Academic language across subjects – components ( (vocabulary and Grammatical Structures)

1. Suresh Babu G
Academic language across Subjects
Suresh Babu G
Assistant Professor

2. Suresh Babu G
https://www.colorincolorado.org/si
tes/default/files/Academic-
Language-PPT.pdf

3. Suresh Babu G

4. Suresh Babu G
Components of Academic language
Across Subjects
The three main components of academic
language are vocabulary, grammatical
structures, and functions. ...
For most students, academic language cannot
be learned through exposure within a classroom
setting, but must be explicitly taught, practiced,
and applied to a variety of content areas,
repeatedly throughout the year.

5. Suresh Babu G
Vocabulary
• A vocabulary, also known as a
word stock or word-stock, is a
set of familiar words within a
person's language.
• A vocabulary, usually developed
with age, serves as a useful and
fundamental tool for
communication and acquiring
knowledge.
• When the learners learn the
word they know both the
meaning of the word and how to
use the words.

6. Suresh Babu G
Tier I
Tier I words are the words we use everyday in our speech.
These words are typically learned through conversation.
These are common words that rarely require direct
instruction.
Example Come, see, happy, table
Tier II
Tier II words are-frequency words that occurs across
contexts. These words are used by mature language users
and are more common in writing than in everyday speech.
Tier II words are important for students to know to
enhance comprehension of a selected text. Tier II words
the best words for targeted explicit vocabulary instruction.
Example endure, arrange, compare, contrast
Tier III
Tier III words are low-frequency words and are limited to a
specific domain. They often pertain to specific content area .
These words are best learned within the context of the lesson
or subject matter.
Example atom, molecule, metamorphic, sedimentary

7. Suresh Babu G

8. Suresh Babu G

9. Suresh Babu G

10. Suresh Babu G

11. Suresh Babu G
Effective Strategies to expand
students Productive Vocabulary
 Selecting the words – here teacher informed the
learners that they need to learn 6 vocabulary words out
of 11-12 words.
 Recording the words and monitoring the recording – The
students have written the words on one-side colour
cards.
 Learning the words – learning the word coloured
 Shared with words
 Assessing and monitoring learning
 Recycling the vocabulary - write
short story or report

12. Suresh Babu G
Strategies for teaching
vocabulary across the curriculum
• Alphaboxes – It is strategy that uses the 26
letters of the alphabet to record important
concept about a specific topic or theme.
• Word Questioning
• Linear arrays – Focusing on word relationships
is one of the most frequently cited successful
instructional strategies for teaching vocabulary.
• Polar opposites – A companion strategy to linear
arrays is polar opposites.

13. Suresh Babu G
• Story impressions – Clue words and phrases to
story.
• Words sorts for narrative text – Teacher creates
a collection of important words and phrases from
a story on index card.
• Words sorts for expository text
• Anticipation Guide

14. Suresh Babu G
Grammar
• In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural
rules governing the composition of clauses,
phrases and words in a natural language. The
term refers also to the study of such rules and
this field includes phonology, morphology and
syntax, often complemented by phonetics,
semantics and pragmatics.
At the sound level, phonology refers to the rules of the sound system and the
rules of sound combination. At the word level, morphology refers to the
structure and construction of words. ... Syntax refers to the rules of word order
and word combinations in order to form phrases and sentences.

15. Suresh Babu G
Grammar
• The grammar of a language refers to the way
words are put together to make meaningful
sentences.
• Traditional grammar has some useful terms that
you need to be able to use when you are
discussing your writing and referring to sources
that describe writing.
• Using grammar terms to describe writing
problems

16. Suresh Babu G
Grammatical components
Parts of speech
Prepositions
Sentence agreement
Verb tenses
 Modals

17. Suresh Babu G
The rules - Grammar
• Rule 1: You must write in sentences.
• Rule 2: Subjects and verbs in sentences must
agree with each other.
• Rule 3: You must use appropriate punctuation.
• Rule 4: You must use the right vocabulary.
• Rule 5: You must use the apostrophe correctly
and with care.

18. Suresh Babu G

19. Suresh Babu G
Grammatical structure
• Grammatical structure is commonly assumed to
exist in speakers' minds.
• Grammatical structure is also directly involved in
social interaction in language use, and language
use is central to accounting for language
acquisition, language variation and language
change.
• Grammatical structure deals with the thing
people say, but it means more than the mere
recording of examples of usage.

20. Suresh Babu G
Elements of Grammar Structure
• Form and Meaning. – any structure, or pattern,
and is often call a unit, is assumed to consist of
form and meaning.
• Elements of form used in grammatical
structures. – word order, inflection (bound
morphemes), correlation of forms, function
words, intonation, stress, and pauses.
• Word order as a grammatical signal.

21. Suresh Babu G

22. Suresh Babu G