Strategies of Teaching Literacy and Content to English Learners in a Science Classroom

Teaching English language learners in a regular science classroom where the majority of students are native English speakers is not an easy task. It gets even harder if teachers have no prior training or experience teaching language learners. From the perspective of these minority students, learning can be scary. I often remember my own experience of having low morale and confidence during my first semester in a mainstream American classroom and the hardships I encountered comprehending the lectures. I would read slowly because it took longer for me to comprehend, and even longer to process what to say if I were asked a question. It was frustrating to struggle with my language proficiency in an everyday class. I taught English for more than a decade to EFL students and also lived outside my country for three years communicating solely in English before I joined a graduate college to pursue a teaching degree. Thus,

Sample Vocabulary Wall Poster

Types of Rocks Igneous           Metamorphic         Sedimentary Examples Basalt             Marble                 Conglomerate Pumice           Slate                       Siltstone Words Describing Stones Rough          Smooth         Bumpy     Lumpy Sharp            Heavy           Light        Porous Hard             Soft               Loose       Clean       Dirty            Flat                Rounded  Oval

it is not hard for me to understand how language learners of a young age feel in their content area classes amidst native English speakers.   

            Experts in the field of content and language area teaching believe that all students, including English learners (ELs), can learn better in the class where the language is contextualized (i.e., desirable support) is provided via a different means to accelerate students’ meaning-making procedure (Met, 1994; Stoddart, 2002). The process of integrating these two domains is time-consuming. Many researchers identify three phases in this journey as (a) planning, (b) teaching, and (c) assessment.

Planning: This phase comes before the classroom activities, and marks the most important phase for successful teaching. Teachers think from the learner’s perspective and acknowledge their learning styles and needs. They develop grade level content-compatible objectives that are informed by second language learning scope and sequence; teacher’s observation of students’ language skills and their classroom needs; and the anticipated linguistic demands of the content curriculum for future classroom teaching (Met, 1994, Dickenson, & Young, 1998). They plan for instructional activities (e.g., video links, manipulative, appropriate contexts, pictures, realia, etc.), assessments (context-related tasks that meet the individual student’s cognitive demand), and plan to integrate culture (e.g., gather some examples from students’ home country, language, culture, or tradition) (Carrier, 2005; Hanson, &Filibert, 2006).

Classroom Teaching: Teachers perform A variety of tasks focusing on both the content and language objectives. They use concrete materials, visuals, and other available non-verbal supports like gestures, visuals, modeling task, graphic organizers and infographics, and visual communication technologies (Nutta, Strebel, Mokhtari, Mihai, & Crevecoeur-Bryant, 2014). Teachers remain mindful of their pace, engage students appropriately in hands-on-activities, and negotiate meaning with students using comprehensible input. They offer help to struggling students by expanding and refining, restating, repeating, or paraphrasing students’ language repertoire. Moreover, teachers provide an abundance of opportunities for students to communicate with their peers and the teacher her/himself. Use of synonyms, antonyms, homonyms, etc., can be a great strategy to help students understand because comprehension is important (DeLuca, 2010; Hanson, & Filibert, 2006; Met, 1994). In addition, a good teacher does not just teach, s/he takes time to monitor, makes required instructional decisions- pairs students with right  partner that can help ELs interact, accepts a student’s response or responds to it, checks if a student has understood the lesson, and decides if any extra aid is required.

Assessment:  In the content-compatible curriculum, science teachers not only assess students’ mastery of the content but also their language proficiency and achievement. To evaluate the student’s content knowledge, teachers can modify the assessment based on an individual student’s language competency. If ELs cannot verbalize the answer, ask them to act out, draw pictures, design a test where students circle or check the answer, etc. On the other hand, language objectives become effective when teachers tie them to content objectives. Besides the set standardized tests, a teacher can gauge students’ language learning and gains both formally and informally. Teachers can keep a record of an individual student’s everyday achievement, or s/he can help students create a checklist of language objectives and let them check them off once they acquire each particular language competency (Hanson, &Filibert, 2006; Met, 1994).

Conclusion

ELs obtain the necessary tools to enhance their science literacy skills and successfully articulate their understanding across the class when teachers support them. By combining science and literacy together, science teachers help language learners achieve academic success in their classroom. It is teachers’ job to identify key vocabulary and help all students including ELs to learn them so that they can build their background knowledge while facilitating their comprehension of the text. In addition, providing ample opportunities to interact with peers and teachers, the teachers of science help ELs overall language development (Nutta et. al., 2014).

References

Carrier, K. A. (2005). Supporting science learning through science literacy objectives for English language learners. Science Activities: Classroom Projects and Curriculum Ideas, 42(2), 5-11.

Dickinson, V. L., & Young, T. A. (1998). Elementary science and language arts: Should we blur the boundaries? School Science and Mathematics, 98(6), 334-339.

DeLuca, E. (2010). Unlocking academic vocabulary. The Science Teacher, 77(3), 27.

Goldenberg, C. (2008). Teaching English language learners: What the research does-and does not-say. Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/esed5234-master/27

Met, M. (1994). Teaching content through a second language. Educating Second Language Children: The Whole Child, The Whole Curriculum, The Whole Community, 159182.

Nutta, J. W., Strebel, C., Mokhtari, K., Mihai, F. M., & Crevecoeur-Bryant, E. (2014). Educating English Learners: What Every Classroom Teacher Needs to Know. Harvard Education Press. Cambridge, MA 02138.

Stoddart, T., Pinal, A., Latzke, M., & Canaday, D. (2002). Integrating inquiry science and language development for English language learners. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 39(8), 664-687.