Preservice secondary science teachers’ understanding of academic language

Moving beyond “just the vocabulary”

Bibliographic Data

ID21392907
AuthorsValerie Meier (0000-0003-1177-0572, Department of Education University of California, Santa Barbara Santa Barbara California, corresponding author), Walter Aminger (0000-0003-3232-0132, Department of Education University of California, Santa Barbara Santa Barbara California), Mandy McLean (0000-0001-9244-7472, Department of Education University of California, Santa Barbara Santa Barbara California), Stacey L Carpenter (0000-0003-0492-6620, Department of Education University of California, Santa Barbara Santa Barbara California), Sungmin Moon (0000-0002-0111-5729, Department of Education University of California, Santa Barbara Santa Barbara California), Sarah Hough (Department of Education University of California, Santa Barbara Santa Barbara California), Julie A Bianchini (0000-0001-7419-3958, Department of Education University of California, Santa Barbara Santa Barbara California)
Year2020
Volume104
Issue2
Pages222-251
Publication date2020-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueScience Education (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0036-8326 • E-ISSN: 1098-237X
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/sce.21560
OpenAlexW2998987379
LanguageEN
Citations received15
References cited46

To prepare preservice secondary science teachers to teach English learners (ELs), teacher education programs must provide sustained coursework and experiences in principles and strategies found effective in supporting ELs’ learning of science. In the context of a teacher education program recognized for its attention to ELs, we investigated seven preservice secondary science teachers’ understanding of academic language and of how to support EL students’ use of academic language. More specifically, over the course of their 13‐month program, we examined changes in (a) preservice teachers’ understanding of the three levels of academic language (i.e., lexical, or vocabulary; syntactic, or sentence; and discursive, or message) and (b) the types of instructional support they reported using at each level (e.g., peer collaboration at the discursive level). We also compared their understanding of academic language and instructional support both to their experienced cooperating teachers’ understanding and to their actual classroom practice. From qualitative analysis of data collected, we found that preservice teachers understood academic language as more than just vocabulary—as spanning lexical, syntactic, and discursive levels—although they reported implementing more types of supports at the lexical and discursive levels than at the syntactic level. We also found that preservice teacher participants’ understanding of academic language and instructional support resonated with that of their cooperating teachers and with their own classroom practice. We close with discussion of ways teacher education programs can deepen and broaden preservice secondary science teachers’ understanding of the role of academic language in ELs’ science learning

Context (archaeology) · Coursework · English for academic purposes · Linguistics · Mathematics education · Pedagogy · Science education · Sentence · Teacher education · Vocabulary · Computer Science · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · Educational Strategies and Epistemologies · Psychology · Science Education and Pedagogy