that all learners understand the  purpose of what they are doing

•     Presenting new vocabulary in the context of lesson content

•     Using a variety of questioning styles that allow all students to participate in a discussion

•     Using a variety of graphic organizers and other visuals to reinforce information presented in texts

•     Displaying quotations, word banks, and graphic organizers for student reference.

•     Grouping students carefully to build social skills, English proficiency, and content understanding. Sometimes students should have access to others who speak their first language so that they can use that language to build knowledge. Students should also have access to students who are proficient in English.

•     Providing many opportunities for students to engage with content using all of the language modalities (speaking, writing, listening and reading), which develop interdependently. For example, before and after they read a passage, students can write and talk about concepts related to it.

•     Using a variety of assessment tools, both verbal and non-verbal, so that students have multiple opportunities to display what they have learned. 

Dialects and Academic Language
Although there is no necessary connection between academic language and dialects, textbooks and other information resources are usually written in Mainstream (Standard) American English. Teachers generally use the standard dialect in teaching and expect students to use it too. Students who are vernacular dialect speakers often use their home dialect in talking informally to each other in the classroom about academic topics, such as in group work, but they are likely to shift toward a standard dialect if teachers give them the responsibility to speak authoritatively about some topic. Because of the association between Mainstream English and academic expertise, and because children need proficiency in Mainstream English for school success and access to professional jobs, schools usually teach that dialect.
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Discussion Questions & Activities


Pre-Viewing Questions

1. Are the members of your group familiar with the notions of academic language and conversational language? If so, put together definitions of each term with examples. If not, what do you think the terms refer to. What do you think academic language has to do with dialects? 

2. Based on the background information, key ideas, and key terms, what questions do you have before viewing? 

3. Review the key terms. Define them without consulting the glossary. 
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Pre-Viewing Activities

1. Examine the language of several of the textbooks used in your school to expand your understanding of academic language. Identify words, phrases, and sentence structures that strike you as exemplifying academic language. List several examples for the group to examine together. Answer these questions together:

•     What terms appear in the text that are particular to the subject area (e.g., hypotenuse; joule)? What words are used in ways that are different from their meanings in other settings (e.g., tangent; energy, work)?

•     What sentence structures strike you as more likely to occur in writing than in speaking or to occur more frequently in writing (e.g., appositives)?

•     What phrases or sentences are or might be particularly difficult for students to understand? Why? Can you rephrase them in academic language, or do you need to use language that you think comes closer to conversational language? Point out the differences between the original and the rephrasing.

2. Identify or invent some examples of oral academic language and talk about what distinguishes it from conversational language.  

3. Find out whether any group member has had experience with students who seemed quite proficient in English but who had trouble with academic language. How did the problem show up? What did the teacher do to help the student(s) develop academic English? Was it effective? How do you know? What can other teachers learn from this? 
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Post-Viewing Questions

Dialect in Schooling

1. Ann Arbor Case: MacNeil says: “When they spoke as they did at home—in African American English—their instructors simply assumed they couldn’t do school work.” How do you explain these assumptions? Is the way students speak a reliable indicator of the quality of work they can do?

2. Ann Arbor Case: The judge in this case directed that teachers receive training about AAE and about how to teach non-mainstream-speaking students. What kind of professional development might teachers need to help students expand their range of linguistic choices—to add Standard English to their repertoires without abandoning their home language? How would the notion of academic language figure in?

3. Ann Arbor Case: The lawyer who tried the case, Kenneth Lewis, says that a person applying for a job in his law firm would require particular language skills—and that if he himself wanted to work as a DJ for an R&B station, he would need a different set of language skills. How might an aspiring lawyer or DJ who lacks the requisite language skills go about learning them? Is Mr. Lewis talking only about dialect or about something more? How do teachers help students learn the requisite academic language skills for school and career success? What is particularly challenging about doing so, and how have you and your colleagues gone about teaching academic language?

African American English in California

4. Steve Harvey: Mr. Harvey says that getting by in America requires the ability to switch between different language styles. Does everyone need to be able to switch, or just those people whose language is stigmatized? In what situations do you notice yourself shifting the style of your speech? Do you think you ever shift without noticing it? Do you shift into and out of academic English? What specific changes do you make?

5. Academic English Mastery Program: This program uses students’ proficiency in their home language to teach minority children Mainstream (Standard) English. The program director, Noma LeMoine, says that it is important not to devalue students “in any way by virtue of their cultural and linguistic differences” because this would alienate them from education. How does this program prepare students to succeed academically? How does it consider children’s language proficiency? Does this program seem worthwhile for students? Discuss its advantages. Do you see possible problems or disadvantages? In order to implement such a program, what kinds of professional development experiences would teachers need? 

This program asks students to identify the precise points of difference between a vernacular dialect and Mainstream (Standard) English. Do you think it is important that your students become aware of the differences between their dialects and the dialect that is expected for settings in which academic language is used? Explain. What are some effective ways to teach students about dialects and speech style?

Does your school or district have a program for teaching Mainstream English using students’ home language? If so, describe it. Who are the students? What grades are they in? Who teaches the program? What kinds of professional development are required for teachers who use the program? Does this program explicitly address academic language? What have been the academic results of this program for students? If there is no formal program, how do teachers teach Mainstream English? Is the method effective?
 Movies and California Prestige

6. Clueless: This movie and the TV series was made some time ago. Are any of the slang terms that Amy Heckerling mentions still current? Who uses them? Do you? Are slang terms ever appropriate in academic language? What does slang contribute to conversational language? People often associate slang with young people. Is that accurate?

7. My So-Called Life: When Winnie Holzman says, “There’s almost nothing more personal than how you express yourself,” she is referring to choices in language. Does this observation apply to academic language or just to conversational language?

