Dong_2010_ Language and Content_ How Three Biology Teachers Work with Non-English Speaking Students

1. Thi s art i cl e w as dow nl oaded by: [Uni versi t y of Cape Tow n Li brari es] On: 05 June 2015, At : 01:31 Publ i sher: Rout l edge Inf orm a Lt d Regi st ered i n Engl and and W al es Regi st ered Num ber: 1072954 Regi st ered of f i ce: M ort i m er House, 37-41 M ort i m er St reet , London W 1T 3JH, UK I nt ernat i onal Journal of Bi l i ngual Educat i on and Bi l i ngual i sm Publ i cat i on det ai l s, i ncl udi ng i nst r uct i ons f or aut hor s and subscr i pt i on i nf or m at i on: ht t p: //www. t andf onl i ne. com /l oi /r beb20 I nt egr at i ng Language and Cont ent : How Three Bi ol ogy Teachers W ork wi t h Non- Engl i sh Speaki ng St udent s Yu Ren Dong Publ i shed onl i ne: 26 Mar 2010. To ci t e t hi s art i cl e: Yu Ren Dong ( 2002) I nt egr at i ng Language and Cont ent : How Thr ee Bi ol ogy Teacher s W or k wi t h Non- Engl i sh Speaki ng St udent s, I nt er nat i onal Jour nal of Bi l i ngual Educat i on and Bi l i ngual i sm , 5: 1, 40- 57, DOI : 10. 1080/13670050208667745 To l i nk t o t hi s art i cl e: ht t p: //dx. doi . or g/10. 1080/13670050208667745 PLEASE SCROLL DOW N FOR ARTICLE Tayl or & Franci s m akes every ef f ort t o ensure t he accuracy of al l t he i nf orm at i on (t he “Cont ent ”) cont ai ned i n t he publ i cat i ons on our pl at f orm . How ever , Tayl or & Franci s, our agent s, and our l i censors m ake no represent at i ons or w arrant i es w hat soever as t o t he accuracy, com pl et eness, or sui t abi l i t y f or any purpose of t he Cont ent . Any opi ni ons and vi ew s expressed i n t hi s publ i cat i on are t he opi ni ons and vi ew s of t he aut hors, and are not t he vi ew s of or endorsed by Tayl or & Franci s. The accuracy of t he Cont ent shoul d not be rel i ed upon and shoul d be i ndependent l y veri f i ed w i t h pri m ary sources of i nf orm at i on. Tayl or and Franci s shal l not be l i abl e f or any l osses, act i ons, cl ai m s, proceedi ngs, dem ands, cost s, expenses, dam ages, and ot her l i abi l i t i es w hat soever or how soever caused ari si ng di rect l y or i ndi rect l y i n connect i on w i t h, i n rel at i on t o or ari si ng out of t he use of t he Cont ent .

