Academic Language in Diverse Classrooms: Definitions and Contexts

“This book provides a promising vision on how to teach academic language to diverse learners including English Language Learners (ELLs). The authors present a comprehensive framework that combines learning content and language in ways that engage students to learn key ideas and concepts, link concrete knowledge and abstract knowledge, and promote critical thinking. The specific steps on how to create differentiate language objectives for ELLs at different levels of English language proficiency is particularly helpful. I highly recommend this book for general education and English as-a-second language teachers who work as a team to provide effective instruction for diverse learners.” – Maria del Rosario (Charo) Basterra, Deputy Director “Academic Language weaves content and language teaching as a focus for designing viable units of learning throughout the school year. By providing students with linguistic tools to understand and use academic content, it enhances their opportunities to meet the rigor of the Common Core State Standards and the Next Generation Science Standards. The authors offer explicit examples of how to build students’ language development using a framework with clear learning targets that lead to effective teaching practices.” – Janeen A. Kelly, Director of Department of ELL/WL “This detailed and richly exampled book provides a comprehensive framework for both pre-service and practicing teachers to dig deeply into the nature and development of the language skills necessary for academic success. It emphasizes the need to move beyond a narrow conception of academic language as vocabulary words to an exploration of the nature of instructional and assessment practices that develop language and thinking at the conceptual and discourse levels. The classroom-based examples from across the curriculum, including the arts and physical education, illuminate the nature of the language demands unique to and common across each discipline. I highly recommend this book as a vital tool to guide curriculum planning and renewal at every level.” – Nancy Commins, Clinical Professor “This book brings language learning in the classroom alive! While there is plenty of theory and research to ground the practices the authors describe, this is not a dry book about language learning. Against a backdrop of new standards, the authors skillfully take the reader through detailed vignettes of classroom practice that support students’ development of academic language, while at the same time discussing why the practice is effective. For those who are interested in learning more about academic language and how to help students develop it, this book is a must read.” – Margaret Heritage, Assistant Director for Professional Development

Margo Gottlieb, Ph.D., is Co-founder and Lead Developer for WIDA at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research, University of Wisconsin- Madison, having also served as Director, Assessment and Evaluation, for the Illinois Resource Center. She has contributed to the crafting of language proficiency/ development standards for American Samoa, Guam, TESOL, and WIDA and has designed assessments, curricular frameworks, and instructional assessment systems for language learners. Her professional experiences span from being an inner city language teacher to working with thousands of educators across states, school districts, publishing companies, governments, universities, and educational organizations.

Highlights of Margo’s career include being a Fulbright Senior Specialist in Chile and being appointed to the U.S. Department of Education’s Inaugural National Technical Advisory Council. In 2016 Margo was honored by TESOL International Association’s 50@50 “as an individual who has made a significant contribution to the TESOL profession within the past 50 years.” She has had opportunities to travel extensively and has presented in American Samoa, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Denmark, Finland, Guam, Italy, Jakarta, Mexico, Panama, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom as well as close to home across the United States.

Margo’s publications include over 70 articles, technical reports, monographs, chapters, and encyclopedia entries. Additionally she has authored, co-authored, and co-edited 11 books this past decade: Assessing English Language Learners: Bridges to Educational Equity (2nd Ed., 2016), Academic Language in Diverse Classrooms: Definitions and Contexts (with G. Ernst-Slavit, 2014), a foundational book for the series Promoting Content and Language Learning (a compendium of three mathematics and three English language arts volumes co-edited with G. Ernst-Slavit, 2014, 2013), Common Language Assessment for English Learners (2012), Paper to Practice: Using the TESOL’s English Language Proficiency Standards in PreK-12 Classrooms (with A. Katz & G. Ernst-Slavit, 2009); and Assessment and Accountability in Language Education Programs: A Guide for Administrators and Teachers (with D. Nguyen, 2007).

Gisela Ernst-Slavit, PhD, is a Professor in the College of Education at Washington State University Vancouver. She investigates language teacher education in culturally and linguistically diverse settings using ethnographic and sociolinguistic perspectives. In addition to other publications, she is co-author of Access to Academics: Planning Instruction for K-12 Classrooms with ELLs (Pearson, 2010), From Paper to Practice: Using the TESOL’s English Language Proficiency Standards in PreK-12 Classrooms (TESOL, 2009), and TESOL PreK-12 English Language Proficiency Standards (TESOL, 2006). Dr. Ernst-Slavit, a native from Peru, has given numerous presentations in the United States and Canada as well as in Japan, Pakistan, Peru, Spain, Thailand, and The Netherlands.