Language Demands and Opportunities in Relation to Next Generation Science Standards for English Language Learners: What Teachers Need to Know by Quinn H, Lee O, Valdés G,
In science, everyone is an English language learner (ELL). This is because words and terminology used in science is often different from their everyday meanings. Words such as "Energy" have everyday usage that is broader and less defined than their scientific meaning. Learning new discipline-specific words is an everyday exercise in science (words such as gene, biome, proton etc).
Students for whom English is the second language of instruction, the language learning challenges are doubled- they have to learn 'Science language' as well as English language. To help ELLs in their learning, the article provides several tools for teachers to use in their instruction, with particular focus on 4 of their 8 practices that are most inter-related, represent major shift in ideas and require classroom discourse and therefore opportunities for language learning.
The article suggests several tools for teachers, some of which are:
Literacy strategies: don't simplify the challenges of science reading, rather provide them with tools to "decode" complex sentences
Discourse strategies: establish classroom norms to encourage questions; "use multiple modes of representation (gestural, oral, pictorial, graphic, and textual) to communicate meanings".
Home language support: allow 'translanguaging' or offer connections between science-y words and their native language
Home culture connections: students' backgrounds can serve as important experiences in academic learning
Questions to think about:
What was a memorable experience for you when familiar words were being used in unfamiliar ways and you could not follow the science-y discussion? Do you think instances like this happen often in science or science communication? What do you do in your practice to accommodate ELLs?
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