Academic and social language development in culturally and linguistically diverse learners

¶ … languages learned at school can take a variety of different forms and consist of many different influences. For example, there are informal social languages that can differ significantly from the types of languages that are considered to academic languages. Social languages can consist of foreign language or local informal dialects whereas the academic language is more formalized and needed to become more competent in school in general as they are used in several disciplines. Halliday (1993) is cited as suggesting that language has three purposes in school:

The use of language: how to speak, read, write and listen to language

Through language: al about the world inside and outside the classroom

About language: phonics, grammar, and spelling

The social language, being less formal, is learned more naturally and does not necessarily have to be studied. For example, social language can go on without any formal conventions as people simply communicate naturally. However, the academic language is more cognitively demanding and students must adhere to its institutionalized form to help them grasp more complex concepts as they proceed through their education.

One of the challenges for teachers is how to recognize CLD learners' experiences and background knowledge, how it manifests, and how to use it to further educational purposes. The immigration trend that has been seen in the U.S. has begun to shift from dense populations of immigrants at traditional locations such as Texas, Florida, and California to more diverse locations across many states. The mix of cultures offers a variety of different skills and perspectives. Students have different skill sets and abilities naturally and a teacher can leverage these abilities to help students learn new materials more effectively. Sometimes the students' ability to provide personal insights to classroom problems can be surprising.

The example was given of a group of students that were culturally and language diverse in which a basic math problem was presented to them that involved a bus fare. The students got the answer wrong in terms of the basic math, but instead they were able to use many practical heuristics to change the priorities in the decision. For example, some students explained that buying the more expensive pass would allow a greater ability to share the pass with other family members. Although the answer was not technically the correct one that was expected, the students illustrated a high level of reasoning skills. However, if the teacher was not perceptive to these reasoning processes, the students could have perceived as simply wrong.

developmentally appropriate, designed for ELLs at a specified grade level cluster

academically rigorous, with the highest level of English language proficiency (Reaching) corresponding to language expectations of proficient English speakers at the highest grade level of the cluster

2 Consider the parts of an MPI (content, language function, context). Analyze ONE of the MPIs you read about.

Reading, writing, listening, and speaking about simple daily items such as tables and chairs. The content would be the physical item, the function would be what the item does, the context would be where the items might be located (classroom, dining room), and the language would be the words used to describe these items. Students can practice identifying and interacting with these items through a range of different mediums.

One of the first parts of a MPI is language function.

3 Consider the MPIs you read about online. Use the CCSS content standards and the WIDA MPIs to write a strand of performance indicators for your class.

The entering phase would be about identifying the basic words that are illustrated while beginning would have the children start to interact with the model. The students would then write these phrases and attempt to expand upon them.

4 Choose ONE of the MPIs you created. How do you move from MPI to curriculum development?

The MPI serves as the foundation of the curriculum as it is developed along the components of this model. The main components can be used as a strand in different ways to have children interact with the lesson.