Following on from Greg Archer’s Setting the academic wheels in motion blog, he discusses how teaching styles can be adapted to take other subjects into account with the aim of developing the academic skills of the learner.
Unlike the vast majority of adult learners – who are usually taking language classes with no other study demands to contend with – teenagers are never going to be focused solely on your lessons. Their brains are being pulled in a number of directions. They are worn out from bruising encounters throughout the day in three or more content subjects which, quite frankly, they can often see as more important subjects to focus on than English. It makes absolute sense, then, to adapt your teaching to acknowledge this.
Mix and Match
If you have some knowledge of what goes on in the subjects your learners are studying, it is always useful to compare and contrast this with your own teaching and tailor your advice accordingly. Here’s a quick example.
An Economics student is likely to be familiar with writing about graphs and tables. But, while this subject requires the student to evaluate what they are looking at (and to try and interpret the information presented), when they plop themselves onto a chair in your classroom, they often have issues with correctly presenting an IELTS Writing Task 1. In comparison to Economics, this task requires them to simply summarise the main points in an entirely objective fashion and avoid speculation entirely. I have lost count of the number of times this has happened in my class.
Rather than trotting out the old favourite, “in a Task 1 essay, you should try to avoid making conclusions about what you think the graphs tells us…blah…blah”, I find it so much more effective to say, “look at what you’ve written here – are you summarising or evaluating?”.
You could also show them examples of evaluative alongside reporting language, such as:
a) The number of unemployed university graduates rose to 48% in September, which suggests that they spent time enjoying their summer break before registering as unemployed.
b) The number of unemployed university graduates rose to 48% in September, which was the highest point during the 10-year period.
Get them to identify which words or phrases are being used to express which function.
Being more aware of what goes on elsewhere in their studious young lives also allows you to reinforce their awareness of academic command words such as ‘summarise’, ‘evaluate’, ‘explain’, ‘describe’ and so on. Talent very deliberately places such words in its ‘Academic Strategy’ boxes, and gives you the opportunity to show your learners that you understand what they are doing, study-wise, outside of your classroom. Teenagers really respond to that.
Talent Student’s Book Level 1, p65
Cause and Effect
The importance of cause-and-effect in academic life cannot be stressed enough. It is a vital cog in the wheel of study, and its presence spans the full range of subjects that your learners are taking. The young Economics student mentioned above will be acutely aware that understanding the concept of cause-and-effect – often hypothetical – underpins much of what they deal with and evaluate in that subject. Sitting next to her in your English class is her best friend, who is of an even more scientific persuasion and particularly enjoys designing and carrying out experiments in Biology class. She also knows that there is not a lot to do or say without understanding the notion of ‘this happens so that happens’, or ‘that happens because this happens’.
But they aren’t necessarily able to make the connection between what cause-and-effect is, and the language used to express it. What a wonderful opportunity you have as their language teacher to show and explain this to them, perhaps through hypothetical structures (“If this happened, that would be the result”), or developing their awareness of how to express these ideas lexically.
In Talent Level 2, cause-and-effect is set out like this:
Talent Student’s Book Level 2 p60
As with any course book, what is on the page should not be taught in isolation – strategy boxes like this, and the exercises that follow them, should serve as springboards for further teaching. How many other language courses can you think of that talk about cause-and-effect? Plenty, I’m sure. Talent is a three-level Upper Secondary course which combines academic and life skills with thought-provoking topics and the latest in language research – allowing students to “grow their own way”.
To read more on this topic, check out Greg’s blog Setting the academic wheels in motion.