Study title

The transition project at the University of Leeds examined the change in academic language encountered by school students when they transition from primary to secondary school. The project involved focus group interviews with school students spanning 12 months. There were four interview phases: when students were midway through their final year of primary school; just before the end of primary school; early in their first year of secondary school, and midway through the first year of secondary school. Five interviews with six students in each were conducted in the first three phases, and two in the final phase (which was interrupted by school closures due to Covid-19). Students were asked for their feelings about the transition and their views on the academic and language demands of their work at each stage.The project moves forward research in educational registers and academic language through a set of detailed and ambitious linguistic and discourse analytic studies. It will generate a substantial body of knowledge about the academic language that students need in order to access the early secondary school curriculum in England. Comparative studies will show how this differs from the academic language of primary school, and from language use in public domains outside school. It is well documented that many students find the transition from primary to secondary school difficult. In the first years of secondary school, there is often a drop in attainment and motivation in the performance of children at all ability levels, partly for social reasons, such as joining a much larger school, changes in friendship groups, etc. The new academic and linguistic demands that students face also play a very important part. Language is central in enabling or preventing access to the curriculum. We are concerned with native speakers of English rather than the specific issues faced by second language speakers; the teachers we have spoken to confirm reports from the literature...