Given sufficient language support, students can improve the content of their writing and show greater evidence of higher-order thinking. Language support needs to be planned systematically across a unit, so that students learn relevant vocabulary and structures before completing the written or spoken task.

Discussion before giving an answer in front of the class or before writing can help students develop ideas and enrich the content of their work. However, often teachers do not see discussion as important, but students’ responses show that they feel it is valuable. If students benefit from this kind .of activity, it may be better to make room for it than to cut it out in favour of something else.

Students appreciate questions which stimulate thinking provided that they are within the area of their experience and they are engaged in the material.  It is important that the thinking element be developed alongside the language element in planning a unit, so that students engage in understanding and analysing a text before they go on to evaluate it or to create another text based on the ideas in the original one.