8. Teens and Slang: In talking to MacNeil about teen language, one of the high school students says that she picked up certain terms from Clueless. Do you think she means this literally? How else might she have been influenced to adopt language fashions? Is there such a thing as fashionable terms in academic language? If so, find examples.
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Post-Viewing Activities

1. Answering Your Questions: Go back to the questions that you identified before viewing. Did you get your questions answered as you watched the video and talked about it with your colleagues? What new questions do you have?

2. Journal Writing: Using what you have learned about attitudes toward vernacular dialects from discussing “Do You Speak American?” identify an instance in which someone made erroneous assumptions about a student, parent, or guardian, based on that person’s language use. Reflect on why these assumptions were made and how it became clear that they were wrong.

3. Academic Language: Listen to experts being interviewed on NPR or another radio network or station. What is it about their speech that makes them sound expert? Is it only what they say, or is it also the way that they say it? Notice specific examples.

If the high school students whom MacNeil talks to about current terms were talking with a college admissions officer, how would their speech be different and why? If group members are amenable, get someone to volunteer to role play one of the students. First have someone else play MacNeil asking about current slang. Then have another person play a college admissions officer asking the “student” about his/her plans for a college major. See how the student’s language shifts and whether the differences can be discussed in terms of conversational language and academic language.

Compare the high school students’ discussion of slang in Do You Speak American? with Connie Eble’s essay on this topic . What is the evidence that the high school students are using a conversational language style, and what is the evidence that Eble is using an academic language style? Are there some topics that would not be discussed in conversational language? Are there topics that would not be discussed in academic language? If Eble were talking to her friends about her research on slang, how might that conversation go? If she were addressing an audience at the annual meeting of the Linguistic Society of America, how might she express herself?

4. Written Academic Language: If people are amenable, have everyone choose one of the teens to role play. First, write a paragraph explaining why you plan to major in psychology (or something else) that will be part of your college application package. Then write an e-mail to your best friend about plans to go skiing (or something else). Exchange papers and identify elements of the two texts that make the one more academic and the other more conversational. List these elements and the examples on chart paper. Then talk about how teachers can help students develop skills in the two styles. 

Extension Activity

Using the work that you did during the introduction to this session to identify academic language in text books, sketch out a lesson plan that would shelter instruction for English language learners and would use the text you worked on. What would you do to help students comprehend the text?
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Related Resources

WEB RESOURCES

Crawford, J.: “A Nation Divided by One Language”
Discussion of some important issues that surround the education of diverse learners.
Eble, C.: “Slang and Sociability”
Accessible discussion of some slang and lexical innovation on college campuses. Ann Arbor decision and its implications for schools.
Background on the Ann Arbor decision.

PRINT RESOURCES

Fillmore, L. W., & Snow, C. E. (2002). "What teachers need to know about language." In C. T. Adger, C. E. Snow, & D. Christian, D. (Eds.), What teachers need to know about language (pp. 7-54). Washington, DC, and McHenry, IL: Center for Applied Linguistics and Delta Systems Co., Inc.

Fillmore and Snow argue that because many teachers serve students whose language backgrounds are different from their own, teachers need a great deal of knowledge about the structure of language and language use. Cummins, J. (2000). Language, power and pedagogy: Bilingual children in the crossfire. Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters.

This volume answers many of the questions that teachers ask about language development in students whose first language is not English, and it describes the academic language skills that schools expect of students.

Echeverria, J., Vogt, M., & Short, D. J. Making Content Comprehensible for English Learners (2nd ed.). Boston: Pearson.

Teachers learn how to shelter instruction so that English language learners can develop content area knowledge and English skills together.

Heath, S. B. (1983). Ways with Words. New York: Cambridge.
This classic describes how children use language differently in two South Carolina working class communities, one Black, one White, and how their language skills conflict with what their schools expect. 

Schleppegrell, M .J. (2004). The Language of Schooling: A Functional Linguistics Perspective. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. This research report gives details about the challenges of academic language, with a focus on written language.

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Video Key:

DVD Episode & Chapters: For DVD users, DYSA has been broken down into episodes and chapters. The term chapter is industry standard for sections or "breaks" programmed into the DVD video. A number indicating the DYSA episode will always be followed by a number indicating the DVD chapter within an episode. (i.e. 1.2 is Episode 1, Chapter 2. The numbers 1.2 appear on-screen for DVD users.) DVD users may watch a DYSA episode straight through or alternatively, jump to specific sections of the program by referring to a main menu available on the DVD.

Chapter Description
Chapter (or section) descriptions are available on-screen for DVD users only, and include a text description along side  the episode number and the chapter number within the episode (i.e. 1.2 Pronunciation in Maine). Videotape users will need to refer to printed versions of the curricular units to benefit from the chapter descriptions.

Running Time The running time indicates the length of the section of video.

Videotape (VT) Time Code Videotape users should fast forward or rewind to the corresponding number displayed in the videotape counter window in the front of the videotape playback device. (i.e. Videotape users should insert the videotape in the player and shuttle to [01:27:19] in the counter window to see the beginning of the Springville,Texas section.)

Back to Video Sections Used in this Unit

Do You Speak American? professional development materials for educators were produced by the Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL) in Washington, DC. This material was made possible by a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York. The statements made and views expressed are solely the responsibility of the Center for Applied Linguistics.

Sponsoredby:

National Endowment for the Humanities Hewlett Foundation Ford Foundation   Arthur Vining Davis Foundations Carnegie Corporation

National Endowment
for the Humanities

William and Flora Hewlett
Foundation

Ford
Foundation

Rosalind P.
Walter

Arthur Vining
Davis Foundations

Carnegie
Corporation of New York