Monolingual Momentum in a Multilingual Context: The Limits of Language Awareness in a Hybrid Science Learning Environment

• In Event: Fairmont Roundtable Session Six
  In Roundtable Session: Critical Language Awareness: Consequential Truth(s) in Multilingual Contexts (Table 14)

Abstract

A key critical component of language awareness is documenting which language and linguistic forms are granted outsize influence and dominance. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to document the persistence of monolingual language ideologies, specifically in science education. Research suggests that monolingual ideologies may be disrupted by giving students opportunities to leverage their multilingual assets (García & Kleifgen, 2018), yet research on these opportunities in science education remains scarce. Accordingly, this study draws on observations and classroom artifacts to explore multilingual students’ engagement with scientific modeling discussions in multiple languages, and the language ideological implications of this engagement.

In order to theorize how teacher and student beliefs about language interact with science education in English-medium schooling, this research draws on theories of monolingual language ideologies. Monolingual ideologies describe how one language can become perceived as a default language, or the “norm” of educational and institutional access (Gramling, 2016). In U.S. educational contexts, these ideologies undergird “English-only” educational policies, which assert that academic content learning can or should only occur in English (Arias & Faltis, 2013; Silverstein, 1996). Importantly, however, although these language policies may be explicit (as in English-only educational laws), they more often function through de facto means—invisible norms or assumptions (Helot & Young, 2005). Still, despite the documented recalcitrance of monolingual language ideologies (Wiley, 2014), there is reason to believe that monolingual language ideologies can be at least partially disrupted in schools and classrooms through critical language awareness.

To explore this potential for disruption, we developed a series of science units designed to engage students’ multilingual repertoires. We asked students (n=37) in four 7th grade life science classes in a linguistically diverse school in the Southeastern U.S. to record themselves explaining self-generated models on cell processes (i.e., cell division and diffusion) in both English and an additional language. Data included students’ cell division and diffusion models, their video-recorded FlipGrid model explanations, a post-unit modeling reflection survey, and an end-of-course science identity and language survey. We analyzed students’ models and FlipGrid videos to determine the relationship between what was said in both languages, with particular attention to differences in explanations, then coded responses to the open-ended questions on both surveys for positive, neutral, and negative emotive responses to the multilingual nature of the assignment through inductive thematic coding (Saldaña, 2022).

Findings revealed ideological tensions between students’ enthusiasm and reluctance to participate multilingually in science. For example, many students reacted positively to the notion of multilingual engagement in science on initial surveys, but expressed reluctance to engage in the actual assignment. We draw connections between this reluctance and monolingual schooling norms that impact students’ language ideologies, including perceptions of English as the sole form of legitimate scientific discourse and student beliefs around the “inadequacy” of their own multilingual abilities. These findings have important implications for whether and how multilingualism can be leveraged to disrupt monolingual language ideologies in science education and across broader educational contexts.

Authors

• Chris K. Chang-Bacon, University of Virginia
  Presenting Author

• Alexis Rutt, University of Mary Washington
  Presenting Author