The use of social language, the language used in everyday conversations, and academic language, the language of texts and high-level discussions, are often thought of as dichotomous. That is, we think of language use as either one or the other. Actually language use falls along a continuum. In a social situation you may use a lot of conversational language, but the conversation may shift to discussion of issues, or an interesting article recently read. That part of your conversation borders on academic talk, rather than just social talk. Often conversations flow smoothly from serious topics to funny ones, and then back again to something more thoughtful. We are able to use both conversational language or academic language fluidly.
Making students aware that language is used in different ways for different purposes validates the language they already know, and the continuum shows them other language uses that they’re in the process of learning in school.
Standards have focused attention on the need for all students to be able to engage in rich, meaningful discussions, whether orally or in writing. This requires that they have facility with aspects of academic language, such as: comprehend and evaluate complex texts across a range of types and disciplines…construct effective arguments and convey multifaceted information….discern a speaker’s key points, request clarification, and ask relevant questions…build on others’ ideas and articulate their own ideas, and so forth. As educated adults, we are able to move easily across a continuum of language use from conversational to more academic, and then back to conversational.
The following activity teaches students (grades 3 and above) that conversational language and academic language are not opposites. Rather, they exist along a continuum from conversational to academic.
- Select three or four students to engage in a social conversation in front of other class members about a familiar topic, such as their favorite video game. After several minutes, debrief the conversation with your class. How did the conversation look and how did it sound? Assist students in recognizing that some students used facial expressions and gestures when communicating; they used words and phrases they all knew; the topic was easy topic to talk about since they had lots of experience with it; and their sentences were primarily simple rather than complex. Jot some of the characteristics on the board.
- Strategically select three or four other students to engage in an academic discussion about a topic that they’re currently learning, such as settling the thirteen colonies, making sure the selected students are able to use some key vocabulary during their discussion. You might also provide a list of sentence frames that the students can use when referring to their text for support. Examples include:
- The author said….
- ……… because …………
- According to the article (or chapter), ……..
- For instance,……..
- For example, …….
- On page ….., it said, ………
- From my reading, I learned ……
- As with the social conversation, debrief and list how students characterize the academic language used during the modeling. What kinds of words and sentences did the students use? How was their language different from the first group? Their body language? How did they support their positions with evidence from their reading?
- It may be helpful to have the class complete a Venn diagram, comparing and contrasting conversational language and academic language, based on the students’ models, or they can write a few sentences about each type of language use to clarify their understanding.
- After students have compared and contrasted conversational language and academic language, create on your white board a continuum, with “Conversational Language” at one end, and “Academic Language” at the other end. Together with your class, fill in the continuum, using students’ examples. For instance, the first spot on the left (currently “Texting family about whereabouts”), could be “Talking about your favorite video game with a friend.” The other end of the continuum (currently “Reading and taking notes…”), could be “Explaining why the thirteen colonies were established with specific examples from our book.”
Here’s what’s important to convey to your students, whether English speakers or multilingual learners: Conversational language is easier to learn because it has lots of clues built in such as facial expressions, simpler sentences, known words and phrases, a familiar topic, and so forth. Academic language is more challenging – and that’s to be expected — because the topic may not be as familiar, the sentences may be more complex, and the vocabulary may be new.
The more academic language students are explicitly taught and provided opportunities to practice, the better they will be able to produce that level of language orally and in writing. This activity teaches students that they need to know both conversational language and academic language to navigate school and careers effectively.
(Graphic from Savvas SIOP professional development)