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3. Integrating Language and Content: How Three Biology Teachers Work with Non-English Speaking Students Yu Ren Dong Department of Secondary Education and Youth Service, Queens College, City University of New York, Flushing NY 11367, USA Facing the rapidly increasingnon-native English speaking students in public schools, all teachers are challenged by an urgent need for developing ways to make their instructionresponsivetothesestudents’needs.Thisarticlereportsonayearlongstudy on three biology teachers’language integratedbiology teachingto non-native English speaking students. Using extensive classroom observations and interviews the study provides portraits of these three teachers’ working with multilingual, multicultural, and multilevelstudents.The findings suggest thatsubjectmatterareateachersshould and can extendtheirteachingcompetenciesto be sensitiveto thesestudents’language and cultural needs and to integrate their instruction for the second language develop- ment with their curricular objectives. Downloaded by [University of Cape Town Libraries] at 01:31 05 June 2015 Introduction In recent years, public schools in the United States have experienced a dramatic increase in the number of non-native English speaking students. According to a report from New York City Board of Education,there has been a more than 60% increase in the number of students who were limited English proficient (LEP), from 95,000in 1988to about 160,000in 1999.Facing therapidly increasing non-native English speaking student population in public schools acrossthe nation in general, and in New York City in particular, all teachers are challenged by an urgent need for developing ways to make their instruction more effective and responsive to these English language learners’ needs (ELL). Today’sstudents withlimitedEnglish proficiency struggle tokeep up withtheir peers in mainstream classes. In middle and high schools, many of them spend two or three periods with English as a second language (ESL) teachers and the rest oftheir schoolday withsubject matter areateachers who often have limited knowledge about their backgrounds and needs and lack strategies used to work with them effectively. The situation was often exacerbated with the increasing demands and graduation standards. Examining the 1998–1999 school year RegentsBiologyExamresultsinNewYorkCityhighschools,non-nativeEnglish speaking students had only half of the average passing rate compared to their native English speaking peers (an average passing rate for the native English speaking students was 43.5%).Therefore, there is an urgent need for all teachers tobe informedoftheprinciples ofsecondlanguage acquisitionandlearning and trained to use ESL oriented methods and techniques to include these students both physically and academically in their classroominstruction.This paper will examine specific ways how three biology teachers worked with non-native 1367-0050/02/01 0040-18 $20.00/0 International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism ©2002 Y. Ren Dong Vol. 5, No. 1, 2002 40 Integrating Language and Content

4. Integrating Language and Content 41 English speaking students in their sheltered ESL biology classes during the school year 1997–1998. Challenges for Non-native English Speaking High School Students to Learn Biology Becauseofthecurriculum set-up in high schoolsin New YorkCity,biology is often the first course for non-native English speaking students to begin their science learning careers in high schools. The high school biology curriculum, which consists of students developing comprehensive vocabulary and literacy skills in reading, writing, and critical thinking and understanding of biology concepts, poses a tremendous challenge for all students, especially for non-nativeEnglish speaking students.Students havetonot onlyunderstandthe concept behind specific biology terminology, but also are able to articulatetheir understanding in reading and writing. Researchers have voiced concerns about thesheer sizeofspecialisedvocabularytobe acquiredby high schoolstudentsin biology. According to this line of research (Anderson, 1990; Gibbs & Lawson, 1992;Leonard & Penick, 1993;Lumpe & Beck, 1996),a number of close to 10,000 words to be learned in a high school biology textbook makes it hard for native English speaking students, let alone for non-native English speaking students. Often the high school biology textbook is written in a way oriented toward native English speaking students (Atwater, 1994; Hodson, 1993). The examples and the illustrations are based on the assumptions that readers grow up in this culture. As a result, teachers have to deal not only with students’ lack of knowl- edge base, but also possible mismatches in interpretations of the issues and the knowledge base and learning and teaching