by Sarah Ottow, Founder of Confianza and Author of “The Language Lens for Content Classrooms Guidebook”

A lot of my time as a coach supporting schools is spent observing teachers and providing targeted feedback to help boost language development for their language learners—both multilingual learners and ALL learners (Academic Language Learners).  I also train and coach school leaders to more effectively evaluate teachers.  In both cases, educators often wonder why their students’ oral language isn't where they want it to be when they are using the infamous strategy of turn and talk.

We all know that student talk versus teacher talk is an important starting place for allowing students to practice language more.  Reflecting on how many minutes per class students get to use language meaningfully is also a touchstone for how student-centered our instruction is in general (think less of the traditional 'transmission-based' method of teaching and more cooperative and constructivist).  When we simply keep track how much time we allow students to actually produce language (output) versus how much time we instruct them directly (input), we often realize that we are talking more than our students!  The question I often ask educators in this situation is, How can we expect our students to accelerate their language when they don't really get to use it?  And furthermore, How can we expect our students to use language if we don't provide appropriate supports to do so?

One common way to get students to talk more is to use 'turn and talk'.  I see a lot of teachers instructing their students to 'turn and talk' about this and about that.  And in many many cases, students turn to each other not quite knowing what to do.  They might utter some phrases or words, perhaps some short sentences.  One student might dominate the interaction.  Or both might be completely silent or one may wonder aloud, "What do we talk about?"  The intention here is a positive one--getting students to talk more--Hooray!  However, the impact doesn't quite hit the mark.  We need to go beyond turn and talk to model, support and expect deeper conversations using extended discourse across all content areas.  We need to structure oral language interactions more explicitly for authentic, language-rich instruction.  How do we do that?

What I tell teachers and leaders is to please consider what your expectations are and then to plan supports carefully for students to reach those goals. Language objectives can really help us focus here.  If our expectations are that we want students to explain the difference between mitosis and meiosis, do they know how to compare and contrast?  Do teachers know what’s required to engage in the language function of compare/contrast? (Learn more about language objectives and functions here.) If we want students to discuss the causes of the civil war, do they know how to synthesize and refer to evidence in doing so?  And backing way up, if we expect students to look eye-to-eye and engage in active listening, do they know how to do that?  There is so much involved in interactive discussions, and like any classroom procedure, this needs to be modeled and practiced.  And reflected upon.  And practiced again.  And again.

Academic conversations can create the conditions and to provide the tools for students to go beyond turn and talk into deeper discourse.  Academic conversations, when implemented thoughtfully, teaches students the language of specific functions of academic language across the content areas.  If students are taught how to explain, infer, summarize, paraphrase, inquire, the list goes on...then they are much more likely to do so successfully, using the language (and content) we want them to use.  In schools where the common, systemic expectation is structured yet authentic conversations, I see high levels of student engagement, rich oral language production, and more efficacious teachers (and leaders!)  Here is a strategy we created at Confianza, called Paraphrasing Partners, to deepen learning and academic discourse. We use it in our professional learning and promote it in the classroom too! Start by modeling this partner activity using the language function of paraphrase. Then add other more advanced language functions like agree/disagree, challenge others’ ideas, evaluate, synthesize, support ideas with evidence, etc.

When I was teaching K-12 students, I found paraphrasing to be invaluable to be sure students not only understood instructions but, of course, key content as well! Now, in my work supporting the professional development of educators, I model “Paraphrasing Partners” in workshops and coaching to stress how important it is for ALL learners to “chunk and chew” any information. Recent student feedback on this activity has included, “I like this activity because I can correct my errors with my classmates.” and “I was nervous and excited at the same time.” We, as teachers/facilitators, need to check for understanding throughout instruction so using this kind of student discourse check allows us a break, putting the oneness on students. After all, shouldn’t they be doing the bulk of the work anyways?!

Be cognizant, however, that many nuanced non-verbal cues of academic conversations that we may expect can differ for many of our learners from various cultural backgrounds. For example, in some Asian cultures, making eye contact could be considered disrespectful as the cultural norm is to cast eyes downward as a sign of respect. Plus, from collectivist cultures, putting oneself in the spotlight is not the norm and may be uncomfortable. We don’t want to misconstrue students’ other non-verbal communication signs nor discount them. So one piece of advice is to make our expectations clear while honoring our bicultural, multicultural students’ ways of communication. Plus focus around language functions to keep the focus clear.

Watch Confianza Founder & Director Sarah Ottow share strategies to boost student participation during online learning below.

To Further Your Learning

• From Achieve the Core Limiting "Teacher Talk," Increasing Student Work!

• From Vanderbilt University Opportunities to Respond Tip Sheet

• From Cult of Pedagogy The Fisheye Syndrome: Is Every Student Really Participating?

• From American TESOL Institute An Introduction to Understanding & Communicating Across Cultures

• From Confianza Language and Culture: They Go Hand in Hand

• From ASCD How to Start Academic Conversations (this one suggests hand signals!)