THE DEVELOPMENT OF ACADEMIC COMPETENCE IN ADOLESCENT ENGLISH LEARNERS

Organizer: Aída Walqui
WestEd
awalqui@WestEd.org

Tuesday, March 25, 2003, 8:15-11:15 AM invitied colloquium
Room: Commonwealth South

Colloquium Summary: This colloquium addresses the complex task of developing deep and generative academic and linguistic competence with second language learners in secondary schools. The contributions explore ongoing work that unpacks the conditions under which such development can take place. The papers range from theoretical developments to applied work, including a report from an accomplished teacher.

Scaffolding academic language across the curriculum
Pauline Gibbons (University of Technology (Sydney), Pauline.Gibbons@uts.edu.au)
Drawing on social theories of language and learning, this paper uses the metaphor of ‘scaffolding’ to illustrate how educators can support the development of curriculum-related registers by ESL students. It illustrates the significance of both macro (‘planned in’) and micro (‘contingent’) scaffolding.

Developing academic (multi) literacies in multilingual urban schools
Margaret Early (University of British Columbia, margaret.early@ubc.ca)
This presentation reports on ongoing projects in multilingual urban schools that imaginatively promote ways to increase traditional literacy attainment, and critically extend current conceptions of academic literacy to the multiliteracies that are increasingly relevant to the students' lives and the 'new times'.

Linguistics in the ELL classroom
Anthony J. DeFazio (International High School at LaGuardia Community College)
Video clips and examples of student work will be used to highlight students' work in a heterogeneous class in linguistics for ninth and tenth grade English language learners. The clips demonstrate how students develop academic discourse through interaction, native language use, and various teaching strategies.

Logical links: Improving writing through developing metacognitive awareness of connectives
Helen Nicholls (New Zealand Ministry of Education & Auckland College of Education, hknich@ihug.co.nz)
This study reports on a successful programme for improving understanding and production of academic text for a low achieving secondary English class of minority (Pacific Island) students. Students learned how connectives signal rhetorical development, and applied this knowledge to the production of argument texts, using cognitive and metacognitive strategies.

Creating communities of social scientists with second language learners
Aída Walqui (WestEd, awalqui@wested.org)
Based on research conducted in American secondary schools from a sociocultural perspective, this paper discusses the types of scaffolding that accomplished teachers use to help students appropriate academic discourse. Selections of video cases will anchor the presentation.

Discussant: Leo van Lier (Monterey Institute of International Studies, lvanlier@miis.edu)