This companion (foundational) book to the six-book series, Academic Language Demands for Language Learners: From Text to Context, encapsulates the broad ideas of the series by presenting the evolving theory behind the construct of academic language, a definition and examples of each of its components, and a template for direct classroom applicability. Each of the six books in the series is a more detailed, comprehensive treatment of text-based academic language at each grade level and describes the process by which teachers can incorporate academic language into their instructional assessment practices. This foundations book is suitable for use with any (or all) of the six volumes or can be used separately.