Language Demand Analyser

What This Skill Does

Identifies the language demands of a classroom task across four dimensions — vocabulary (Tier 1/2/3), grammar (sentence complexity, tense, voice, modality), discourse (text structure, cohesion, paragraph organisation), and genre (purpose, audience, register) — and recommends specific scaffolds for each dimension. The analysis makes visible the language that is ASSUMED by the task but rarely explicitly taught, revealing the hidden linguistic barriers that prevent EAL students from demonstrating their subject knowledge. AI is specifically valuable here because most teachers are experts in their subject content but not in the language features their tasks demand — they know what a good science conclusion looks like but may not be able to articulate the specific grammatical structures, discourse patterns, and vocabulary tiers it requires.

Evidence Foundation

Cummins (1981, 2000) distinguished between Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS) — the conversational fluency that EAL students typically develop within 1–2 years — and Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) — the academic language required for curriculum learning, which takes 5–7 years to develop. This distinction is critical because students who appear fluent in conversation may still lack the academic language needed to access curriculum tasks. Gibbons (2002, 2015) operationalised this distinction into classroom practice, showing that language demands must be identified and scaffolded explicitly — "immersion" alone is insufficient for academic language development. Schleppegrell (2004) demonstrated that school language is not simply "harder" than everyday language — it is structurally different, using nominalisation, passive voice, complex noun phrases, and abstract vocabulary in ways that everyday conversation does not. Zwiers (2014) provided a practical framework for identifying and teaching academic language across disciplines, emphasising that language demands vary by subject. Bailey & Heritage (2008) showed that language demands are present in all tasks, not just literacy tasks — a mathematics problem has language demands (reading the problem, understanding mathematical vocabulary, explaining reasoning) that are invisible to teachers but present barriers for EAL students.

Input Schema

The teacher must provide:

• Task description: The specific task. e.g. "Write a conclusion for a science experiment about friction" / "Read a textbook extract and answer comprehension questions about the causes of WW1" / "Participate in a class debate about whether zoos should be banned"
• Student level: Year group. e.g. "Year 8"
• Subject area: The subject. e.g. "Science" / "History" / "English" / "Mathematics"

Optional (injected by context engine if available):

• Language proficiency: EAL proficiency level