Riding Semantic Waves: Leveraging Diverse Language Resources in Disciplinary Science Practices for Equitable Meaning-Making

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Sunday 1:30 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  In Roundtable Session: Language as Power for Breaking Barriers in Science: Translanguaging and Multilingual Strategies (Table 12)

Abstract

To effectively participate in disciplinary science practices, students need to use diverse language resources in meaning-making in science classrooms. Using the Legitimation Code Theory, this study aimed to reveal shifts in meanings constructed by undergraduate students using diverse language resources in a science methods class. Students developed a model to explore how energy-carrying molecules in the human body function. They then used their model knowledge and language to process science texts about these molecules in cellular respiration. This study used semantic density analysis to explore language choices in model development and how students carry their model knowledge to a broader meaning-making discourse such as science texts, contributing to understanding meaning-making in science education and its implications for equitable language praxis.

Author

• Ayça K. Fackler, University of Missouri