Language Grows When Students Work Together

by Sarah B. Ottow

In many classrooms, I notice that even with the best of intentions, academic talk is treated as an add-on—something to include if there’s time. Yet for students learning in a new language, opportunities to work and talk with peers are not supplemental. They are foundational.

Students do not develop academic language by listening alone. They develop it by using language with others—testing ideas, borrowing vocabulary, refining syntax, and making meaning collaboratively. If students are expected to use academic language independently, each lesson must intentionally include time for them to practice it together.

Language Develops Through Interaction, Not Silence

High-rigor tasks often require complex vocabulary, sentence structures, and disciplinary ways of thinking. When students are expected to engage with this content independently without prior collaborative processing, multilingual learners are frequently left silent—not because they lack ideas, but because they lack safe opportunities to rehearse language.

Classroom observations consistently show that students learn more from peer interaction than from teacher-directed explanation alone. Talking through an idea with a partner allows students to clarify meaning, hear multiple ways of expressing the same concept, and gain confidence before being asked to perform on their own.

Structure Is What Makes Collaboration Work

Simply telling students to “turn and talk” is not enough. Productive collaboration requires intentional design:

• Purposeful pairing that balances language proficiency and academic strengths
• Clear language goals tied to the content
• Sentence frames or discussion prompts that lower linguistic barriers
• Defined expectations (also known as success criteria) for participation and listening

I find that when collaboration is structured, it increases engagement and accountability for all students—not just multilingual learners.

Equity of Voice Is an Instructional Decision

In classrooms where collaborative talk is optional, the same students tend to dominate while others disengage. When structured opportunities to talk are embedded into lessons, equity of voice becomes the norm rather than the exception.

This is especially important for multilingual learners, who may understand content but hesitate to speak without support. Structured peer interaction creates a shared responsibility for meaning-making and reduces the risk associated with speaking publicly.

Scaffolds Must Be Built In, Not Added-On as an Afterthought

Language supports—sentence frames, modeled responses, choral practice, echo reading, shared writing—are most effective when they are integrated directly into lesson routines. When scaffolds are visible and expected, students are more likely to participate meaningfully.

Treating these supports as optional sends the message that language development is secondary. Embedding them into collaborative work communicates that language is central to learning, not separate from it.

Collaboration Supports Productive Struggle

When students are given space to talk through ideas together, they engage in productive struggle rather than learned helplessness. They rely less on the teacher for answers and more on collective problem-solving.

This shift benefits not only students but teachers as well—creating classrooms where thinking is shared, risk-taking is normalized, and learning is active.

If Language Is the Goal, Talk Must Be the Method

If we want students to read complex texts, explain their reasoning, and use academic language independently, we must first give them structured opportunities to practice language together in every lesson.

Collaboration is not a break from rigor, nor something that is optional for classrooms. It’s how rigor becomes accessible and and how students learn to use their voice beyond the classroom.