Ruslana, an educational consultant, is visiting Mari’s class of students learning English, here at the boarding school. The two of them are collaborating to develop the student’s academic writing skills, based on Systemic Functional Linguistics. As Ruslana says, sometimes simply teaching alongside a teacher colleague is the best way to demonstrate a method, an activity. So here we go.

She tells them they are going to work on writing a rebuttal using concessive and contrastive connectives. Wow! Pretty sure Ruslana will have to break that down, I’m not sure what those words mean in this context, and I’m sure the students aren’t sure either.

Ruslana and Mari have decided to use a local example in class today. The town where the school is located just started a large project to rethink its public transportation. The students contribute what they know about the project, providing a context, setting the stage to share opinions, to put those opinions into arguments, to use the language they are learning as non-native speakers.

“So what is a concession?” Ruslana’s going to help them with strategies for writing a rebuttal. Conceding something before presenting an alternative. She opens the classroom door to the hall and says “While I agree that …” and then she closes the door and says, “I also find that …”  She does it again, using other words: while, though, although, despite …. “While I agree…” (she opens the door), “I don’t agree about this …” (she shuts the door). “Do you get what I mean? We’re looking at the language and grammar of making an argument.”

The students practice with sentences on the screen. (1) Opening the door, (2) shutting the door, and now Ruslana has added, (3) elaborating.

(1) While I agree that electric vehicles don’t need much maintenance, (2) electric cars are expensive to buy. (3) Even with discounts, many people can’t afford them.

Pretty slick. The students have practiced together, they have the visual of the opening and the shutting of the door, the example sentences are up there on the screen, and now they practice with each other using a different topic, school uniforms. They’ve been led to practice the language of rebuttal, the language of debate. I know from our conversation yesterday that Ruslana refers to this in terms of genre. The students are learning the genre of academic rebuttal. 

“Let’s practice some more but starting with the word ‘although,’” says Ruslana. She tells them that she is non-native speaker of English, too, like them. “You don’t have to totally get it today, it takes time. It took me a long time. We’re getting some practice.”

And the students practice. Although I agree that …. , I still believe that …. , because …

“Want a challenge? Let’s use ‘despite.’” 

I’m impressed with the level the students are working at this morning. They are taking these small chunks of language, these formulas, and demonstrating that they understand the logic that connects ideas. Concessive and contrasting connectives. Now I can say I understand that phrase, after the practice with while, although, despite. From the student examples I can tell there is some comprehension as well, but it’s shaky. 

So Ruslana asks the students who speak the same native language to translate it and confer with each other. A pesar de … malgré … and an answer in Chinese that I cannot follow. A couple faces light up, this was definitely the time to check in with native language knowledge. Another step toward understanding. Ruslana reflects out loud: “You know what, I think that writing these sentences would be really good to do. I’ll come back tomorrow, if you let me.” 

She’s been smiling the whole lesson, now that smile gets even brighter. A couple of the students laugh. 

Ruslana accomplished several goals. The students understand the genre of rebuttal better than they did before. Mari and I understand Ruslana’s approach better. And Ruslana herself basked for a while, this morning, in demonstrating teaching that is meaningful to her, teaching she has trained on and written about, teaching that has a solid effect on the gradual acquisition of academic English. 

For more ideas, see Ruslana’s blog at https://reclaimingthelanguage.blog/