Getting started with Language Awareness

Cambridge International Instruction
Teaching and Learning Team

What is language awareness?

For many learners following Cambridge programmes, English is an additional linguistic communication. For some, it might exist 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 kickoff language or an boosted language, language is a vehicle for learning. It is through language that learners access the content of the lesson and communicate their ideas. So, equally a teacher, it is your responsibility to make sure that language isn't a barrier to learning.

One style to achieve this is for teachers to become more 'language aware'. Existence linguistic communication aware means yous sympathize the possible challenges that language presents to learning. These challenges might arise considering a student is learning a subject through an additional language or information technology might exist the first time a student has come up across certain vocabulary or structures in their kickoff language. A teacher who is 'language aware' understands why students face these difficulties and what they can exercise to support students.

In this resource, we volition wait at the basics of language awareness in more than detail. Nosotros will explore theories that assistance us better sympathize the language needs of our students. We will await at some common misconceptions about students who are learning through an additional linguistic communication and talk over the benefits of teaching and learning through an boosted language. In the concluding section, nosotros will look at some practical examples of how yous can get more language aware in your everyday teaching. Along the way, nosotros will hear from experienced practitioners who will be sharing their ideas about what they do that works.

Throughout the resources nosotros volition ask you questions that volition help you to think about the specific needs of your learners and how you tin can have steps to become more linguistic communication aware. At the stop 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 of import. How do their definitions of language awareness compare with yours?

Transcript

Teacher and students doing a chemistry experiment

What are the benefits of educational activity and learning through an additional language?

Instruction and learning through an boosted language encourages understanding between cultures, improves students' cerebral ability and prepares them for life beyond school.

If students' linguistic communication is sufficiently well developed and supported by the teacher, learning through an boosted 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 accurate and relevant subject content and terminology.

Enquiry suggests that the existence of more than ane language in the brain leads to improved cognitive control. This has a positive effect on working memory, selective attention, processing data, 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 tin can communicate with people from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Noesis of other languages encourages new ways of thinking and of perceiving the earth. Nosotros live in an increasingly global world and language skills brand travel easier, provide opportunities to written report away, and ameliorate career prospects.

Three students reading a book together.

What is the theory behind language awareness?

Conversational and academic linguistic communication
Language proficient Jim Cummins distinguishes between two types of language: conversational linguistic communication and academic language.

Conversational language requires skills to understand and take part in everyday conversations and activities. These basic language skills are used in breezy communication, such every bit ownership lunch at schoolhouse, talking on the phone to friends, or playing sports. Conversational language is 'learned' fairly quickly. This is considering, in day-to-day conversation, certain clues from other people and clues from the context help us to sympathise significant. In a face-to-face up chat, gestures, intonation and facial expressions back up meaning. Situations or points of reference offer hints to the pregnant of a chat. This might be items of food available in a bottle for case, or the score at a football match. These social interactions are non very cognitively demanding and rarely require specialised language. Learners often get a lot of exposure to this blazon of linguistic communication and as a result their social language skills are often expert compared with their bookish language skills. Conversational language is sometimes referred to as BICS (basic interpersonal communication skills).

Academic linguistic communication 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 well-nigh content in a specific bailiwick surface 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 pregnant are often reduced or absent. For example, a passage in a textbook may not include any pictures to back up what learners are expected to read. Linguistic communication likewise becomes more complex, and new ideas, concepts and language are all presented to students at the aforementioned time. Academic language also requires deeper thinking skills, such every bit comparing, classifying, analysing, evaluating and inferring. Every bit learners progress through schoolhouse, they are increasingly expected to utilise linguistic communication in situations where they cannot rely on context and which are cognitively demanding. Academic language is sometimes referred to equally CALP (cognitive academic linguistic communication proficiency).

Cummins' piece of work suggests that learners are near successful at understanding content and language not only when they are challenged cognitively only also when they are provided with the appropriate context and linguistic communication supports (or 'scaffolds' – meet below).

Scaffolding
The theory of 'social constructivism' says that people learn mainly through social interaction with others, such equally a instructor or other students. 1 social constructivist, Lev Vygotsky (1896–1934), developed the idea of the zone of proximal development. This zone lies betwixt what a learner can reach solitary and what they can achieve with the expert guidance of a teacher or a more than able educatee. Skilled teachers focus learning activities in this zone. They 'scaffold' learning by providing guidance and back up that challenges students based on their current power, helping them to gain conviction and independence in using new knowledge or skills. This helps students to develop their understanding in stages.
In order to scaffold learning, yous demand to be able to assess learners' current knowledge, skills and agreement. Based on this, you can fix appropriate targets and program suitable activities and individual support along the manner.

