Understanding Academic Language And Its Connection To School Success Summary

Critique of “Understanding Academic Language and its Connection to School Success”
The article ‘Understanding Academic Language and its Connection to School Success’ written by Friedberg, Mitchell & Brooke (2016) seeks to inform its readers of the reasons why academic language is critical for reading comprehension and overall academic success. The writers’ intent was to educate policymakers and educators on the importance of academic language and how to implement it at different levels in order for students across the board to benefit. This is highlighted in the use of the expository mode to communicate the information. This paper’s intent is to analyze the purpose, discourse, techniques, organizational structure and overall appeal of the article.
Friedberg, et al (2016) went on to place references at the end of the piece. Additionally, the author’s denotative vocabulary relating to academic language as well as structural devices such as definitions and comparison to reach educators and policymakers makes the piece technical. This type of writing was chosen in order to be objective and to provide authentic information to intrigue educators and policymakers in implementing academic language in schools.
The authors made use of headers and paragraphing to arrange the information logically from generalization to details in order to ensure the information was coherent to the audience. This is evident on page one where the writers made use of the heading “What is Academic Language” and continued to use this organizational technique throughout the piece. Furthermore, the use of the formal language register allowed the writers to address the targeted audience of educators and policymakers in