Teaching Academic Language in L2 Secondary Settings - Schleppegrell and O'Hallaron

Schleppegrell and O'Halloran’s work focuses on settings in which students are learning English in English-speaking contexts, and I teach Spanish to both English and Spanish speakers, so while the context of my classroom is different from the context of their research, I still think that some of the information in this article is applicable to my students. First, in my Spanish for Spanish Speakers classes there are many students who speak more of an informal, colloquial Spanish and do not know how to switch registers to a more formal Spanish because they lack academic language. Therefore, it would be beneficial for me to learn how to talk more explicitly about the features of language with my students so that they could understand how language is used in different genres of Spanish literature. For example, students could analyze the way language is used to influence narrative perspective in a picaresque novel versus the way it is used in a short story that has elements of magical realism.

            In addition to the benefits of having metalinguistic discussions with my students, they struggle greatly with written Spanish, and it would help me to understand the type of feedback that I should be giving them so that they can improve their academic language. The article describes a Systemic Functional Linguistics-based professional development program in which Language Arts teachers were trained on how to give feedback that was focused on “developing their linguistic resources for improving quality in their writing”. If I address students’ writing deficiencies as more of a problem with academic language and less as a program with grammar, then I think that genre-specific feedback on academic language features would help them to understand how to improve their writing and use language that is more appropriate for each assignment.

            Finally, my students need help with their oral language skills as well. This article discusses a social studies curriculum in which students worked on oral presentations in groups. In this setting, students can continue the discussion that the teacher has had with them about the academic language features that are needed to speak and write about whatever genre is being studied. When they are preparing their oral presentations, they will have to include the academic language that has been explicitly taught. This would fit in nicely with what I am teaching now because the discussion is centered on the genre of the book we are reading. If students were to present examples of characteristics of the picaresque genre, they would have to discuss the academic language that they would need to include in their presentation in order to deliver an appropriate presentation.