Language in academic settings, also referred to academic language, has gained attention
in the field of second language learning owing to new understandings of the complexities
of language inherent in learning academic content, and new efforts to assess
English learners' language proficiency in the context of school learning. The concept
of academic language as distinct from social language has been in the academic literature
since the mid-1950s, and surfaced as a major construct in the field of bilingual
education in the 1980s. Many readers will be familiar with the ideas of BICS and
CALP, first introduced by Jim Cummins in the 1980s. This book presents a critique of
academic language as a separable construct from social language, and introduces current
research efforts to understand how English learners interact, interpret, and show
understanding of language in academic contexts in ways that re-think and go beyond
the distinction between social and academic language.
The book is organized into three main sections, each with a range of chapters that consider how academic language plays
into how children and youth learn academic content as emergent bilingual students in school settings. A Foreward and
Afterward offer commentary on the book and its contents. The intended audience for this book is graduate students, teacher
educators, and researchers interested in issues of language and content learning for English learners, the new mainstream of
schools across the nation. There is something for a wide range of readers and students of second language acquisition in
this volume.