Language Awareness
Language Awareness back to.
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What is language awareness?
Language awareness blends a) content about language, b) language skill, c) attitudinal education and d) metacognitive opportunities, which allow the student to reflect on the process of language acquisition, learning and language use. All four of these aspects of language awareness need to be integrated into the existing subject areas. A focus on language awareness is a key aspect of creating student-centered classrooms, and assists the teacher to present material accordingly to student readiness (Bilash and Tulasiewicz, 1995, p.49).
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How do we build language awareness in the SL classroom?
Students can learn concepts in the SL through an examination of their own language’s structure and use, either due to similarities or differences between them. For example, word order can be compared using visual cues so that students вЂsee’ and вЂhear’ the differences. Word etymology (the roots of words) can also be used to see patterns in word formation and related meanings. For example, the way a learner’s first language signals respect or formality/informality helps students recognize parallels between the languages and encourages the learner to вЂquestion’ or вЂnotice’ how the languages are related.
Building language awareness also involves helping students gain a positive attitude toward the TL by developing the confidence to make an attempt or take a risk. By becoming conscious of strategies that can be used to learn the SL, students may become more active in and more responsible for their own learning. Learning more about language in general may help the student develop an appreciation for the TL. Another aspect of building language awareness involves integrating what has been learned in other classes to SL learning, or borrowing what was learned in the SL classroom and applying it to other courses.
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How can students’ language awareness be increased?
There are many activities that can be done as class to help students increase their own language awareness. Some of them include:
Open Discussion: Students are asked how many languages they speak and how well they speak each of them. This icebreaker can lead into a discussion about how many languages there are in the world. To further this discussion, the teacher can give the students a concrete example to think about and tell them about a place like the West African nation of Cameroon where, with a population of 16 million, over 235 languages are spoken. Like Canada, Cameroon’s two official languages are English and French. This might lead students into a discussion in which they compare this situation to that found in their own country.
Synonyms and Expressions: This activity will ask students to look at the various meanings a word can have, depending on the context and culture in which the word is being used. Below is a very specific example, but this activity can be adapted for any language and based on what resources are available to the teacher.
Students are shown two cartoons. One shows a cowboy stranded in the desert beside his pick-up truck, the truck having a flat tire. The other shows a gentleman dressed in a suit inside the living room of his apartment. The text beneath both of them read «I’m mad about my flat». Students are asked to read the texts silently and then to read them aloud imitating the expression they imagined each would have. A discussion about synonyms for ‘mad’ and ‘flat’ may follow, as may identification of the locale of each of the men in the cartoons. The purpose of this example is to show how the meaning of the words вЂmad’ and вЂflat’ change whether they are used in a North American or British context.
Social Register: As an introduction to the notation of register or language formality/informality and awareness of audience, students are asked how they might respond is they bumped into
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Responses from students may range from crude to formal. Students are then made aware that responses to people vary according to how we view and value them. The conversation may then be directed toward how we might more appropriately talk with different people. Next, the teacher can present the following role-play to students (make a written copy of the dialogue visible on the chalkboard, whiteboard, overhead, etc.). The dialogue is of a ten year old speaking with her elderly uncle.
At the conclusion students may be asked to identify similarities and differences in the way the two speakers speak. The formality of the elderly uncle should be contrasted with the informality of the youngster. The difference in dialects of the two speakers may also be noted. The teacher may also choose to note that ‘drole’ is also a French word. This opens the door to explaining the influence of Latin and Greek words on many languages.
Language Variation or Dialect: Using the Internet as a resource, the teacher can collect a variety of pronunciations by English speakers (e.g. Canadian, American, Irish, Scottish, Jamaican, etc.) and play them for the students. The purpose of this activity is for students to recognize and value different dialects and “accents”. Using a world map to point out where these different speakers live, the students can explore the range of use of the English language around the world. NOTE: this activity can be adapted for any language; for example, in French class different dialects from France, Canada, the Caribbean and Africa can be used.
Word Origins: Students work in groups of three to five to match word cards with etymological root description cards.
Example: One card states BUNGALOW. The other card states: Hindi/Bengali. People from the British East India Company came to India in the seventeenth century to trade here. The one-storied houses they stayed in were called вЂbangla’ or вЂbangalo’ in Hindi or Bengali. NOTE: this activity can be done with any language; the etymology of words can be easily found using the Internet, among other sources.
This activity increases the students’ awareness of the influence other languages have had on the target language and it broadens their knowledge about selected words. With the aid of a map or globe, a discussion may be initiated about how the words presented (and others) might enter the target language.
Learning to use context clues or global understanding: This can be done by reading a passage from a turn of the century novel.
