Academic Language:

Functions, Forms and Fluency

Dr. Ann C. Lippincott, UCSB

Dr. Laura Hill-Bonnet, UCSB
PACT Implementation Conference
October 23, 2009
 Guiding questions for the presentation

• What are we calling “Academic Language?”

• What are Functions, Forms and Fluency?

• How do we support teacher candidates’

instruction and analysis vis-à-vis Functions,
Forms and Fluency?
 Goals
• In this workshop teacher educators will be introduced to a
functional approach to academic language drawing from the
work of Dutro & Moran (2003).

• The presenters will share how they teach this approach to AL in

their methods courses, and how they support teacher
candidates’ ability to critically examine their own instruction for
academic functions, forms and fluency.

• Participants will have the opportunity to engage in analysis of a

pre-service teacher’s lesson plan for elements of AL.
 What are we calling
“Academic Language?”
 What AL is/is not….
• We would ask professionals and policy makers
“What do you mean by academic language?
• Typical response: “Well, you know…it’s the language
needed for math and social studies.”
• We argued that the language of math ≠ the language
of social studies.
• We also knew that how language is used in
expository texts ≠ how language is used in narrative
texts.
 Social Studies
• In social studies, long sentences with multiple embedded clauses are
common.

• Cause and effect statements are frequent.

– Because there will be more people in the world in the future, we
will need more land on which to build towns and cities.

• Various verb forms are used:

– “I found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble.”
Augustus is supposed to have spoken these words as he lay
dying. He was Rome’s first emperor, and started the first of its
great building programs. He claimed that he had had over 80
temples rebuilt.

• Frequent use of pronouns it and they as referents.

 Mathematics
• Comparatives:
– 6 is greater than 4
– Maria earns six times as much as Peter
– Lin is as old as Roberto

• Prepositions:
– (divided) into, divided by,
– 2 multiplied by 6 and X exceeds 2 by 7

• Passive voice:
– X is defined as a number greater than 7.

• Reversals: The number a is five less than b.

• Logical connectors: if…then

– If a is positive then -a is negative.
How do we frame AL in the
context of lesson planning?
 Lesson Design Frame
• We retooled our Lesson Design Frame to hold TCs
accountable for addressing academic language in
their practice.
– Identify academic language objectives
– Identify academic language functions within learning
objectives
• What are K12 students using language to express?
– Identify corresponding forms
• How are K12 students expressing language?
– Identify opportunities for students to express academic
language
• When, where and with whom they are using language?
What are Functions, Forms and
Fluency?
 Functions, Forms & Fluency
• Dutro, S. & Moran, C. (2003). Rethinking English
language instruction: An architectural approach. In
Garcia, G. (Ed.) English learners: Reaching the highest
level of English literacy, pp. 227-258. Newark, DE:
IRA.

• Introduces the notions of functions (tasks), forms

(tools) and fluency (derived from opportunities to
practice).
 Developing Academic Language:
Functions, Forms & Fluency

• Functions (Dutro & Moran, pp. 232-233)

– The tasks or purposes AND uses of language.

– We use language to accomplish something in formal or

informal settings, for social or academic purposes.

– Social purposes include: exchanging greetings, expressing

needs, making jokes, exchanging greetings, indicating
agreement or disagreement, participating in personal
conversations, etc.
 Academic Language Functions
Chamot and O’Malley (CALLA, 1994)

• Seek Information - use who, what, when, where, how

• Inform - recount information or retell
• Compare - explain graphic organizer showing contrast
• Order - describe timeline, continuum or cycle
• Classify - describe organizing principles
• Analyze - describe features or main idea
• Infer - generate hypotheses to suggest cause/outcomes
• Justify & Persuade - give evidence why “A” is important
• Solve Problems - describe problem-solving procedures
• Synthesize - summarize information cohesively
• Evaluate - identify criteria, explain priorities, etc.
 Identifying Language Functions
• Credential candidates need to identify the
essential academic language function
required of students in order for them to
adequately express their developing
understanding of the newly learned content.

• What might the academic language function

be of the sample lesson plan?
 Analyzing Claire’s Lesson
• To identify the AL functions look at….

• Learning objectives
– Academic Content
– Academic Language

• Assessment
 Forms
• Grammatical features and word usage.

• The tools necessary for discourse, for

reading and writing, for using complex
language and for engaging in cognitive
processes.

• Dutro & Moran suggest a framing of “brick”

and “mortar” for language forms.
 Brick and Mortar
Dutro & Moran, p. 239

• “Brick” words are the vocabulary specific to

the content and the concepts being taught.

• They include such words as: government,

democracy, mitosis, anaphase, metaphor,
theme. subjunctive, variable, algorithm, etc.
 Brick and Mortar
Dutro & Moran, p. 239

• “Mortar” words and phrases are the basic and

general utility vocabulary required for
constructing sentences. They are words that
determine relationships between and among
words. They are words that hold our language
together and are essential to comprehension.
(Dutro & Moran, p. 239)
 Mortar Words & Phrases
- Dutro & Moran, pages 239-240

• Connecting words: because, then, but, sometimes,

before, therefore, however and whereas
• Prepositions and prepositional phrases: on, in, under,
behind, next to, in front of, between, among and in the
background
• Basic regular and irregular verbs: leave, live, eat, use,
saw, and went
• Pronouns: she, he, his, their, it, each other, and
themselves
• Academic vocabulary: notice, think, analyze, plan,
compare, proof, and characteristics
 Function: compare & contrast
Form: brick words

Marine mammals Ocean fish

Born alive Excellent Born from eggs

Swimmers
Lungs Vertebrates Gills
Warm Live in Cold blooded
blooded groups Do not produce milk
Produce milk
 Function: compare & contrast
• Sentence Frame:

• ________ have __________, whereas________ have

_____________.

• Marine mammals have lungs, whereas ocean fish

have gills.

• Providing the mortar words will enable students to

use language to compare and contrast.
 Identifying Forms
• Credential candidates need to identify and explicitly
teach the linguistic forms required of the academic
language function so that students can adequately
express their developing understanding of the
content being learned.

• Find evidence of this in Claire’s lesson plan.

 Fluency
(Dutro & Moran, p. 242)

• The facility with which a speaker, reader and

writer uses language.

• Developed through focused and deliberate

engagement with a range of uses of language
(both oral and written), and many opportunities
to practice the newly learned forms in different
contexts.
 Identifying opportunities for
developing Fluency

• Find evidence in Claire’s lesson plan of

opportunities for her students to develop
Fluency in English (written and/or oral).
 How do we support teacher candidates’
analysis of their instruction for Functions,
Forms and Fluency?
 Analysis of Claire’s lesson
• Peer Analysis
– Draft

• F-F-F Analysis (see handout)

– Self Analysis

• TEP instructor feedback

– As per the lesson design frame
 Why does Academic Language matter?

• Even a fluent speaker of English will not be proficient

in every possible context (e.g. consider subjects that
you might know little about, or perhaps a particular
form of writing…dissertation, academic journal
article, etc.).
• Academic tasks influence academic language
discourse styles (registers).
• It is not simply a matter of getting the basic
“grammar” correct, but of knowing the most
appropriate language to use in the given context and
of the appropriate ways to “get things done.”