Development of Academic Language Among Vulnerable Children

Scientific literature highlights the importance of children’s proficiency in academic language, i.e., the language used at school, necessary for learning and educational success. However, children from low Socioeconomic Status (SES) are found to be the least exposed to academic texts and discourses outside the school setting and, therefore, have fewer chances to develop such skills. Hence, this paper aims to provide evidence of Dialogic Literary Gatherings' promotion of children’s academic language skills by analyzing a classroom from a school located in a marginalized neighborhood in Spain, where 90% of students are of immigrant origin. The methodology of this study is based on the communicative methodology, which is the pioneer in current scientific priorities: co-creation and social impact. Two DLG sessions were observed in which 11-13-year-old students read and debated Homer’s The Iliad. Researchers found the emergence of six elements that the scientific literature categorizes as academic language and literacy skills: Nominalization, Connectives, Morphologically Derived Words, Referential Links, Construction of Judgement and Value, and Arguments. Indeed, 58 of the 167 student interactions contained a judgment, value, or argument.

Contrary to some reproductionist ideas that have had great popularity in the Sociology of Education, DLGs have offered in this context children from low SES and minority backgrounds the possibility to access high-quality books and engage in high-quality interactions in which judgments, arguments, critical reflections, or values prevail. They have been given access to books they could not approach before, as classic books are linked to particular social barriers (such as cultural elitism) fostered by many authors like Bourdieu. Further research should determine whether the development of these skills during the DLG is transferred to other school subjects. However, these findings show that the analyzed children have developed some academic language skills that the scientific literature defined as essential for school success.