styles that are different from that of the students’ schooling back home in teaching of reading, writing, and critical thinkingskillsused in biologylearning.For example,Gao(1998:2)reportedthat to ‘studentsin China, learning is not onlya means forknowing and understand- ing, but also for personal perfection, family honor, and social development’. Coming from Confucian traditions,Chinese people view teachers as ‘models of good conduct and learning’ (p. 4). As a result, a frequent use of questions, the technique that American teachers use to promote students’ thinking and assess theirlearning, is oftenmisconstruedby Chinese students.Students darenot and will not ask questions even though they might not understand what is going on in the lessondue to therespectfor theteacher (Scarcella, 1992).Therefore, teach- ing linguistically and culturally diverse students is more involved in cross-cultural understanding and creating responsive teaching strategies in addressing these differences (Banks & Banks, 1997; Carrasquilllo & Rodriguez, 1995). Downloaded by [University of Cape Town Libraries] at 01:31 05 June 2015 ESL Oriented Biology Instruction Studies in second language acquisition have repeatedly shown that second language is best learned through content when students havea real purpose for learning and when language use is authentic, rich, and meaningful to students (Chamot & O’Malley, 1994;Enright & McCloskey, 1988;Swain & Carroll, 1987). Several studies (Adamson, 1990; Chamot & O’Malley, 1994; Enright & McCloskey, 1988) have found that non-native English speaking students will

5. Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 42 benefit more from learning the second language and academic content knowl- edge simultaneously rather than separately. One of the best ways of learning a new language is to learn it in the targetlanguage and in the real contextof disci- plinary specific language use, such as biology, social studies, maths, etc. Language learning in meaningful content stimulates motivation and provides realsocialpurposesforspeaking,listening,reading,writingandthinking.Witha changeofthestudentbodyinmanypublicschoolsandwheremanyESLlearners spend a great amount of time with their subject matter area teachers during the day, there is a need for a change in pedagogy for all teachers to integrate language and content instruction and create rich and authentic contexts for language learning (Genesee, 1993).Therefore, content area teachers must join in the effort to educate ESL students with ESL/bilingual teachers by becoming knowledgeable about issues related to second language learning, learning specific waysofcommunicatingwithESL learners, andprovidinglanguage and content integrated instruction. One way of making content area teachers’ instruction accessible to ESL students is to modify their teaching to make it comprehensible for ESL students whomightbeatdifferentlevelsofEnglishproficiency.Conceptualknowledgeof academic content is best learned through teachers providing comprehensible input (Krashen, 1985). The input can be made comprehensible by using more visualaids,audio aids,gestures, bodymovements,and facial expressions. Also, comprehension can be greatly enhanced if the teacher engages the students into active questioning, dialoguing, and writing through which the new knowledge becomesmeaningfulandinternalized(Freeman &Freeman,1998;Gersten,1996; Snow et al., 1989). Research findings have demonstrated that many school-aged second language learners had had rich life experiences and prior education on the subject matter knowledge before coming to America. Identifying and making good use ofthe student’s previous life andeducationalexperiences canenhance both language learning and the academic content learning (Cummins, 1994; Freeman & Freeman, 1998). Second language learners’ experiences and knowl- edge gained in their schooling back home can be transferred into the new learn- ing situation with appropriate prodding and scaffolding. For example, even though the students may not know the English word for photosynthesis, they may have already had the concept established in their native language. So once thesubject matterteacheridentifieswhatstudentsknowandhelps themtomake theconnectionbetween whatthey arelearning now and whatthey havealready known, content specific concept learning speeds up because students only need to learn a new way of saying the old concept. Therefore, instead of focusing on whatthesecond language learnersdonot know,thecontentteachershould seek what the students do know and build on an understanding of the new knowl- edgefromthere(Chamot&O’Malley,1994;Freeman&Freeman,1998;Gonzalez & Schallert, 1999). Despite an increasing discussion in the literature for responsive science instruction and integrated language and content instruction in dealing with non-nativeEnglish speaking students(Bernhartet al.,1996;Chamot&O’Malley, 1994; Krashen, 1985; Long & Porter, 1985; Pica & Doughty, 1985; Rupp, 1992), research on effective teaching methods and techniques in teaching biology Downloaded by [University of Cape Town Libraries] at 01:31 05 June 2015

