Zacarian, D. (2013). Mastering academic language: A framework for supporting student achievement. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

This book provides a framework for understanding and thinking about academic language learning as a tool for supporting student achievement. Zacarian proposes that in order to close the achievement gap, there needs to be reframing of what that achievement gap means, in particular for students that are nonstandard speakers of school, or academic, language. She refers to this as the academic language gap.

In the Introduction, Zacarian provides an overview of the text, then in Chapter 1 she provides a call for reframing the achievement gap as the relationship between those students who carry academic language and those students who are learning academic language. This framing is used as the author presents her four-pronged framework in Chapter 2. This framework suggests that high-quality learning environments that support academic language learners engage students in sociocultural, developmental, academic, and cognitive learning processes. The author suggests that the interconnectedness of these four learning processes must be engaged particularly with culturally and linguistically diverse students.

Chapters 3 through 6 unpack each of the four learning processes and put the academic frame into practical terms. Chapter 3 hones in on the sociocultural aspects of academic language learning and emphasizes building relationships with students, creating context-rich learning environments, and engaging students in paired and small-group work. In Chapter 4 the focus is on school literacy as a learned behavior and as developmental. Literacy is deemed a developmental process, a cultural way of being, and functional. In Chapter 5, learning as an academic process emphasizes the use of language objectives, explicit vocabulary instruction, opportunities for challenging activities, and practice opportunities. Finally, in Chapter 6, learning as a cognitive process suggests that teachers need to teach thinking skills, engage in thought-provoking instructional conversations, and use visual organizers to support learning. Throughout these chapters, reflection questions are provided that help teachers connect to case studies or their own contexts.

In Chapter 7, the importance of engaging with families and developing collaborative partnerships is addressed. Using the four-pronged framework, Zacarian suggests that building relationships with families, connecting curriculum to support in- and out-of-school learning, understanding the academic language level of parents, and involving parents in curriculum and learning objectives are critical to academic achievement for academic language learners. The book closes by focusing on the use of data to drive decision making. An observational rubric is provided that guides teachers in using the four-pronged framework to support the learning of academic language learners and parent engagement. This tool could be useful to administrators and teachers looking to close the academic language gap.

This book is a welcome resource for K–12 teachers, administrators, preservice teachers, and teacher educators as the field focuses in on the academic language learning of culturally and linguistically diverse learners. By providing educators with a framework for understanding academic language learning as a sociocultural, developmental, academic, and cognitive process, the author provides both the theory and the tools for addressing the academic language gap. Given that the preparation of K–12 teachers in many states now involves, or is moving toward, the use of edTPA as a student teacher performance assessment that expects teacher candidates to be able to teach academic language across the content areas (including the English as a New Language content assessment), this text is a useful resource for gaining some theoretical clarity and practical application.

Dr. Felice Atesoglu Russell is an assistant professor of curriculum and instruction in the TESOL programs in the Bagwell College of Education at Kennesaw State University. A former middle school and high school teacher, her research and teaching focuses on supporting K–12 teachers in developing their capacity for culturally and linguistically responsive teaching for emerging bilingual students.