Getting started with Language Awareness
Cambridge International Education
Teaching and Learning Team
What is language awareness?
For many learners following Cambridge programmes, English is an additional language. For some, it might be their second or perhaps their third language. Depending on the school setting, students might be learning all of their subjects through English or just some of their subjects.
For all students, whether they are learning through their first language or an additional language, language is a vehicle for learning. It is through language that learners access the content of the lesson and communicate their ideas. So, as a teacher, it is your responsibility to make sure that language isn’t a barrier to learning.
One way to achieve this is for teachers to become more ‘language aware’. Being language aware means you understand the possible challenges that language presents to learning. These challenges might arise because a student is learning a subject through an additional language or it might be the first time a student has come across certain vocabulary or structures in their first language. A teacher who is ‘language aware’ understands why students face these difficulties and what they can do to support students.
In this resource, we will look at the basics of language awareness in more detail. We will explore theories that help us better understand the language needs of our students. We will look at some common misconceptions about students who are learning through an additional language and discuss the benefits of teaching and learning through an additional language. In the final section, we will look at some practical examples of how you can become more language aware in your everyday teaching. Along the way, we will hear from experienced practitioners who will be sharing their ideas about what they do that works.
Throughout the resource we will ask you questions that will help you to think about the specific needs of your learners and how you can take steps to become more language aware. At the end there is a glossary of key words and phrases.
Listen to these teachers discussing what language awareness means for them and why they think it is important. How do their definitions of language awareness compare with yours?
What are the benefits of teaching and learning through an additional language?
Teaching and learning through an additional language encourages understanding between cultures, improves students’ cognitive ability and prepares them for life beyond school.
If students’ language is sufficiently well developed and supported by the teacher, learning through an additional language can be cognitively stimulating. In contrast to many traditional language lessons, students are learning meaningful content through the language rather than simply learning the language itself. The language becomes a tool for critical thinking and communication and allows students access to authentic and relevant subject content and terminology.
Research suggests that the existence of more than one language in the brain leads to improved cognitive control. This has a positive effect on working memory, selective attention, processing information, and mental flexibility. Studies have demonstrated that bilingual children develop the ability to solve problems that contain conflicting or misleading clues at an earlier age than children who speak only one language.
The ability to use more than one language means we can communicate with people from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Knowledge of other languages encourages new ways of thinking and of perceiving the world. We live in an increasingly global world and language skills make travel easier, provide opportunities to study abroad, and improve career prospects.
What is the theory behind language awareness?
Conversational and academic language
Language expert Jim Cummins distinguishes between two types of language: conversational language and academic language.
Conversational language requires skills to understand and take part in everyday conversations and activities. These basic language skills are used in informal communication, such as buying lunch at school, talking on the phone to friends, or playing sports. Conversational language is ‘learned’ fairly quickly. This is because, in day-to-day conversation, certain clues from other people and clues from the context help us to understand meaning. In a face-to-face conversation, gestures, intonation and facial expressions support meaning. Situations or points of reference offer hints to the meaning of a conversation. This might be items of food available in a canteen for example, or the score at a football match. These social interactions are not very cognitively demanding and rarely require specialised language. Learners often get a lot of exposure to this type of language and as a result their social language skills are often good compared with their academic language skills. Conversational language is sometimes referred to as BICS (basic interpersonal communication skills).
Academic language refers to more formal language which is essential for students to successfully demonstrate what they have learned and achieved. This includes listening, speaking, reading, and writing about content in a specific subject area, for example reading about a particular event in history or discussing a new mathematical concept. In activities related to academic work, clues that help decide meaning are often reduced or absent. For example, a passage in a textbook may not include any pictures to support what learners are expected to read. Language also becomes more complex, and new ideas, concepts and language are all presented to students at the same time. Academic language also requires deeper thinking skills, such as comparing, classifying, analysing, evaluating and inferring. As learners progress through school, they are increasingly expected to use language in situations where they cannot rely on context and which are cognitively demanding. Academic language is sometimes referred to as CALP (cognitive academic language proficiency).
Cummins’ work suggests that learners are most successful at understanding content and language not only when they are challenged cognitively but also when they are provided with the appropriate context and language supports (or ‘scaffolds’ – see below).
Scaffolding
The theory of ‘social constructivism’ says that people learn mainly through social interaction with others, such as a teacher or other students. One social constructivist, Lev Vygotsky (1896–1934), developed the idea of the zone of proximal development. This zone lies between what a learner can achieve alone and what they can achieve with the expert guidance of a teacher or a more able student. Skilled teachers focus learning activities in this zone. They ‘scaffold’ learning by providing guidance and support that challenges students based on their current ability, helping them to gain confidence and independence in using new knowledge or skills. This helps students to develop their understanding in stages.
