Schleppegrell and O'Halloran

Schleppegrell and O'Halloran discuss our students’ great need to develop academic language skills, as this is the language that classes are taught and assessed with. Upon acknowledging that students have varying levels of proficiency in academic language, Schleppegrell and O'Halloran also recognize that many students who are still developing proficiency in this language, are typically placed in “mainstream classrooms” geared towards subject-area learning instruction. As discussed in the article, L2 students who might be able to speak more fluently still need to develop their reading, writing and language skills. Many of my students are only able to speak academically on a very basic level, one that Schleppegrell and O’Halloran might describe as having limited or intermediate proficiency in Standard English. I do have a few students who surpass this label, however the majority of my students do not.

Schleppegrell and O'Halloran argue that language instruction at a secondary level should be supported by “teachers with deep understanding of the language challenges of their content areas.” Unfortunately, teachers (including myself) have an insufficient understanding of how to assist our students in developing their linguistic awareness. As you know, the qualifications one must achieve to teach in Florida are not complex. People do not need to be trained in how to assist students in developing language skills, among many other things. This is extremely problematic as teachers lack education and professional development in instruction regarding language acquisition and its components. Exemplified in the case study of the 11^th grade student in an English development class, Schleppegrell and O'Halloran highlight how explicit teaching of academic language positively benefited teenage students with an intermediate proficiency in academic English. My students do not have an English language development class solely meant for their growth in these facets. Their classes are aimed at providing them with more basic skills to attempt to ensure their best performances on the FCAT. I think my students would benefit greatly from having a class like this, as I would suggest that all students who struggle with proficiency in academic English. The caveat I have to this recommendation is that someone would need to ensure that teachers are highly trained in this subject. I so frequently see teachers and administrators who are unknowledgeable about the subject they teach or oversee, or in academic language needed to be used in the subject area, or are less educated in how to use academic language themselves. Obviously, this is highly problematic.

Schleppegrell and O'Halloran suggest micro and macro level curricular planning of course, but prior to doing this it seems more important for teachers to be able to recognize how language can be used to achieve specific goals within their class. The article discusses how teachers who are most effective in their subjects are able to integrate language into their instruction and have created a long-term plan for their students’ increase in development of academic language proficiency over time. Schleppegrell and O'Halloran call attention to how most “mainstream content” teachers do not view themselves as language teachers. This becomes highly problematic for several reasons, including that these teachers may not view this type of instruction as their responsibility, might not be knowledgeable of academic language themselves or might not feel qualified to instruct students regarding this matter. Despite these issues, it becomes apparent as at it must become our charge to teach language regardless of what our subject is, as Schleppegrell and O'Halloran write that we are “best positioned to support students’ academic language development” as a result of our academic subject.

Reaffirming that teacher education programs (which are not even required in Florida) rarely prepare teachers to engage in language instruction in their classroom, Schleppegrell and O'Halloran recognize the challenges teachers face with this task. Despite this, we must learn to weave language instruction into our curriculum to address the struggles our students face in language learning. If we fail to do this and continue to limit ourselves to vocabulary instruction or basic language features, we will be doing our students a great disservice. Though my school frequently states that it is the role of all teachers to incorporate reading instruction into each subject’s curriculum, this is not always done. Perhaps it is the responsibility of our school to also provide us with more professional development on how to best assist our students with this type of instruction.