Academic Language Development: 3 Ways to Help Students Master Content

Academic language is the language competence needed by all students to master curriculum content. It is the type of abstract and cognitively demanding language students must learn to understand new concepts as well as the complex information presented in the content areas. It includes the ability to recognize, internalize, and apply the unique ways language is used. Therefore, teachers must examine the word-level, sentence-level, and text-level features with their students.