Opportunity to Learn: Integrating Academic Language

& Related Processes

Zenaida Aguirre-MuñozTexas Tech University/CRESST

Christy K. BoscardinUCLA/CRESST

CRESST ConferenceLos Angeles, CA

September 10, 2004

Overview

• Measurement of opportunity to learn sensitive to English learners’ needs

• Framework for defining academic language-ELA

• Building teacher capacity to provide ELs’ needed opportunities

Opportunity to Learn

The mere presence of a curriculum does not necessarily guarantee opportunity to learn.

Winfield, 1993

Previous OTL Dimensions

• Porter & CRESST studies

• Teacher knowledge

• Content coverage and related classroom processes

• Classroom resources

• Assessment practices

Previous Findings-Survey Method• Student level

• Gender

• Course grades

• English proficiency

• Teacher level

• Teacher Expertise

• Content Coverage

• Socio-economic Status

• Differential impact between ELs and nonELs

• Content coverage

• Gender

Current CRESST OTL Study

Research Questions:

• What are the OTL factors that contribute to increased EL achievement in ELA?

• What is the impact of academic language on EL Achievement?

• What is the reliability of the CRESST survey instrument designed to measure OTL?

Key Writing Assessment Characteristics

• Model for Standards-Based Instruction

• Literary Analysis

• Curriculum-Embedded Design

• Flexibility of Administration

• Open Scoring Criteria

• Direct Assessment of Standards

Assessment PromptIn a work of literature, a heroic character is often someone with

extraordinary courage or ability who performs noble deeds or makes sacrifices. However, an ordinary person who faces extraordinary challenges can also be a heroic character.

Select a heroic character from a literary work you have read in class this year. Using specific details from the text, explain why you think this character is heroic. Some of the things you can write about are the character’s:

• physical and personality traits

• impact on the story

• thoughts and motivations

• actions and relationships with other characters

Proficient Criteria

The response demonstrates solid reading comprehension skills and the ability to analyze a major literary element (characterization).

• Some of the important character features are described clearly (RC 2.0; WA 2.4)

• Some statements about the heroic qualities of a character are generally supported or explained through references to the text (RC 2.7; WC 1.1)

• Most ideas are logically organized (WA 2.2, 2.4;WS 1.0, 1.2, 1.6)

• Mechanical errors may be present but do not impede communication in most of the response. (WC 1.0)

Framework for Investigating EL-Sensitive OTL

Content knowledge Processes

CoverageAttitudes &

Beliefs

Domain-AL

Language Acquisition

Balance

Pedagogy

Breadth/Depth

Time/Quality

EL-Specific

Focus of CRESST OTL Instrument

• Integration of EL-specific opportunities

• Teacher expertise

• Content coverage-explicit instruction on academic language

• EL-directed instructional practice

• Assessment practice-feedback to students

Instrument Reliability

OTL Dimension αn

(items)

Teacher expertise .95 10

Content coverage .93 9

Direct instruction .89 7

EL-directed practice .93 6

Assessment .86 9

What is Academic Language?

Language used in the classroom for the purpose of acquiring knowledge

• Specific terminology

• Structure for communicating

Differs from oral language (spoken, informal discourse)

• Register (level of formality)

• Function (language to accomplish specific tasks)

Requires awareness of

• Expectations (e.g., analyze, compare, summarize, etc.)

• Author’s/Speaker’s purpose/point of view

Academic Language Definition Parameters

• Academic written discourse-response to literature

• Correspond to English (L2) language development stage

• Transparent to teachers and students

Functional Grammar-Halliday

• Provides a general framework for examining language

• Examines discourse patterns associated with the context and genre of writing

• Corpus-based research in EL writing development

Characteristics of Academic Written Discourse

• Expanded noun phrases

• Variety of processes (verbs)

• Variety of cohesion strategies-use of abstraction

• Impersonal Context

• Implicit point of view

Goals of the Institute

• Build teacher knowledge

• Patterns of academic written language

• Strategies for supporting English learner writing

• Provide teachers with tools for evaluating student writing:

• Word choice for specific purposes (expressing point of view)

• Expression and organization of ideas

The Revision ProcessFrom Graphic Organizer...

The Revision Process...to First Draft...

The Revision Process...to Final Draft

The Revision ProcessOriginal Draft

The Revision ProcessFinal Draft

Three Perspectives in Analyzing Written Language

• What’s going on

• word choice

• Text structure

• word choice

• expression of ideas (logical organization)

• Writer’s point of view

• word choice

• author’s intent

Participants(aka nouns/noun phrases)

• Referring to people, places, things or ideas, participants represent entities that interact with each other in what is ‘going-on’ in the text.

• Participants differ in function depending on the nature of events described by the language.

Expanding Noun Phrases

Noun

• The house

Adjective + Noun

• The old house

Adjective + Noun + Prepositional Phrase

• The old house on the corner

Adjective + Noun + Prepositional Phrase + Prepositional Phrase

• The old house on the corner with the rusty gate

Processes(aka verbs/verb phrases)

• Carry the information directly related to what is ‘going-on’ in the text, focusing on the representation of experience that the verb provides.

• A verb phrase, rather than a single verb, constitutes a process, which results in various types of processes associated with different kinds of participants.

Types of Processes

• Actions: doings and happenings

• Attributive: characteristics and qualities (states of being)

• Mental: thoughts and beliefs

• Attitudinal: feelings and opinions towards participants and events

• Saying: reporting and quoting

Mako went to kill the ghost of the lagoon.

Mako was brave.

Mako felt revengeful about the ghost of lagoon.

Mako loved his faithful companion.

Nadia’s father told everyone not to talk about her dead brother.

Text Structure:Clausal Units

Text must be divided into meaningful chunks of information.

Strategy:

Independent clause + all embedded information (subordinate/embedded clauses, prepositional phrases)

Theme/Rheme

• Theme refers to propositional content that functions as the “point of departure of the message” (Halliday,1994).

• Theme often comes in the subject position in a clause.

• Rheme refers to the rest of the clause other than theme, comes in the predicate position.

• Theme/rheme coincides with subject/predicate distinction, though this is not always the case.

Theme Analysis

At 2:00pm the sky turned dark and storm clouds gathered. When the storm finally arrived, he was in his room listening to music.

At 2:00pm the sky turned dark and storm clouds gathered. He was in his room listening to music when the storm finally arrived.

Strategies for Linking Themes and Rhemes: Building

Cohesion

• Transition words

• Noun Phrases

• Prepositional Phrases

We saw many vintage homes in the

neighborhood. The old house on the

corner with the rusty gate was

unoccupied.

Noun Phrases Creating Cohesion

Noun Phrases Creating Cohesion

Lolita, who hates cats, jumped in disgust

when the cat leaped into her lap. Her

sudden movement caused the bowl full of

cereal to tip over and drench her favorite

skirt.

Prepositional Phrase Creating Cohesion

In our family it was always important to

prepare special food for the holidays. On

Thanksgiving Day, we roast a turkey, bake

apple pie and enjoy our time together.

Teachers Learned...

• How to dissect linguistic features of text that reveal meaning

• How to guide students in gaining control of:

• Participant references

• Text structure

• Academic Tone

Academic Language

Impact on EL Achievement

Stay tuned…

www.cresst.org