The importance of language in school and society
“At knowledge institutions in modern societies, language is an inseparable part of learning. Schools are institutions for building certain types of knowledge, and acquiring this knowledge also involves becoming competent in the language and discourse of schooling. As school content becomes increasingly complex and abstract, novice learners need to continue to expand their vocabulary, their mastery of complex syntax, their knowledge of various discourse structures, and their skills in conveying their perspectives and understanding the perspectives of others. Indeed, successful participation in school and academic learning requires not only expanding knowledge, but also learning the language to communicate ideas in a precise, concise, logically organized, and reflective manner. Beyond school, being proficient in these ways of using language is important for navigating society as an informed citizen. New information (health, civic or political news) is disseminated publicly via oral or written texts that typically use academic language. Inspired by the advances of recent research that sheds light on the role of language in education, we edited this volume to present a coherent set of empirical approaches that examine language through two lenses: that of learning language and that of learning through language.” (Grøver, Uccelli, Rowe & Lieven, 2019)
L4L theory of language learning
Languages are always learned in specific socio-cultural contexts. Learners do not just learn “language,” they learn particular ways of using language in particular contexts. This is the case for multilingual and monolingual learners.
Our L4L theory of language learning “integrates insights from ethnographic research on language and literacy (Heath, 1983; Levine, et al., 1996; Ochs, 1988), pragmatic development studies (Blum-Kulka, 2008; Ninio & Snow, 1996) and functional linguistics research (Berman & Ravid, 2009; Schleppegrell, 2004) to conceptualize language learning as inseparable from context…
Three key developmental implications emerge from these combined insights.
• First, language development continues throughout adolescence and, under normal circumstances, language learning continues for as long as learners expand the language-mediated social contexts that they navigate.
• Second, being a skilled language user in one social context does not guarantee linguistic dexterity in a different social context. Whereas speakers are enculturated at home into the language of face-to-face interaction, which typically prepares them well for colloquial conversations in their respective communities, many adolescents have encountered limited opportunities to learn school-relevant language practices and, consequently, academic language poses higher challenges for them (Cazden, 2002; Cummins, 2000; Heath, 2012).
• Third, language is a powerful socializer: by learning language, children also learn how to interact with others, how to comprehend, and how to learn in ways that are culturally shaped (Heath, 1983; Ochs, 1988).” (Uccelli, 2019; Uccelli, Phillips Galloway & Qin, 2020))
Extended talk supports the language of school literacy & learning
“In a socio-cultural pragmatics-based framework, language and literacy proficiencies are conceptualized as the result, to a large extent, of an individual’s history of participation in specific contexts and socio-cultural discourses” (Uccelli, 2019)