Have you ever thought about all the words you recognize while reading or listening but never use when speaking or writing? Utilizing academic language while speaking might land you a job interview or impress your friends at a social gathering, but for English learners it can be the key to unlock academic opportunities that can lead them to future success. Feeling confident with the necessary vocabulary in a lesson will also lower their affective filter and increase participation.

Natalia Heckman, former English and ESOL Teacher, ESL/Bilingual Program Specialist, and current Education Consultant with Seidlitz Education, joined us on Highest Aspirations recently. She shared some great strategies teachers can use to help students transform passive vocabulary into active language that they can use in a variety of contexts. Here are three tips from the interview that you can use right away when scaffolding academic language:

Build time in lesson plans for conversation and practicing academic vocabulary.

We can all relate to how overwhelming and exhausting it can be to listen to uninterrupted speech during a class or a presentation. But this is a particular concern for multilingual learners who are trying to understand unfamiliar academic language.  One of the most important things educators can do is to plan breaks by providing opportunities to practice the language they are hearing. The only way to do this consistently is by intentionally planning times for students to speak with one another. 

“The only way to learn a language is through communication. And that communication will not happen without a culture of respect and collaboration in the classroom. So when we invest time into teaching kids how to work in pairs, work in groups, how to praise one another, how to take turns…we're actually investing time into the right thing.”

Offer repeated exposure to academic language to move it to their active vocabulary.

“Just hearing the word once does not transfer it from our passive receptive lexicon to the place where we can use it comfortably. So…it's really very helpful for me to have a framework for multiple forms of exposure.”

Mastering academic language involves repeated exposure and opportunities to play with new terms and phrases. Some strategies Natalia recommends include:

• Sketch or draw the word
• Match the word to synonyms or antonyms
• Play games like charades with the word

“For my students to truly internalize that language, they need to hear it more than once. And it will only happen if I set the standard and provide the structure for those conversations that will happen in my classroom.”