In order to scaffold learning, you need to be able to assess learners’ current knowledge, skills and understanding. Based on this, you can set appropriate targets and plan suitable activities and individual support along the way.
It is important that you consider the language demands of the activities and materials you have chosen for your lesson and provide appropriate support to help with these demands. The language skills that learners will be using (listening, reading, writing and speaking) will influence the type of support that you provide.
In this video language expert, Esther Gutierrez Eugenio, discusses why it is important to scaffold language.
The importance of first-language development
The image below illustrates Jim Cummins’ theory of how linguistic knowledge is stored in a bilingual brain. He suggests that languages are linked in the brain by a central operating system and are only separated at a surface level.
Each language contains distinct surface features such as pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar. These allow people to speak, read, and write, but underlying these surface features is a shared skill that is common across languages.
He argues that it is the cognitively demanding higher-order thinking skills and conceptual understanding that characterise academic language (CALP) that is shared. For example, if a student has understood a mathematical concept in their first language, they will not need to relearn this concept but they will need the surface language in their additional language to be able to show that they understand.
Cummins suggests that learners need a minimum level of linguistic and conceptual knowledge in their first language to successfully develop a second language. Once this knowledge is firmly established in a first language, the students can draw on this learning when working in an additional language. As a result, continued support for conceptual and linguistic development in a student’s first language provides a solid basis for development in an additional language.
Common misconceptions about language awareness
‘Fluency in conversational language means fluency in academic language.’
Many teachers are surprised when they receive a piece of written work that suggests a student who has no difficulties in everyday communication has problems understanding the main ideas of a lesson. Problems arise when teachers assume that students who have attained a high degree of fluency and accuracy in everyday social English (BICS) have a corresponding level of academic proficiency (CALP). Whether English is a student’s first language or an additional language, they need time and the appropriate support to become competent in academic language as it is that language they will mostly need in school.
‘I’m a science teacher – supporting students’ language is not my responsibility.’
Many teachers of non-language subjects worry that there is no time to include language support in their teaching or that it is something they know little about. Some teachers may think that language support is not their role. However, many teachers would agree that it is their responsibility to create an inclusive classroom where all students can access the curriculum and where barriers to learning are reduced as much as possible. When you are aware of the language needs of your students, you can use this awareness to help reduce obstacles that learning through an additional language might present.
Science teachers do not need to know the names of grammatical structures or to be able to use the appropriate linguistic labels. However, they do need to have a sound understanding of the challenges their students face, and plan to help them overcome these challenges. As we will see, these language-support techniques do not need to take a lot of extra time and should eventually become an everyday part of planning, teaching, and reflecting.
‘If parents speak a different language at home, this will confuse learners.’
Early research promoted the idea that languages were stored separately in the brain. It was thought that each language had a limited processing capacity. As a result, the worry was that learning another language would negatively affect or ‘push out’ the existing language. This reinforced the idea of bilingualism as problematic and a disadvantage to learning.
However, new research into how the brain works suggests that languages are linked in the brain by a central processing unit. This means that whether a learner is speaking, listening, reading or writing in their first or additional language, it helps the whole cognitive system to develop. As a result, it doesn’t matter in which language basic concepts are developed as this learning will eventually transfer across languages. Research shows that it is much better for parents to speak with their children in the language in which they are most confident. This is because this language will be richer and more complex. If parents speak to their children in a language in which they themselves are not confident, they are providing a model of language for their children that is not fully developed.
‘Younger children are more effective at learning languages than older students.’
Some teachers working with older students worry that an additional language, such as English, is much harder to learn. Younger learners may succeed in speaking a new language with little or no accent, but there is evidence that older people are often more efficient learners and make faster progress at first. It is important to remember that language expectations for younger learners are generally lower and school language is more complex at higher grades, making learning a language challenging. While it is possible to learn both subject content and language at the same time, the language a learner uses in the classroom needs to be sufficiently well developed and supported for them to be able to process the cognitive challenges they face.
‘A teacher with only first-language speakers in their class does not need to be aware of students’ language needs.’
Everyone has an individual experience of language. Students may not have previously seen or heard some language that is specific to a subject and may need to be introduced to this language in the same way that they would learn a second or foreign language. Most subjects have terms that need to be used appropriately. Some of these terms may have other meanings in other subject areas. First-language speakers may also be stronger in certain skills than others. You may find that certain students are better at writing than at speaking, or that their understanding of the vocabulary of a subject area is better than their active use of it. You need to be aware of the language level and capability of all of your students, not just those who are learning through an additional language.
language awareness
1 Language Educator Awareness
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