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Strategies to Develop Academic English Competencies

Strategies to Develop Academic English Competencies. Eileen Cotter Montgomery College/Rockville Spring 2005. Comfort Level in Academic English.

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Strategies to Develop Academic English Competencies

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  1. Strategies to Develop Academic English Competencies Eileen Cotter Montgomery College/Rockville Spring 2005

  2. Comfort Level in Academic English • “Karla Acosta came to the District from El Salvador when she was 13 and entering seventh grade. When she enrolled at Trinity College more than five years later, she said, her English still caused some problems with writing papers. Now a senior, she said she finally feels comfortable writing in English.” (9 years of academic language instruction) • The Washington Post, February 18, 2003, p. A4

  3. Strategies • Dictation • Elaboration • Vocabulary Development • Academic English Freebies

  4. Dictation • Highlight word endings • Ear learners don’t hear them • Verb tenses become confused • Root words are used and grammar is lost

  5. Elaboration • Complexity of thought is shown in complexity of language. • Writing grade level • Subordination

  6. Conversational vs Academic • Sentences joined by Coordinating Conjunctions (aka, FANBOYS), are equal in importance. • Typical of oral language • Sentences joined with subordination show a more complex, more subtle relationship. • Typical of academic language

  7. Have students read text and decide which clause is the more important one. “During the negotiations, the terms of the peace treaty were changed.” “The club was ordered to disband when the newsletter became public.” Subordination as a Tool

  8. When writing, have the students decide which clause is more important and how the two clauses are related. More and more ethical issues will be raised. Development in reproductive technology will continue. NOTE: students can have different opinions; it’s the thinking that’s important! Critical Thinking

  9. Thinking Within a Context • In a paragraph, the topic is the most important item in the paragraph. • Present students with sentences that should be joined. Discuss which sentence is the most important – in light of the paragraph’s topic.

  10. Vocabulary • Students need specificity and range • Research on L2 writing • Word lists - AWL

  11. Research • Eli Hinkel • L2 vocabulary – vague, nonspecific • Montgomery College • MC’s US high school L2 grads with 2 to 10 years of US schooling were significantly lower in all word lists than Developmental students and lower than international students in the AWL.

  12. Vocabulary Word Lists • 2,000 word level: vocabulary of simplified reading books • 3,000 word level: basis for beginning to read unsimplified tests • 5,000 word level: wide vocabulary, can begin to develop skill of figuring out words from context • University word level: specialized vocabulary of university texts • 10,000 word level: large, wide vocabulary

  13. Academic Literacy Freebies • Give students language to start working • Sentence Starters • Sentence Patterns • Guided Writing

  14. Sentence Starters • Have students locate academic sentence starters in their readings. • Teach academic phrases that begin different types of paragraphs. In this article, the author… Numerous scientists have studied the … According to… It has been said that…

  15. Give students some famous quotes or have them choose sentences from their readings. Help students to write new sentences on a new topic – using the same pattern. This is a great group activity. It works for sentence patterns and vocabulary development! Sentence Patterns

  16. MODEL: “Mollie, the foolish, pretty white mare who drew Mr. Jones’s trap, came mincing daintily in, chewing at a lump of sugar.” George Orwell, Animal Farm Student Imitation: “The garbage disposal, a noisy, chewing metal mouth that ate the meal’s leftovers, began gurgling suddenly then, spitting up a half-eaten carrot.” From – Sentence Composting by Killgallon An Example

  17. Guided Writing • Give students a complete paragraph. • Change one aspect of the text so that a grammar change would be necessary throughout the paragraph. • E.g., The original paragraph is in present time. Change the time to the past. • Have students rewrite the entire paragraph. They will need to locate possible changes and make the changes. • From: 26 Steps

  18. THE END

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