This document provides examples of activities to build students' academic English skills, including writing, reading, speaking, and vocabulary. For writing, it suggests explicitly teaching the writing process, focusing on content by having students add details, and reconstructing texts to work on cohesion. For reading, it recommends extensive reading, engaging students through real-world connections, and explicitly teaching reading strategies. For speaking, it discusses raising awareness of academic spoken English. And for vocabulary, it offers ideas like teaching the four parts of a word chart and having students create four-square entries to learn and remember new words.

1. Building Academic Language in the ESL Classroom 1
ARKTESOL 2010 - Springdale
The International Center for English Elisabeth Chan
Arkansas State University echan@astate.edu
Building Academic Writing
Activity #1: Explicitly Teach And Practice the Writing Process
Activity Alternatives
1. Brainstorm Give students a topic to write about.
Have students free write for 5 minutes
on a blank piece of paper.
Give students a choice of a couple
of topics. Alter the time for free
writing depending on level.
Give students a topic to write about.
Put students into groups of 4.
Have the students take turns sharing one
idea about the topic, keeping record.
See above.
Alter the size of the group or use
pairs. Assign group jobs ex: leader,
recorder, time keeper, encourager
2. Organize Using the brainstorm, have students
circle their 3 best ideas.
Have students write these ideas (and
any accompanying details) into an
outline.
Depending on the scope of the
writing, you may have students
choose 1 or 2 ideas to develop.
A graphic organizer can be used
rather than an outline.
Using the group brainstorm, have
students discuss what the 3 best ideas
were. Have the students write these
ideas into an outline.
See above.
Use the board to share with the
class.
3. Rough Draft Using the outline, have students write a
paragraph together in groups.
Have students each take a copy of
the outline and write individual
paragraphs.
4. Peer Review Have groups exchange paragraphs.
Give students a list of questions or
points for them to check for. Have
students discuss the points and also give
positive comments.
Have individuals trade their
paragraphs and then follow a list of
questions or points for them to
check. Remind them to also make
positive comments.
5. Final Draft Have groups discuss what suggestions
were given and how they can make the
paragraph better.
Have individuals use the
suggestions given and write a final
paragraph.
Activity #2: Focus On Content
Original description The movie was good. The man met a woman. They fell in love.
Have students add
descriptions using
adjectives & adverbs
The romantic movie was very good. The handsome man met a beautiful
woman. They fell in love quickly.
Have students use
WH questions to
expand their writing
WHO – Who was the man? Who was the woman?
WHAT – What did they do?
WHY – Why was the movie very good?
WHERE – Where did they meet?
WHEN – When did they fall in love?
HOW – How did they meet? How did they fall in love?

2. Building Academic Language in the ESL Classroom 2
ARKTESOL 2010 - Springdale
The International Center for English Elisabeth Chan
Arkansas State University echan@astate.edu
Activity #3: Reconstructing (or Deconstructing) Academic Texts to work on Cohesion
Example 1: Focus on Cohesive Paragraph Structure: Using Reference Words
*As an alternative, have students write the paragraphs for step 2 with no reference words and
trade with other students, so that the partner can replace subjects with reference words.
Step 1: Identification
Have students locate the subject of each sentence within a paragraph.
Next, have them search for reference words, such as “this, these, those, hers, etc.”
Finally, have students determine what these words refer back to.
Step 2: Scaffolded Production
Give students a paragraph without references.
Next, have students find sentences with subjects that are the same.
Finally, have students replace subjects with appropriate reference words.
Step 3: Production
Have students complete a writing assignment, in which they use reference words
throughout their paragraph. Students can present their new paragraphs to each other or in
front of the class.
** You can use a similar activity for conjunctions and nominalizations at the paragraph level.
Example 2: Sentence Transformation:
1. Give students two sentences that are joined as a compound sentence.
2. Have students explain what makes it compound.
3. Ask students to write two separate sentences, one for each idea from the compound sentence.
4. You can repeat the example backwards, starting with two simple sentences and having
students make it compound.
** You can also use a similar activity for clauses and signal words at sentence levels.
Building Academic Reading
Activity #1: Extensive reading
1. Give students a choice in reading material. Have a wide variety available.
2. Have students work with texts that are one level below their actual reading level.
Graded readers work well for this: Pearson/Longman Penguin readers, Oxford readers etc.
3. Read as much as possible and do it silently and quickly, rarely using a dictionary.
4. Reading is its own reward, so there are no follow up questions.
5. As a teacher, be a role model for reading and read with the students.
http://www.jalt-publications.org/tlt/files/97/may/extensive.html
Activity #2: Engagement & motivation
(Guthrie and Davis, 2003) Engagement Model of Instruction
1. Knowledge Goals – rather than test scores, have students read with the goal of understanding
and communicating information that matters to them; find students’ interests and allow for some
freedom of choice; alternative with a set topic: use a great deal of enthusiasm and describe why
it’s interesting to you, followed by connecting it to their lives to make it relevant

