Aprendiendo
Ciencias
Learning Science in
Two Languages
Antonieta Avila
University of Texas at
Austin
Agenda
 Session’s objectives
 Definitions
 What does the research tell us?
 What does it look like in a classroom?
 Practice
Content Objectives
 Identify various definitions of literacy
 Identify various definitions of biliteracy
 Identify content area literacies
 Identify strategies to integrate students’ linguistic
and cultural resources
Language Objectives
 Engage in discussion about literacy, biliteracy,
science literacy
 Discuss approaches to promote science literacy
 Discuss approaches to integrate students’
cultural and linguistic resources in science
What is Literacy?
 Let’s take a few minutes to discuss our definitions
What Researchers Say
 Scribner and Cole's (1981) definition: "Literacy is
not simply knowing how to read and write a
particular script but applying this knowledge for
specific purposes in specific contexts of use"(p.
236).
What Researchers Say
 Freire’s definition: “Learning to read the word
and the world” (1970).
What Researchers Say
 Brian Street’s definition (2003): “A social practice,
not simply a technical and neutral skill” that is,
“learning a particular literacy depends on the
particular context” (p. 77-78).
What is Biliteracy?
 Let’s take a few moments to discuss our
definitions.
What Researchers Say
 Pérez and Torres-Gúzman’s definition (1996):
“The acquisition and learning of the decoding
and encoding of and around print using two
linguistic and cultural systems in order to convey
messages in a variety of contexts” (p. 54).
What Researchers Say
 Moll, Saez and Dworin’s definition (2001):
Competency “in a range of practices or uses of
literacy that constitute the experience of living
and going to school in a bilingual community”
(p. 447).
What Researchers Say
 Reyes’ definition (2006): “thinking, listening,
speaking, reading and writing in two
languages...children’s use of their cultural and
linguistic experiences to construct meaning” in
different contexts (p. 269).
What is Science Literacy?
 Let’s take a few moments to talk about our
definitions
What Researchers Say
 Gibbons (2009): “Understanding how the ‘big
ideas’ of the discipline are organized and
evaluated and thus related to being able to
think and reason in subject specific ways” (p.
45).
What Researchers Say
 Colombi and Scheppegrell (2002): “Students
need to move beyond doing science...to
construct arguments and critique theories; and
to integrate print, visual, interactional, and
electronic means of developing and sharing
knowledge...” (p. 2).
What Researchers Say
 Basu, Calabrese Barton & Tan (2011): “access to
content, practices, and discourse of science” in
order to “develop rich repertoires of science
knowledge” so that students are able to
“understand what science is, or utilize science for
personal and social transformation, or engage in
public discourse and debate” (p. 11).
Classroom Examples
 How do bilingual teachers promote science
literacy in elementary bilingual classrooms?
Multiple Literacies
Helpful Tools for ELL’s
 Linguistic features of science: “Instruction should
focus on linguistic structures as they are explicitly
connected to specific ways of talking, thinking,
and interacting in socially appropriate ways in
different contexts” (Ciechanowski, 2009, p. 561).
Helpful Tools for ELL’s
 How might certain linguistic features be relevant
for students learning a second language or
language variety?
 Casual relationships
 Relationships of taxonomy
 Precision and objectivity
 Nominalizations
Causal Relationships
 “Erosion can also be caused by moving ice.
Glaciers are huge sheets of ice. They form in
places where it’s so cold” (Frank et al., 2005, p.
C44).
Relationships of Taxonomy
 “Valley glaciers form near mountain peaks. They
move slowly downhill like rivers of ice....
Continental glaciers are sheets of ice that are
much bigger than valley glaciers” (Frank et al.,
2005, p. C44).
Precision and Objectivity
 “Valley glaciers form near mountain peaks. They
move slowly downhill like rivers of ice....
Continental glaciers are sheets of ice that are
much bigger than valley glaciers” (Frank et al.,
2005, p. C44).
Nominalizations
 “After weathering breaks up rocks, erosion
moves the pieces around. Erosion is the
movement of weathered rock and soil” (Frank et
al., 2005, p. C42).
Helpful Tools for ELL’s
 How might certain linguistic features be relevant
for students learning a second language or
language variety?
 Syntax
 Semantics
 Lexicon
 Morphology
Helpful Tools for ELL’s
 Foster a classroom community that gets students
thinking, talking, and inquiring like scientists while
capitalizing on ALL available languages,
resources, and sources of knowledge.
Questions to Consider
 How might you support students in developing
their scientific literacy relative to the concepts
discussed today?
 How might this inform your teaching of content,
reading and writing associated with academic
literacy?