6. Integrating Language and Content 43 concepts to ESL students is sparse (Lee & Fradd, 1996). No research has been done systematically to investigate how these principles are applied to actual teaching practice and what responsive and effective biology instruction looks like.Therefore,thepurposeofthisstudywastocompileresponsiveandeffective teaching strategies through a year long observation of three biology teachers’ instructionandaseriesofinterviewswithboththeteachersand18studentsfrom these teachers’ classes. The study was guided by the following questions: (1) How do biology teachers makebiology concepts comprehensible to cultur- ally and linguistically diverse students? What are some of the effective teaching strategies and techniques that lead to student academic and language learning? (2) Downloaded by [University of Cape Town Libraries] at 01:31 05 June 2015 Data Collection Two schools and biology curriculum Located in Queens, a diverse borough of New York City, two New York City high schools chosen for the study had ESL student population composed of one-third of the total student body for one school and two-thirds for the other. Two Science Department AssistantPrincipals (AP) (Kelly and Sarah are pseud- onyms)werebothopentothenewideasandconcernedabouttheirESLstudents’ successin science. Collaboratingwithotherscienceprofessionals,they hadtheir teachers compile a detailed guideline for teaching biology to ESL students and bilingual glossaries in biology. They both strongly encouraged their faculty to implement these materials in their teaching. In addition, both of them assigned time for ESL Department chairs to come to do a workshop at one of their staff developmentalmeetingsduringthesemester.Finally,thetwoinvitedthefaculty to share teaching ideas and swap lesson plans and test designs to promote their professional growth and effective teaching. The sciencedepartments in thetwohigh schoolsadopted theNew York State Regents Biology Variance curriculum at the time of the study. The curriculum used a thematic approach to content knowledge and focused on conceptual development and inquiry in learning biology. Both native and non-native English speaking students in these two high schools were placed in the Regents Biology Variance classes. In addition to their lab work and Regents exam, students in these classes were required to compile a biology portfolio that includedfourresearchandcreativebiologyprojectsandtocompletetwoin-class free response essays during the school year. This curriculum, according to both thescience chairs and the teachers, though still very limited, was better than the previous curriculum in that it offered more chances and on-going process for studentsbothnativeandnon-nativeEnglishspeaking tosucceedthanrelying on the Regents exam alone in the end. Teachers, school and students After aninitialcontactand trialobservationsofeight biology teachers recom- mended by the science department chairs from four high schools, three biology teachers(theirpseudonymsareLisa,SallyandMike)fromtwohighschoolswere selected because of their successful experiences in teaching biology to ESL

7. Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 44 students.Thesethreeteachers’teachingexperiencesvariedfromtwotosixyears. Atthetime,theywereallteachingtheESLbiologyclass,ashelteredbiologyclass composedofallESL studentsfromvariouslanguage,cultural,andliteracyback- groundsand atdifferent English proficiency levels.The three teachers,onemale and two females, were in their late twenties and early thirties, two had already earnedtheirmaster’s degrees in general scienceandbiology,andonewaswork- ing on getting a master’s degree at the time of the study. They all had the New York State teaching certification. However, only Sally had taken second language teaching and learning courses prior to the study. Studentsfrom thesethree teachers’classescamefrom15countries andspeak- ing 14languages. Everyday, besides oneperiod biologyclass,students attended twoperiodsofESLclasses,oneperiodofESL globalstudiesclass,oneperiodofa mainstream math class, one period gym, and other. Students varied in their knowledgeofEnglish andbiology.Somehadalreadylearned biologyforseveral years in their home countries before coming here; some had learned general science in their middle schools back home; other just started learning. Their English proficiency levels were also varied, ranging from level two,a beginning level to level six, an advanced level of English proficiency. Between the 1997 and 1998 school year, I observed each of the three teachers once a week for a