3. Building Academic Language in the ESL Classroom 3
ARKTESOL 2010 - Springdale
The International Center for English Elisabeth Chan
Arkansas State University echan@astate.edu
2. Real World – connect reading to the real world; example: conduct surveys, read local news,
books, or search the Internet, assign projects that require action outside the classroom (presenting
to other classes, analyzing an aspect of their school, self-reflections, etc.)
3. Many Interesting Texts – increase access to books or other reading materials that students
want to read about; alternative with a set topic: gather magazine or newspaper articles that
revolve around topics in your textbook that you have to cover
4. Support Student Choice – give students at least some freedom to choose what they read;
support it with time to read in class, like sustained silent reading (SSR); give students 10-15
minutes of class each day to read a book they have chosen
5. Direct Strategy Instruction – model, scaffold, guide practice with feedback, and use
independent reading (See Activity #3 below)
6. Collaboration Support – use pairs and group work to help students feel more comfortable
asking questions and comment on their readings
Activity #3: Explicitly teach reading skills
Teach students reading skills through explicit explanation, followed by modeling.
Read a page of text together, and as the teacher, stop at each point in a checklist of steps.
Explain to students why you’re looking at that point first, why you’re stopping there, what
you’re thinking about/asking yourself when you look at each point.
Example:
 Look at titles and headings; what do you think the main idea is?
 Look at pictures and graphs; what information can you learn from these?
 Think about the topic / personalize the topic; what do you already know about the topic?
 Look at bold / italicized words; what important key words are there? What do they mean?
 Skim the reading, paying attention to topic sentences; what are the main ideas?
 Guess vocabulary words from context; can I use prefixes/suffixes to help?
 Use graphic organizers to take notes on the reading; map the main ideas and details
 Follow-up; Write three questions about the reading or summarize the reading or
paraphrase important parts of the reading
After finishing the reading together, have students complete a short worksheet about different
reading skills they have learned. Worksheet Example:
What are some strategies for reading?
Before you read
Example student answer: look at titles
As you read
Example student answer: use graphic organizers
Understanding word strategies
Example student answer: guess words using context
Using context
And so on…
Using prefixes, roots, suffixes
Using glossaries and dictionaries

4. Building Academic Language in the ESL Classroom 4
ARKTESOL 2010 - Springdale
The International Center for English Elisabeth Chan
Arkansas State University echan@astate.edu
Building Academic Spoken English
Raise Students’ Awareness
Activity #1. Using Discussion Group Questions, example: In your native language, how would
you ask your sister/brother for a favor? Your parents? Your boss? Your professor? Discuss any
differences or similarities.
Activity #2. Listening to speeches and/or lectures and analyzing the language used; many great
websites for this: http://www.americanrhetoric.com; http://ocw.mit.edu
Activity #3. Analyze research or work on activities that exercise students’ use of the structures
found to be more prevalent.
 Swales (2005) analysis of academic English
ACADEMIC WRITTEN LANGUAGE
○ Long declarative sentences
○ 20% passive verbs
○ Technical vocabulary with Greek & Latin origins
ACADEMIC SPOKEN LANGUAGE
○ Most of the same features as conversational language, except for technical
vocabulary!
Building Academic Vocabulary
Activity #1
Teach students the four parts of the chart. Provide students with the word and your definition;
you can have it already on the paper or do a dictation exercise with it. Students then work alone
or together to come up with their own definition of the word. Then encourage them as they draw
a simple picture that reminds them of the word.
Word Teacher’s definition In student’s own words Picture / Clue
investigate To explore or look
into something to
learn more about it
To study something to
find what we want to
know
connection A link or bond
between two people or
events
And so on…

5. Building Academic Language in the ESL Classroom 5
ARKTESOL 2010 - Springdale
The International Center for English Elisabeth Chan
Arkansas State University echan@astate.edu
Activity #2
Students create a four-square entry into a notebook or on notecards. Use vocabulary words they
have been using in class, so it is context-embedded. Have students use dictionaries and come up
with a definition in their own words. Similar to the first activity, have students then use a symbol,
drawing, or some other visual clue that reminds them of the word. In the last square, have
students use a word or short phrase that reminds them of the vocabulary word.
Example:
WORD
naïve
SYMBOL/DRAWING
DEFINITION
Innocent or doesn’t have much knowledge
about social skills
WORD OR PHRASE THAT REMINDS
YOU OF THE MEANING
my sister
Activity #3: Increasing Academic Vocabulary by Using a Corpus
The following page is an example of how to use The Corpus of Contemporary American English
as a resource in finding collocations for new vocabulary, along with example sentences.
Registration is free and the site has many other flexible search features, for example, allowing
you to search what kinds of verbs come after a word, and so on.
Please see the file entitled “AmericanCorpus.pdf”!