Science teaching and learning in multilingual Lebanese middle school classrooms

Abstract

Science teachers play a pivotal role in mediating social and academic language in the science classroom through teacher talk and management of classroom discourse. In multilingual science classrooms understanding how native and international languages (English) are used to support meaningful science learning is essential for improving the quality of student learning. Consequently, the purpose of this study is to investigate student and teacher multilingual language practices that potentially influence conceptual understanding in middle school science and examine their meaning-making of such language practices. Data came from middle school science classrooms within different SES. Teachers in these classrooms were interviewed and at least eight of their lessons were videotaped followed by video-based student focus group interviews. A multi-level dialogic framework was used to analyze language practices and participants meaning-making. Classroom interactions are analyzed based on communicative approaches (authoritarian/dialogic) and patterns of discourse. At the micro level, we analyzed utterances based on science knowledge types. We also analyzed shifts among native and international languages. It was found that within lower SES contexts, teachers use native language for connecting phrases with the insertion of English technical terms. Another language practice involved preparing students for the language demands of the national tests given in English. Teachers and students meaning making of their language practices involved both ideological and instrumental aspects, for example from a macro perspective, a theme emerged on how schooling influences reproduction and resistance of social narratives.