Students learning the English language don't have to struggle through school if educators learn to teach "academic language," two experts told teachers Thursday.
"What these students really need for school is the the academic language to succeed," said Yvonne Freeman, a professor of bilingual education at the University of Texas at Brownsville.
"The students need to read and understand it and to write it," she said of academic language.
Freeman and her husband, David, also a University of Texas at Brownsville professor, told a group of an estimated 100 area educators that academic language consists of the general words used across all content areas from math and science to language arts and social studies.
Examples of "academic language," they said, were words such as "analysis," "cause," "where" and "discover."
They are words that are frequently used in all subject areas. Once a student learns the meaning of the word as it relates to the content area, the easier it will be for them to grasp the English language, Mrs. Freeman said.