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Abstract: Drawing on theoretical perspectives and analytical tools that view writing as meaning-making, we examined student writing associated with an instructional intervention designed to expand the kinds of texts that second-language learners of English were asked to engage with, and produce, in social studies classrooms in a U.S. middle school. Exploring the writing of 40 students on one essay assignment, we documented what students could do with their developing linguistic resources to respond to a prompt that presented unanticipated challenges. Our findings illuminate the dialogic and multimodal process of meaning-making in school-aged second-language writers’ essays. We discuss implications of a meaning-based approach for expanding the textual repertoire of second-language writers in school settings, and for understanding how students navigate the associated challenges. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This article explores challenges and opportunities for language minority students and their monolingual English-speaking classmates during oral presentations in mainstream 7th grade social studies classrooms. The classrooms were designed to provide access to rigorous content and opportunities to develop English for use in academic settings. Student groups simultaneously used presentational language and managed interpersonal interaction with several distinct audiences, manifested through participant structures that required them to sustain extended discourse and respond to interjections from the teacher. Delivering presentations as a group provided students with supports and additional challenges. Viewing oral presentations as speech events provides a productive lens for (a) highlighting academic language challenges that go beyond vocabulary and grammar, (b) recognizing the opportunities for language development inherent in those challenges, and (c) envisioning supports to assist with the challenges without eliminating the opportunities. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this article, I describe mainstream middle school classrooms designed to re-think the conditions under which language minority students who have lived in the United States for a number of years can develop English language skills while also gaining access to a rigorous curriculum. I describe a variety of transactions that students used to engage in group social studies tasks, and I show how students used language differently for discussing ideas within their groups and for preparing to present these ideas to their teacher and classmates. I argue that in order to document the wide range of language demands and language learning opportunities inherent in doing academic work, as well as to understand what students from language minority backgrounds are able to do to meet these demands, the notion of “academic English” must be expanded beyond the “academic” vs. “conversational” language distinction. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]