Have you ever picked up a new textbook and thought, “How am I going to learn anything useful from this book?” As a teacher who works primarily with emergent, English-only readers, I was guilty of judging a book by its cover when I first glanced at Academic Language for English Language Learners and Struggling Readers by Freeman and Freeman (2009). As soon as I read, “Teaching secondary students in the content areas is hard enough under the best of circumstances…” (Marzano, back cover), I made an assumption that I would have to struggle through this book myself because the ideas would be geared towards junior high/high school teachers. I could not have been more wrong! A few days later, I finished the book and noticed that I had highlighted many sections and scribbled notes throughout the margins of Academic Language for ELLs. The Freemans practice what they preach. They took a tough subject, teaching academic language to English Language Learners, lightened the cognitive load with many examples, and created a useful and memorable book for teachers of all grade levels.
Years ago, I took a class on differentiating instruction for English Language Learners, and I learned about what Cummins (1981) called BICS (Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills) and CALP (Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency). I remember discussing the need to help ELLs move beyond basic conversational skills in English to acquiring the academic language needed to read and write well in English. I learned about using teaching techniques such as introducing vocabulary words in meaningful ways (making the input “comprehensible”) and scaffolding learning. While these can be useful strategies, our ELLs need expert teachers to provide long-term support in learning both language and content. According to Cummins (1984, 2008), English Language Learners need four to nine years of speaking, reading, and writing English to acquire the academic language needed for school success (Freeman and Freeman, p. 19). They have an extremely difficult cognitive load because they must learn a new language and academic concepts at the same time! According to Freeman and Freeman, “Students who have developed BICS but not CALP do not lack higher-order thinking ability. They simply lack the language needed to succeed in school” (p. 29).
Sadly, Cummins found that some schools placed ELLs in special education classes because they did not understand that their students needed time to develop both conversational and academic language. In the United States, many schools transition their English Learners out of bilingual programs too soon, before they have a chance to develop academic language proficiency (Freeman and Freeman, p. 40). California and other states passed “English only” legislation because many people believe that “more English equals more English.” Instead, Cummins’ research (2000) and his model of a Common Underlying Proficiency (CUP) indicate that the opposite is true (Freeman and Freeman, p. 41). According to Cummins’ CUP, when students have the opportunity to learn academic language in their primary language, that knowledge transfers to their secondary language.
Students who are categorized as English learners with adequate formal schooling provide an excellent example of this model in action. These students often find it easier to adapt to formal schooling and they are quite successful because they have developed both conversational and academic language in their primary language. According to Cummins’ CUP, this knowledge transfers to academic subjects studied in English. When I did my student teaching at UC Davis many years ago, I remember that the kindergarten students I worked with at North Davis Elementary spoke a dozen different languages. My master teacher enjoyed reading nonfiction texts with these children, and brainstorming vocabulary words. The five-year-olds easily learned content specific language such as “brown recluse spiders,” and “black widow spiders.” Three other groups of English Language Learners include: long-term English learners, newly arrived English learners with limited formal schooling, and standard English learners (Freeman and Freeman, p. 8-13). Each group of students has specific needs, and all benefit from explicit teaching of both language and content. How can teachers help their students improve their academic language proficiency? Stay tuned! That will be the subject of my next post.
Cummins, J. 1981. “The Role of Primary Language Development in Promoting Educational Success for Language Minority Students.” In Schooling and Language Minority Students: A Theoretical Framework, 3-49. Los Angeles: Evaluation, Dissemination and Assessment Center, California State University, Los Angeles.
Cummins, J. 1984. Bilingualism and Special Education: Issues in Assessment and Pedagogy. Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters.
Cummins, J. 2000. Language, Power and Pedagogy: Billingual Children in the Crossfire. Tonawanda, NY: Multilingual Matters.
Cummins, J. 2008. “BICS and CALP: Empirical and Theoretical Status of the Distinction.” In Encyclopedia of Language and Education, vol. 2, ed. N. Hornberger, 71-84. New York: Springer Science and Business Media.
Freeman, Y., and Freeman, D. 2009. Academic Language for English Language Learners and Struggling Readers. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
earlyliteracyteacher 