Teaching science through home and second languages as the medium of instruction: A comparative analysis of junior secondary science classrooms in Hong Kong

Teaching science through home and second languages as the medium of instruction: A comparative analysis of junior secondary science classrooms in Hong Kong

• Fung, Dennis The University of Hong Kong

International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, (0), - , 2020

Springer Netherlands

2020

• G Curriculum, Teaching & Learning: Specific Disciplines
  • GD Science & Technology
    • GDC Teaching Methods & Their Outcomes

Language Support Medium of Instruction Misconceptions Quasi-experimental Study Secondary Science Teaching

• Hong Kong

• 1997.7 onwards

• Secondary Education

Positioned in the Hong Kong education context, this article evaluates the effects of teaching science through home and second languages (i.e. Chinese and English) in Secondary 2 (or eighth grade) science classrooms. A total of 479 students, divided into two language instruction groups, participated in a teaching intervention comprising 16 lessons on the topic of ‘Making Use of Electricity’. Informed by the results of a mixed-methods study with a quasi-experimental design, with data collected from science diagnostic tests, inquiry questions and focus group interviews, this article reports that Chinese is the most advantageous language of instruction for low- and middle-ability science students, whereas English is more favourable for their high-achieving peers. Whilst Hong Kong students who learnt the focal topic in English were able to rid themselves of certain naive ideas generated from the translation of science terms into Chinese (e.g. pencil ‘鉛筆’ is translated as ‘lead pen’ in Chinese), they were also found to have misconceptions about certain scientific concepts. For example, they were confused about ‘open’ and ‘closed’ circuits because they mixed up the words ‘open’ (‘開放’) and ‘switch on’ (‘開啟’) in English. The study’s broad implications for language support and a mixed-code approach in science teaching worldwide are discussed.
[Copyright of International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education is the property of Springer Netherlands.]

• English

Journal Articles

• 15710068

• 10.1007/s10763-020-10127-0

https://bibliography.lib.eduhk.hk/bibs/5cf8824a

2021-02-16