| This study examined recontextualized language of fluent English and Spanish bilingual students in academic discourse situations. Oral and written recontextualized language communicates information to others with little reliance on the immediate physically present situation. The speaker or writer uses linguistic cues such as organization and cohesion and a particular lexicon to make the message clear, explicit, and concise. Student use of recontextualized language on three language tasks and during three classroom discourse events identified as having the potential to elicit such language was examined.;Classroom language results showed that students' language skills were neither accessed nor extended in the classroom. Finding 5 identified oral vocabulary/definition lessons, oral presentations of written text activities, and solitary writing tasks as events with the potential, to elicit student recontextualized language. Finding 6 indicated that, despite their potential, the three discourse events did not elicit student recontextualized language. Both achievement groups relied on contextualized language to communicate in the classroom and were evaluated by the teacher as appropriate.;The results of this study are significant because they indicate the need to recognize the skills and knowledge about language and literacy that ethnolinguistically distinct students bring into and develop in the classroom. In addition, they signal the need for explicit identification of language skills that must be imparted in the classroom. Because of the increasing population and continued disproportionate dropout rate of Mexican American and other language minority students we can ill-afford to continue to focus on perceived deficits rather than on student strengths. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.).;On the language tasks, students produced recontextualized language in response to tasks that explicitly required information communicated to distant audiences. First, with less explicit language requirements, students relied on contextualized language strategies. Second, students produced more language on oral tasks than on written ones. Third, students used qualitatively similar language patterns on tasks across languages (English/Spanish). Fourth, students were adequate communicators when language form was not considered. Few achievement group differences emerged across tasks designed to elicit recontextualized language. The higher achieving group produced slightly more recontextualized language on English tasks, and the lower achieving group did so on Spanish language tasks. |
