Appropriating the Language of Science: Latina/o Middle School Students, Their Teachers, and Their Parents

• In Event: English Learners in Science and Math Classrooms: Curriculum, Language Practices, and Learner Perceptions

Abstract

Academic language has appeared both as a taken-for-granted aspect of pedagogy for bilingual learners and as a contested concept in educational research. We utilize a notion of academic language situated in systemic functional linguistics to explore students’ appropriation of the academic language of science in the Language-rich Science Inquiry for English Language Learners project. Findings indicated that all participants began to see students’ and families’ bilingual skills and knowledge of everyday language in science as resources for engaging in science talk and writing incorporating the language of science. As teachers, students, and families participated in science investigations at school, at home, and in bilingual family workshops, a robust view of academic language as discourse embedded in science inquiry practices emerged.

Authors

• Martha A. Allexsaht-Snider, University of Georgia

• Cory A. Buxton, University of Georgia - Athens

• Shaknazova Kayumova, University of Georgia

• Elif Karsli, TED University

• Susan Harper, University of Georgia - Athens