Academic Language

Academic Language and College: Research Addressing The Problem

Several different methods have been used for counteracting the negative effects of academic language at the college level. One set of methods has been to develop curricula that take the difficulties of academic language into account and provide strategies for overcoming them. According to Reilly (1988), one such approach has been content-based ESL instruction. This is a method that integrates English-as-a-second-language instruction with subject-matter instruction.

The content-based ESL technique not only focuses on learning a second language, but also on using that language as a medium to learn any other academic subject. Reilly (1988) states that this method has been found to be very

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hese linguistic palimpsests were said to blur the boundaries and give the students a peculiar, hybrid discourse. Based on findings, Courage (1990) offered several strategies that could be used to overcome this blurring effect and assist nontraditional students in general and language minority students in particular to obtain more from basic writing courses. Related to research efforts to more comprehensively understand the effects of academic language as specifically applied to college settings has been theory building. These theories, of course, differ--- not only depending upon which language components the researchers emphasize (e.g., grammar versus syntax versus vocabulary, etc.), but also upon the field of discipline of the researcher (e.g., psychology, education, sociology). An example of one such model is the sociological perspective of academic language offered by Heather (1993) who developed a model of the social effects of academic language specifically upon the student who moves from work back to the university. Heather choose this type of student in order to show that academic language can exert negative effects that go beyond ESL students to merely nontraditional students. With respect to the developed model,
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1998
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)

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