total of 24 weeks. Classroom observations were audio taped and then transcribed. Teaching materials, such as handouts and the textbooks, were gathered. Students’ work, portfoliosand testswere collected. Near theend ofeach term,Iinterviewed eachteacher (Eachlastedforanhour) fortheir reflec- tions on their teaching strategies and perceived ESL students’ difficulties with biology learning. In addition, I also selected six students from each class for an interview(eachlastedforhalfanhour)togaininsightsintothestudents’learning of biology and their perspectives of their teachers’ teaching. Downloaded by [University of Cape Town Libraries] at 01:31 05 June 2015 Results/Discussion Results from the observationsand the interviews revealed thatthethree biol- ogy teachers appeared to provide responsive and effective instruction to non-native English speaking students that were supported by research and welcomed by their students.Their successful teaching focused on the following areas: ? providing comprehensible input and integrating language and biology instruction; ? promoting language use and scientific thinking through group work; ? explicitly teaching learning skills; ? ackowledging cultural differences and using a modified classroom talk; ? appreciating diversity and using students’ prior knowledge in biology instruction; ? enrichingthecurriculumandprovidingarichlanguageuseenvironment. Providing comprehensible input and integrating language and biology instruction Sally often said that teaching ESL students was different from teaching regu- larstudentsinthatyoucannottakethingsforgranted,assumingstudentswould

8. Integrating Language and Content 45 haveknownbasicwords.Sheoftenbeganher introductionofanewconceptwith what her students called ‘a story’. For each new vocabulary item that she was introducing,shewouldelicitfromthestudentsthewordswithasimilarmeaning and write them on the board next to the new word in the parenthesis. She wrote complete sentences on the board to facilitate students’understanding and their later study of their notes. Sally talked about her approachto providing compre- hensible input at the interview during the interviews. Youcanseeforexample,thecrayfish,forstudentswhomayneverseecray- fish or know crayfish. If a textbook never supplements the picture of cray- fish, I, the teacher have to first to define a crayfish: What does it look like? What’s thecolor?…So there arecertainthings thatwe take for granted, for example, we would say a blue jay and a sparrow,like commonthings that children would see on thecurb when they grow up here. But for thesechil- drentheymayneverseethesethingsbeforesincetheyarenewtothiscoun- try. So you really have to think backwards. If the child never saw the item, let alone the internal structure before, the first thing you have to introduce what it is and how it is and then you can teach biology. Downloaded by [University of Cape Town Libraries] at 01:31 05 June 2015 In her efforts to make the content comprehensible and accessible to her students,Sally used modifiedorelaborateddefinitions ofthenew words,physi- calmovementstocreateamentalpictureofthemeaning,andexamplesandanal- ogies from students’ daily life to provide the contexts for students’ scientific knowledge building. The following is an example of these techniques at work: Number ten is a large vacuole (wrote on the board). A vacuole stores thewaterand other substancesfor thecell. The vacuolein the animal cell is tiny because the animal can go and get water, right? But the trees cannot grow legs. So it has to absorb the water and holds the water in the cell and hold on to it (used gestures and physical move- ments). Like camels, they hold up their water. You got it. Same idea. Teacher: Student: Teacher: In this excerpt, Sally painted a clear mental picture of the word ‘vacuole’ by using simple language, physical movements, and a humorous comparison between an animal cell and a plant cell. After this, students were asked to draw boththeanimalcellandtheplantcellandcolorthemandexplaintheminwriting in terms of the function and the structure of each organelle. Facing the difficulty with biology concepts and vocabulary with all high schoolstudentsingeneral,withnon-nativeEnglishspeakingstudentsinparticu- lar, Mike focused his teaching on stimulating students’ curiosity of science and creating an understanding of biology concepts. He talked about his views on diverse students’ abilities of learning science. I can get an idea by looking at those eyes. What’s going on behind those eyes.Curiosityisusuallyagoodindicationofthat.My opinionisifthekids are at least curious, that tells me that there is a function of ability in some language that they can think in that language… I had kids who cannot

9. Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 46 speak English at all, but I can tell there is something going on, they just don’t know what you are saying. Mike’s ESL biology class was characterised by stimulating and challenging questions and an effective use of visual aids to create a context for learning. An excitement about science came through his teaching when he began each lesson with a combination of visual aids and questions. Firmly believing in inquiry oriented science learning, Mike designed his lesson in such a way that abstract concepts were all transformed into concrete daily problems to solve. He would first pose open-ended questions based on daily life observations. These ques- tions were invigorating and invited a wide range of reactions from the students which led his students to a meaningful and challenging learning process imme- diately. Students in his class did not passively learn the definition of the word, butthemeaningbehinditbyaskingquestionsandparticipatingindoing,seeing, touching, listening, smelling, and talking about science. Mike talked about his approach to teaching biology to ESL students. Downloaded by [University of Cape Town Libraries] at 01:31 05 June 2015 When IteachtheESL classes,Iammorein tuned totheirlanguageabilities. I would be more apt to ask questions, asking them about the words that they don’tunderstandandtakea littlemoretimetogooverthelanguage… Whatever the concept that I teach I try to be as illustrativeas possible with things that the students can do… I know the word ‘cell’ is just a kind of an abstractidea. But if they look into the microscope and find all those boxes. Then I will say, what is it made of? They say little boxes. I say, yeah, that’s what they are made of. OK, we call them cells… Once you get the concept, then the vocabulary is easy because they can relate to something. Aclassritualwasestablished.Mike would begin his lessonwithaquestionor a problem along with his demonstration using manipulatives and realias for students to grapple with and to comeup with their own questions thatwere the topic of the lesson on that day. Here is an example. Okay we have two beakers of water up here and one has a rock andonehassomebeans.OK,ifIleavethesethingsalone,sayfor oneday,Icomebackandlookatthem tomorrow,howwillthey change? The bean will grow. Possibly the bean might grow some roots. The rock might get weaker. What happen to it? The rock? So if this was in a river, right, rocks sitting on the bottom of the river. Would the rock be breaking up? No. That is because that water is moving, this water is not moving. What happens to beans when you leave it in water? It gets soft. It gets what? Soft. Did everybody hear that? Say it again. The bean gets soft. Teacher: Student 1: Teacher: Student 2: Student 3: Teacher: Student 3: Teacher: Student 4: Teacher: Student 4: Teacher: Student 4:

10. Integrating Language and Content 47 What about the rock? Will it get soft? No. Probably not. What question would we ask today? What is the difference between the two? How can water change living things? That is very good. (Writes on the board the question: How can water change living things?) Teacher: Student 4: Teacher: Student 5: Student 6: Teacher: In the above episode, we see how Mike used the manipulative and open-ended questions to provoke students’ thinking and to generate questions about the topic of the day, osmosis. Right after this demonstration, students were broken into groups of five to observe the change of the onion cell, comparing when it is soakedwithwaterversuswhenitissoakedinthesaltwater.Studentswereasked to draw what they saw and describe the process. They were also encouraged to write down questions while comparing and contrasting. The class ended with Mikesummarisingthekeypointsaboutosmosisandwritingthemontheboard. Compared to other teachers, Mike was most notable in providing a rich sensory engaging class. Throughout the school year, he used charts, manipulatives, overhead transparencies, pictures, posters, diagrams, etc. During my year long observations, for each lesson, he employed visual aids, ranging from three to ten, and did demonstrations and hands-on activities to create a rich context for students to comprehend the concept. According to him, teachingthroughmultiplesensescannotonlymaketheabstractconcepteasierto visualise, but also keep the students’ concentration and motivation high. Here are few students’ comments at interviews about Mike’s teaching. Downloaded by [University of Cape Town Libraries] at 01:31 05 June 2015 His way of teaching is good because he gets everything understandable. I like biology. EverydayIlookforwardto his biologyclassbecause youdon’t know what kind ofstuffheis going tobring. Heusesa lotofvisualaidsandthatmakes learning much easier and fun. I really like his questions to make us think. We are all involved in class by his questions. We can find each other’s ideas too. Iprefer hisquestions.Ifheasksaquestionandyouanswer,then