The Language of Ideas and the Language of Display: Reconceptualizing “Academic Language” in Linguistically Diverse Classrooms

Introducing a distinction between language of ideas and language of display as a means of reconceptualizing what counts as “academic” language, I examine one brief stretch of talk by a small group of linguistically diverse 7th grade students in a U.S. mainstream social studies classroom designed to maximize academic and language development opportunities for English learners. I argue that focusing on how students use language to engage in academic tasks makes it possible to consider (a) the accomplishments related to academic tasks that students, both individually and in concert with others, use language to make, (b) the wide range of linguistic resources that students bring to bear on an academic task, including language that may be initially regarded as “conversational” or “informal,” and (c) students’ awareness and strategic use of different registers for different purposes and audiences.