It is of import that you consider the language demands of the activities and materials you accept chosen for your lesson and provide appropriate support to assist with these demands. The linguistic communication skills that learners will be using (listening, reading, writing and speaking) volition influence the blazon of support that you lot provide.

In this video language expert, Esther Gutierrez Eugenio, discusses why it is important to scaffold language.

Transcript

The importance of get-go-language development
The prototype beneath illustrates Jim Cummins' theory of how linguistic knowledge is stored in a bilingual brain. He suggests that languages are linked in the brain past a central operating organization and are only separated at a surface level.

Common Underlying Proficiency - Jim Cummins (1984; 2000)

Each linguistic communication contains distinct surface features such as pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar. These allow people to speak, read, and write, only 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 instance, if a student has understood a mathematical concept in their beginning language, they will not need to relearn this concept but they will need the surface language in their additional linguistic communication to be able to show that they empathize.

Cummins suggests that learners need a minimum level of linguistic and conceptual knowledge in their start linguistic communication to successfully develop a 2d linguistic communication. Once this knowledge is firmly established in a beginning language, the students can draw on this learning when working in an additional language. Every bit a outcome, connected support for conceptual and linguistic development in a student's starting time language provides a solid ground for development in an additional linguistic communication.

Common misconceptions nearly linguistic communication awareness

'Fluency in conversational linguistic communication ways fluency in bookish language.'
Many teachers are surprised when they receive a slice 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 presume that students who accept attained a high degree of fluency and accuracy in everyday social English (BICS) have a respective level of bookish proficiency (CALP). Whether English is a student's first language or an additional linguistic communication, they need time and the appropriate support to become competent in academic language as it is that linguistic communication they will more often than not need in school.

'I'm a science instructor – supporting students' language is not my responsibility.'
Many teachers of non-language subjects worry that there is no fourth dimension to include language support in their teaching or that information technology is something they know little almost. Some teachers may recall that language back up is non their part. Withal, many teachers would concord that it is their responsibleness to create an inclusive classroom where all students can access the curriculum and where barriers to learning are reduced as much equally possible. When you lot are aware of the linguistic communication needs of your students, you can utilise this awareness to help reduce obstacles that learning through an additional linguistic communication might present.

Scientific discipline 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. Every bit we volition see, these language-support techniques do non need to have a lot of actress fourth dimension and should eventually become an everyday part of planning, teaching, and reflecting.

'If parents speak a different language at home, this volition misfile learners.'
Early inquiry promoted the idea that languages were stored separately in the brain. It was idea that each language had a limited processing capacity. As a result, the worry was that learning some other language would negatively affect or 'push out' the existing language. This reinforced the idea of bilingualism equally problematic and a disadvantage to learning.

However, new enquiry into how the brain works suggests that languages are linked in the brain past a central processing unit. This means that whether a learner is speaking, listening, reading or writing in their first or additional language, information technology helps the whole cerebral organization to develop. As a result, it doesn't matter in which language basic concepts are developed as this learning volition somewhen 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 exist richer and more than circuitous. If parents speak to their children in a language in which they themselves are not confident, they are providing a model of linguistic communication for their children that is not fully developed.

'Younger children are more than effective at learning languages than older students.'
Some teachers working with older students worry that an additional language, such every bit English, is much harder to learn. Younger learners may succeed in speaking a new language with piddling or no accent, but in that location is evidence that older people are ofttimes more efficient learners and make faster progress at outset. Information technology is important to think that linguistic communication expectations for younger learners are mostly lower and school language is more complex at higher grades, making learning a linguistic communication challenging. While it is possible to learn both subject content and linguistic communication at the same fourth dimension, the language a learner uses in the classroom needs to be sufficiently well developed and supported for them to exist able to procedure the cognitive challenges they confront.

'A teacher with only offset-linguistic communication speakers in their class does non need to be aware of students' language needs.'
Everyone has an individual feel of language. Students may non have previously seen or heard some language that is specific to a subject and may need to be introduced to this linguistic communication in the aforementioned mode that they would larn a second or foreign language. Nearly subjects have terms that need to be used accordingly. Some of these terms may accept other meanings in other subject areas. First-linguistic communication speakers may also be stronger in certain skills than others. You may notice that certain students are improve at writing than at speaking, or that their understanding of the vocabulary of a subject expanse is meliorate than their active employ of information technology. Yous demand to be aware of the language level and capability of all of your students, not simply those who are learning through an boosted language.

