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Handout
Academic vs. Non Academic: What's the Difference?
(Mrs. Marlyn C. Saludes)

The majority of your research will require academic and scholarly articles. Many students
struggle with trying to determine what an academic source, or article, is.
Academic articles are written by professionals in a given field. They are edited by the authors'
peers and often take years to publish. Their language is formal and will contain words and terms
typical to the field. The authors name will be present, as will their credentials. There will be a list
of references that indicate where the author obtained the information s/he is using in the article.
Academic articles can be found in periodicals similar to the Journal of Psychology, Childhood
Education or The American Journal of Public Health.
Academic text or language is typically used for textbooks, tests, in classrooms and any
other discipline related to academic. It is very different from the structure of vocabulary and
structure from everyday conversations through social interactions.
• Academic language is:

– Language used in academic settings and for academic purposes to help students acquire
and use knowledge (Anstrom, et al., 2010)

– Words and syntactic structures that students are likely to encounter in textbooks and
tests, but not in everyday, spoken English (Strategic Education Research Partnership,
2010)

– “The language used in the learning of academic subject matter in a formal schooling
context; aspects of language strongly associated with literacy and academic
achievement, including specific academic terms or technical language and speech
registers related to each field of study.” (TESOL, 2003)

• Academic language is:

– The language of academic disciplines, of texts and literature, and of extended, reasoned
discourse

– Language that students must comprehend to access the concepts associated with a
particular discipline (e.g., mathematics, science, social science) and use to demonstrate
their understanding of those concepts (Anstrom, et al., 2010)

• Academic language:

– Cannot be defined dichotomously (i.e., a student has mastered it or has not) but exists
on a continuum, with informal, casual conversation at one extreme and the formal,
technical presentation of ideas at the other extreme

Casual, informal

…and the lions they, um, live in the deserts of Africa and have to walk long ways to find food. There’s
not much water either. They’re hot a lot.
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Formal

Lions, also known as “kings of the jungle” inhabit the large, arid, deserts of Africa. Due to the sweltering
temperatures and minimal water supply they often have to traverse long distances to find prey to hunt
and water to drink.

Academic language

– Features vary as a function of the discipline (e.g., social science vs. mathematics), topic,
and mode of communication (e.g., written vs. oral)
– Common features include:
• Conciseness
• High density of information-bearing words
• Complex grammatical and syntactic structures
-(Snow, 2010)

Checkpoint:

Turn to a colleague and, in your own words, define academic language. What critical components are
part of this complex construct? Are there any components that you forgot to mention that your colleague
included in their definition?

Continuation : Essential Elements In Writing Academic Paper

Academic language requires knowledge of:

1. Observance of Paragraphing to single out one idea


Pre-writing strategies, such as the PLEASE paragraph writing strategy introduced by Harris and
Graham (2005) that includes the following steps:
P (1) Pick a topic,
L (2) List your ideas about the topic,
E (3) Evaluate your list,
A (4) Activate the paragraph with a topic sentence,
S (5) Supply supporting sentences, and
E (6) End with a concluding sentence.
2. Use of Synonyms to avoid repeating words
3. Use of Transitional Words to connect ideas
4. Lexical (meaning vocabulary) Features

– Forms and meanings of words that are used across academic disciplines

• describe, explain, analyze

– How academic words are formed with prefixes, roots, and suffixes

• investigate, hypothesize

– Parts of speech of academic words


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– Grammatical constraints governing academic words

Although the terms academic language and academic vocabulary are often used interchangeably,
academic vocabulary may best be conceptualized as one component of academic language. More
specifically, academic vocabulary can be defined as the words students need to be able to understand in
order to access the concepts associated with a specific discipline and be able to use these words to
demonstrate their understanding of the concepts. Academic vocabulary is frequently conceptualized as
being composed of three tiers (or types) of words:

Tier 1: High frequency, non-academic words that are used across a variety of contexts (e.g., flower,
sleep)

Tier 2: Non-specialized academic words that are used across content areas (e.g., illustrate, however,
assert)

Tier 3: Specialized, or technical content-area words that are used in specific academic disciplines (e.g.,
fulcrum, organism, rectangle)

Although a critical component of academic language, we need to remember that academic vocabulary,
while necessary, is insufficient for building strong academic language – more skills are needed, as is
evidenced by the multiple components of academic language (e.g., knowledge of phonological features,
lexical features, etc.)

In addition to being conceptualized as being composed of different types of words, academic


language can also be seen as being composed of different types of language. In particular, academic
language includes the language of instruction, the language of text, and includes the use of multi-syllabic
words with affixes and Greek and Latin roots.

The language of instruction consists of the words used to teach and learn the lesson content. This
language might include the use of strategies such as predict and infer or cause and effect strategies for
reading comprehension, or specific.

The language of the text consists of words that are related to the content area, theme, unit, or
selection being read. If the theme or unit is focused on animal habitats, for example, the language of the
text might include words like: habitat, camouflage, prey, carnivore, herbivore, and omnivore.

Academic language also relies heavily on the use of multi-syllabic words with prefixes, suffixes,
and Greek and Latin roots, such as informational, hopelessness, and psychology. Knowledge of word
families – including understanding the meaning of words, their grammatical forms, and how each form of
the word is created is also useful in helping build students’ academic language.

Different Types Of Language:

– Language of Instruction

• Words to teach and learn the lesson content (strategies, pre-writing, context
clues)

– Language of Text

• Words related to the content-area, theme, unit, or selection (habitats,


camouflage, prey)
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– Multi-syllabic words with prefixes, suffixes, and Greek and Latin roots

• Examples: informational, hopelessness, psychology

• Word families: rely, reliance, reliable

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