youknow what you are learning. Also the group activities like we did yesterday are much better. Promoting language use and scientific thinking through group work Believing in cooperativeand experiential learning, Lisa regularly used group work and hands-on activities to help students with the understanding of the abstractconcepts.These activities,using theidea of the ZoneofProximalDevel- opment, where the teacher supported, aided, and prodded for students’ own exploration of meaning through oral interaction, fostered students’ language acquisition and content knowledge development. Students’ talking about the task also enhanced their language learning through authentic and meaningful communicationwitheachother.Thefollowingisanepisodetakenfromanactiv- ity where students learned how a sickle cell disease was inherited, a topic of

11. Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 48 genetics, by randomly choosing two beans from the mix of the red and white beansrepresenting sickleand normalcell alleles repeatedly. Noticenear the end Lisa made sure that not only students generated more conversations among themselves and had fun in doing the activity,but also comprehended an impor- tantconcept:thatishow andwhythesicklecell alleles,represented by red beans decreased as the population reproduced itself from one generation to another. I got AA. (meaning two white beans) Yeah, I got SS. (meaning two red beans) Oh, cool, she got SS. What did you get? SS. Put them back. You screw up, you cannot put these beans back. These are with sickle diseases. They are dead already. What did you get? (the one did not close his eyes in picking) AA. All right, let’s count them. (report to the teacher) We got 15 AAs, 2 SSs, and 4 ASs. Why are there always more white beans than red beans in this population? Because we have more white beans. Why do we have more white beans? Because white is dominant. Why is it dominant? Because they don’t have disease and they are going to live longer. That’s it, that’s it. Does everybody hear that? If you have two SSs, the individuals are going to die and not to pass their genes on. So therefore, that number of SSs is going to decrease in the population. Student 1: Student 2: Student 3: Student 4: Student 3: Student 1: Downloaded by [University of Cape Town Libraries] at 01:31 05 June 2015 Student 3: Student 4: Student 3: Teacher: Student 3: Teacher: Student 2: Teacher: Student 1: Teacher: In this group activity, Lisa intentionally withdrew herself first from the teacher’s role and designed a task which students had to work with each other andconversein ordertosolvetheproblem.Payattentiontothegroup members’ interaction; obviously the anxiety to speak in front of the whole class was reduced and they focused more on the task and the meaning rather than on the accurate form of language structure. They used more turns and everyone had a chance to speak. Also, they spoke in a dialogue fashion, revealing several func- tions of language use, such as asking questions, clarifying, commenting, joking, demanding,etc. Thisrich language use very oftendidnot occurwiththeteacher and the student interaction; as shown in the above, once Lisa came to check for their understanding of the topic of the lesson, the students’ responses returned back to typical classroom talks. Explicitly teaching learning skills Lisa also believed that ESL students needed an explicit instruction on certain learning skills such as dictionaryuse and strategies for reading comprehension. She periodically brought in dictionaries and bilingual glossaries and required everystudentinherclasstobringabilingualdictionarytoherbiologyclass.Here

12. Integrating Language and Content 49 isanexample ofLisa’s bringing students’attentiontouse dictionariestofind the meaning of the new words and effective ways of reading: Whatdoesaccessorymean?Whohasadictionary?Thequestion says: what are the accessory organs of the digestive system? What does accessory mean? A job. Who has a dictionary? What does accessory mean? (looked into the dictionary) Accessory means additional. Additional(wrote on the board ‘additional’besides accessory). What about your bilingual dictionaries, what did it say about accessory? (Students called out the definitions in their native languages) OK, good. Once you find out the meaning of the word, put down the meaning on the side of accessory. Then continue reading. (paused and gave students time to takenotes from their dictionaries) Any questions? Does it also mean main? There is a difference between accessory and main. Accessory meansthere arepartsofthedigestivesystem thatareimportant but they are not the main part of the digestive system. So acces- sory means the top of the stomach (drew a stomach on the board). Are we all clear? Remember, you put starsnext to these important parts so later on you can come back and