Linguistic communication awareness in practice

In this section, we will look at how linguistic communication-aware teachers program, teach, assess, reflect and collaborate.

Context
A teacher who is language aware thinks nearly the schoolhouse setting and circumstances, and the language profiles of their learners − that is, their unlike levels of competence. You lot demand to have a adept agreement of your learners' language experiences both in and out of school. This helps yous to program the best manner to support their continued learning and set up realistic targets and challenges for them.

Planning
Once you have a clear understanding of your learners' language profiles, this will aid you to build language back up into your lesson planning. For many teachers, this means designing the various steps of the lesson in a way that volition accomplish the lesson content aims and then reviewing the lesson program, with a specific focus on academic language (CALP). Learning objectives for content and language should be clearly prepare out alongside each other.

Teaching
Likewise as carefully considering the language demands of your lesson at the planning stage, you should take extra steps during the lesson to be sensitive to the potential language needs of your learners. These techniques might include thinking aloud and describing what you are doing, using body language and gestures, calculation visuals or diagrams and repeating or saying something in a unlike fashion using specific examples. It is of import to give learners time to procedure information and respond when you are asking them a question. Many teachers already use some of these techniques, merely deliberately focusing on them tin can event in a more than planned approach to language sensation.

Cess
Based on the learning objectives, information technology is important to plan cess opportunities to provide useful feedback on the learning process. Assessment outcomes need to be conspicuously linked to learning objectives and students need to understand the assessment criteria and what success in a particular task or consignment looks similar. Give students feedback on their language also as their understanding of a subject. This sends a bulletin to students about the value of linguistic communication as a tool to communicate their ideas and as well makes sure that language learning progresses.

Reflection
Reflection requires yous to critically analyse your teaching, with the aim of reaching a new perspective, modifying your attitude where necessary and trying new approaches. When you focus specifically on language as part of this analysis, you tin evaluate how well the support strategies you are using are working and what you might do differently to amend the language support you give to your students.

Collaboration
The English department can support learning in other subjects taught through English by becoming better informed almost the language demands students face in other lessons. Content teachers can assist past advising English language language teachers about the kinds of textile and topics they are covering. It is not the role of the English language language instructor to help students understand subject concepts from other disciplines. Yet, they can help fix students for these by developing useful language structures, vocabulary or strategies for reading academic texts for example.

Watch the video of ii teachers discussing how they support language through cross-curricular collaboration in their schools. Could you effort any of these approaches in your school?

Transcript

Checklist

If you are new to language awareness, it will assist to ask yourself the post-obit questions about your teaching practice.

How can I amend understand the language profile of my learners?
Teachers take a skillful understanding of learners' language experience in school. This is based on how the curriculum is organised and through which languages teaching and learning take place. However, information technology is of import to sympathise the linguistic background of your learners and their experience of language outside school. This will help you lot to offer individual teaching and make the most of your students' existing knowledge.

How am I going to include language back up in my lesson planning?
It is through linguistic communication that learners admission the content of the lesson and communicate their ideas. As a outcome, language is something that all teachers need to think about at the
lesson-planning and preparation stages. It is important to design a lesson that will achieve the content aims, and so to go back and review each stage of your lesson and the activities you lot take planned with a focus on language.

How will I scaffold language in my instruction?
Information technology is important to scaffold learning past providing guidance and support that challenges students based on their current power. This will aid learners to gain confidence and independence in using new noesis or skills and develop their understanding in stages.

How can I provide feedback on language every bit well as content?
It tin be hard to know when and how to correct your students' language. Information technology is important to strike a balance betwixt helpful feedback that allows students to better, and over-correction which can hinder the flow of a lesson and demotivate students.

How can I reflect on my teaching?
Teachers who continue to develop their teaching do learn from reflecting on their feel. Y'all are ever learning simply by doing your job. However, this is profoundly helped by reflection, which is a fundamental office of teacher development.

How can I learn from others?
Teachers who work together with colleagues in their department and other departments encourage a more integrated approach to supporting students.

Next steps

Now y'all accept begun to think nearly how you tin can support your learners with their language, hither are some activities to assistance you get started.

