Understanding ESL Students' Language Development
Social vs Academic Proficiency for English Language Learners
Aug 29, 2009
Linguists say it takes anywhere from five to seven years to become truly proficient in a second language. That is because proficiency means going beyond social language structures, which tend to be readily acquired, and gaining academic language skills which are more challenging on many levels.
Social Language Learning
Social language is the everyday language used in conversing with friends, family, teachers, co-workers and others in the community. Social language has complex structures of its own, but tends to be relatively easily acquired, especially in an immersion setting, because the second language learner is constantly interacting with other speakers.
Social language is heard through many sources: peer-to-peer conversations, group conversations, daily interactions with people who serve in a variety of social, community, commercial, and entertainment venues, and even via media such as TV, radio, film, and the Internet. In most cases, the second language learner has an immediate opportunity to respond to communication received and to try out new language constructs. In some situations, immediate feedback and/or informal modeling help the language learner correct mistakes in vocabulary, sentence structure, syntax, and even the nuances of subtle or cultural meanings.
Academic Language Characteristics
Academic language is different from social language both in its vocabulary and its structure. The vocabulary of academic language is devised from the concepts and constructs of a wide variety of educational disciplines, such as literacy, mathematics, the sciences, history, geography, music and so on. But academic language proficiency goes beyond vocabulary acquisition and encompasses language forms, concepts, meanings, processes and applications, some of which are similar across a variety of disciplines and some of which are unique to certain disciplines.
For example, the language of history might include words such as Civil War, immigration, or voting rights. It can also include conceptual phrases such as, “through their eyes,” “turning points,” “cause and effect,” or “change and continuity.” And students will also need to know what it means to research, find primary sources, interpret, infer, and analyze.
Academic language includes not only the words that describe content and concepts but the vocabulary needed to negotiate processes involved in learning and the assessment of learning. For example, the language of test taking might include words such as “trace” (meaning to list in sequence or outline), “evaluate,” “formulate,” and “support” (meaning to provide evidence, to prove one’s point).
Social vs Academic Language Examples
A student of English as a second language might be quite conversant, when speaking of baseball or his or her favorite singer or musical group. That individual will have achieved a level of social fluency, especially in regard to those specific topics. But if that individual were asked to interpret a piece of sheet music, learn to play an instrument, or write a review of a concert, he or she would need to have acquired a level of academic language proficiency above and beyond social language.
Likewise, to talk about the Red Sox or the Cubs with friends, or to discuss the success or failure of a favorite ballplayer requires only a certain level of social language proficiency. But to appreciate players’ and teams’ stats, to coach a team, or to analyze and report on the playoffs for the World Series elevates the discourse into the realm of academic language.
ESL teachers will benefit from becoming aware that there is a difference between social and academic language. While students may sound fluent socially, it takes much longer and more guidance is needed to become proficient in the academic vernacular of a new language. And of course, the acquisition of academic language is made more complex by the fact that students are acquiring a new knowledge base at the same time they are acquiring new language. But without this added level of proficiency, English as a second language students will find it much more difficult to be successful in their educational pursuits and ultimately in life.
Sources:
Freeman, David & Freeman, Yvonne. English Language Learners: The Essential Guide. New York: Scholastic, 2007.
Drucker, Mary J. “What Reading Teachers Should Know About ESL Learners;” The Reading Teacher. September, 2003, vol. 7, p. 22.
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