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Figurative Expression
Figurative expressions are often employed to describe abstract concepts. Figurative language includes metaphors, analogies, idioms, and other terms that use concrete and common ideas to describe abstract concepts and relationships. While they are commonly found in works of literature, they are very prevalent (more than we think) in articles, letters, speeches, lectures, and conversations. Some texts are saturated with figurative terms.
It is important for us to keep an ear open for figurative terms that are used in our classes. A few terms that have emerged in my classroom observations include: boils down to, sidestep the issue, read between the lines, on the right track, outweigh, the gory details, that answer doesn't hold water, a thin argument, dissemination of knowledge, read into, set the stage, zoom in and zoom out, a keen insight, crux of the matter, see eye to eye, on the same page, point of view, on the right track, and dissect the article. When we look, we see that figurative terms are much more common than we think, and many students, especially English learners, get tripped up by these expressions to the point where they do not grasp the messages.
Explicit for “Distant Audiences”
Explicit means that the speaker/writer does extra things to explain and clarify concepts for listeners and readers who are not familiar with the topic. These listeners and readers are, in a sense, a “distant audience.” Academic language helps the audience (listeners/readers) understand a message even when they cannot interact with the speaker/writer. Most written texts, for example, are written by authors many miles and years apart from their readers. The authors write the books for a variety of distant audiences with wide ranges of backgrounds and knowledges. They need to be explicit, explaining as they go, to help as many readers as possible understand as clearly as possible. In other words, they cannot assume large amounts of shared background knowledge. Students need to learn to speak and write using explicit language. When we ourselves have a clearer idea of what we mean by explicit and the specifics of what we want from students, we can better train them. Much of this we already do, as in the following example from a fourth grade class.
Lilia: He wanted to fight for freedom.
Teacher: Who?
Lilia: That guy on the horse in the book I read.
Teacher: I haven't read the book. Can you explain?
Detachment
The speaker/writer of academic messages is often detached from the message; that is, the person does not use many feelings, opinions, or personal stories. Instead, reasons and evidence are emphasized. The message needs to hold up its own weight and not be overly connected to the person communicating.
Supporting Information
Academic talking and writing require an acceptable amount and quality of evidence, examples, and/or data to back up one's positions and opinions. Acceptable amount and quality, of course, are subjective terms that will vary across experts and teachers of a discipline. Therefore, we need to understand the types of supporting information that are valued by experts in each content area. We need to discuss with students not only the need for supporting evidence, but also what makes some information more supportive than others. We must model and apprentice students to always have the “How can I best support my claims?” mentality as they talk and write.
Conveying Nuances of Meaning with Modals
Starting with basic verbs, an academic speaker or writer then modifies that verb or attaches other auxiliary or modal verbs to change the meaning. Modal verbs, for example, combine with “regular” verbs to convey nuances in meaning (e.g., The people could look for shelter elsewhere.) Without the modal could, the sentence meaning would change. Other modals include would, can, will, shall, might, may, must, should, and ought to. Speakers and writers use these to convey nuances in meaning such as intent, obligation, ability, probability, permission, possibility, and conditionality. English learners, especially, often “have trouble sorting out the subtle shades of meaning conveyed by modal verbs and may deliver a stronger or weaker message than intended” (Coelho, 2004, p. 78).
Softening the Message with Qualifiers (Hedges)
Qualifiers help an author show an awareness of one's own limited knowledge and views about a topic, exceptions to one's claims, and other perspectives, perceptions, ideas, and opinions about the topic. These devices are generally used to lessen the force or universality of a claim (Gee, 1996). (For example, I just used the word generally.) Hedges include expressions such as most, perhaps, usually, seldom, often, likely, mostly, presumably, relatively, theoretically, suggest that, tend to, imply that, some, few, somewhat, and seems to. These terms soften a message to avoid the use of all-or-nothing statements that might have or imply expressions such as all, never, is, is not, means, etc. Hedges also help to show a person's humility with respect to the topic.
Other hedges are found more often in spoken utterances: just, mainly, fairly, sort of, pretty, I mean, maybe, kind of, well, around, more or less, see it as, believe that, and consider it to be. For example, one student in history wrote, “Well, we thought she was, like, a symbol of faith. She seemed very religious and maybe that's why they killed her.” Even the infamous word like is used as a qualifier in this excerpt from a seventh grader.
(Condensed from Building Academic Language: Essential Practices for Content Classrooms)
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