Context: How can I better understand the language profile of my learners?
Think almost whether yous notice a departure in the linguistic communication ability of your learners in their everyday conversation (BICS) and the academic work they produce in lessons (CALP). To better empathize individual students' language performance, find out the answers to the questions below.
• How many learners in your course are starting time-linguistic communication users of English language?
• How many learners in your class are not showtime-language users of English?
• When and where did these students begin to learn English? (For example, at habitation, at primary school, at secondary school.)
• Which other languages play a cardinal part in the lives of your learners?
• Which languages practice your learners use at dwelling house?
• Other than English language, which languages do your learners read and write in?

What kind of exposure do they take to broadcast and other media? Do they take access to books, magazines, television or online resource in English or other languages? One way to find out the answers to these questions is to inquire learners to fill out the questionnaire beneath. They can either practise this individually or in groups. The answers will provide a helpful starting point for a give-and-take with your learners about the languages they use.

Questionnaire

Planning: How can I build language support into my lesson planning?
Now you lot accept a good understanding of your learners' language profiles you tin can start to build language back up into your lesson planning. Tim Chadwick (2012) provides a set of questions to help you determine what the language demands of your lesson are and how you will support your learners with these demands. He breaks this down into three areas: content vocabulary, functional linguistic communication and language skills. Employ the handout below to plan an activity for your next lesson.

Handout ane

Education: How can I scaffold language in my teaching?
As well as the back up you lot have built in to your lesson plan, in that location are techniques that teachers systematically utilize to support language when they deliver their lessons. Listen to these teachers giving some practical examples of how they provide language support in their classes. Choose one new strategy to try out in your next lesson.

Watch the video of 2 teachers discussing how they use the strategies beneath to scaffold language in their lessons. Are there any new strategies that you can try in your adjacent lesson?
• Record language prompts on the whiteboard
• Encourage learners to underline key terms
• Apply images
• Provide writing frames
• Enable learners to write collaboratively
• Innovate learners to new language before setting a task
• Provide sentence stems and model language
• Activate prior knowledge of the subject
• Create a bank of useful expressions
• Repeat explanations and progressively increase the difficulty of explanations
• Provide feedback on language and content
• Highlight examples of adept language employ from students

Transcript

Reflection: How can I reverberate on my teaching?
Afterward you have delivered your lesson, reverberate on what happened, your thoughts and feelings and the reactions of your students. This will assistance you to consider what changes you lot might make to the linguistic communication support you provide for future learning. Y'all might find it helpful to ask yourself the post-obit questions.
• What were my goals for the lesson?
• How did I intend to reach those goals?
• What actually happened?
• How practise I feel about this?
• What could I do differently next fourth dimension?

Observation: What can I learn from others?
Observe a colleague who teaches a not-language bailiwick. Make a notation of three ways in which your colleague successfully supported learners in both their language and subject noesis and understanding. Choose one of these techniques to attempt out in your next lesson.

Desire to know more than?
Here is a printable list of interesting books, articles and websites on the topics that we have looked at.

Bones Interpersonal Advice Skills (BICS)
BICS refers to everyday communication or conversational fluency in a language. This blazon of communication is often associated with routine social interactions. In school settings this is sometimes referred to as 'playground' English. This term originates from the early work of Jim Cummins (1984) in bilingualism and special education. Not all informal language apply is BICS. For example, teachers often use every twenty-four hours mutual expressions to explain very complex concepts.

Bilingual learner
A student who uses their first language at home or in the customs and is learning through a second linguistic communication, for example English, at school.

Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP)
The level of language needed to understand academic situations with little context. In education this 'academic' English is ordinarily assorted with BICS or 'playground' English. This term originates from the early piece of work of Jim Cummins (1984) in bilingualism and special education.

Cognitive demand
The cognitive need of a task is how intellectually challenging the task is.

Common Underlying Proficiency
This refers to the interdependence of concepts, skills and linguistic cognition institute in a central processing system. Jim Cummins states that cognitive and literacy skills established in a first linguistic communication will transfer across languages.

First linguistic communication
The main language that the learner or teacher uses, from childhood and at dwelling house.

Scaffold learning
The teacher provides appropriate guidance and support to help learners gradually build on their electric current level of understanding and gain confidence and independence in using new knowledge or skills.

Zone of proximal development (ZPD)
The difference between what a learner tin can achieve when they receive support and what they tin achieve independently.