Schools Matter: Academic language: Acquired or learned?

Schools Matter: Academic language: Acquired or learned?

Academic language: Acquired or learned?

by skrashen

This is my comment on an ed week blog. Mary Ann Zehr reports on a paper by Robert Liquanti with suggestions for ELL assessment. Mr. Liquanti's paper, I argue, makes perfect sense if we assume that we LEARN academic language consciously. I suggest that most of academic language is ACQUIRED. I wonder if the testing community is even aware of this possibility.

Re: Robert Linquanti, WestEd, Strengthening Assessment

Posted on: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/learning-the-language/2011/05/a_vision_for_ell_inclusion_in.html?r=1478136007#comments

Short URL: http://bit.ly/kt3gQX

Liquanti assumes that academic language can be "defined, taught and measured explicitly" (p. 16). If we accept this assumption, it makes sense to describe the trajectory of skills to be mastered ("mapping out key academic competencies," p. 23) and confirm that students are learning them using formative tests. But this assumption is not supported by research or observation. The arguments and counterevidence have been in the professional literature for decades: The system is very complex: Linguists are still struggling to describe "academic