review. Teacher: Student: Teacher: Student 1: Teacher: Downloaded by [University of Cape Town Libraries] at 01:31 05 June 2015 Student 2: Teacher: In this observation, Lisa was teaching her students not only the content but also the reading skills. She not only told but also modelled for her students how to approacha new wordin thereadingandhow to highlight key conceptsforread- ing comprehension and review. She paused to let her students take notes and follow through the procedure. Students all liked Lisa’s way of teaching as they said the following at the interviews: [Lisa]explainsthingsvery clearlyandpatientlytomakesurethateveryone understands. WhenIwasfirstplacedintheESLbiologyclass,Ithoughtitmustbeadumb class. Now, I know these students in that class and they are smart. Our teacher made us talk and have fun in the biology class. [Lisa] really teaches us things we need for school. For example, she demands we have our bilingual English-English dictionary. I learned new words from these dictionaries and my reading has improved. dictionary and later buy an Acknowledging culturally varied ways of schooling and using a modified classroom talk Recognising that some of his students were not used to participating in class discussionsand tending to defer to theteacher asan authorityin their schooling back home, Mike used varied strategies to constantly train his students to talk aboutscienceinclass.Mike’slecturewasloudandclear.Heusedwaittimewhen heaskedaquestion.Hedidnotonlycallonthosewhoraisedtheirhands,butalso

13. Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 50 those who kept silent once he sensed they were ready. For example, knowing that one of his Chinese students had been in his biology class for almost a year, but still did not speak a word in class, he tried to urge her to join in class discussion. So another reflex is blinking. Everybody blinks, you blink your eye. It is not voluntary. Reflexes are involuntary. How does blinking protect you? Do you know what protect means? To keep you from harm. OK, sohow does thatprotect you?How areyoudoingthis with your eye, opening and closing? How is that protection? Win Xiang? (didn’t answer) Want to help her out? (pointed to her neighbour) Keeping it from [becoming] dry. Did you hear what she said? (asked Win Xiang again) (nodded her head but still didn’t answer verbally). Did you hear whatshe said just now? Can you repeat whatyou said? (asked the whole class) Keeping it from [becoming] dry. Can you repeat what he just said? (walked to Win Xiang and asked her for the third time) Keeping it from dry weather [sic]. Good. Can somebody repeat what Win Xiang said loud so that everyone can hear it? When your eyes are dry you blink to moisten it [sic]. Guys, did you hear thatnow? It keeps it from drying and keeps dirt from getting into the eye, so it protects it. Teacher: Student 1: Teacher: Downloaded by [University of Cape Town Libraries] at 01:31 05 June 2015 Win Xiang: Teacher: Student 3: Teacher: Win Xiang: Teacher: Student 4: Teacher: Win Xiang: Teacher: Student 5: Teacher: Here we see an example of Mike using several turns to get a quiet Chinese student to participate in the class discussion. Two interesting elements in the teachingcomes out.First,insteadofleaving the quiet student alone,Mike held a high expectation for her. At the same time he elicited responses from other studentsfirsttosetupanon-threateningenvironmenttoprompther tospeakup intheend.ThisincidentturnedouttobeaturningpointforthisChinesestudent. After that I noticed an obvious change in her that she participated frequently in class. Appreciating diversity and using students’ prior knowledge in biology teaching Having taken courses in multicultural education and second language learn- ing and teaching in her master’s programme, Sally was keenly aware of her students’ language and cultural backgrounds and the struggle they went through in learning the new language and the new culture. This understanding led her to approach ESL students differently from the way that she approached her native English students as she remarked at the interview. Therearesomanyculturesinmyclass.EvenPakistanichildrenfromdiffer- ent areas of Pakistan take different foods. And we have Bengali students

14. Integrating Language and Content 51 andstudentsfromIndia,theyarefromonepartoftheworld,buttheyareso different. And there are Chinese children and they are different all over, whichmakesitrich,butalsoatthesametimeitcanmakethemfeelleftoutif youdon’ttalkaboutsomethingrelatedtothem…Iamtryingtogetthemto feelcomfortablenomatterwhattheiransweris,it’sagoodanswer.Wewill workfromthereandwewilluseitasabase,maybenottheanswerthatIam looking for, maybe it’s just the stepping stone. So they feel comfortable enough to take risks and I think that helps the learning process… Observing Sally’s class, one finds her bringing in students’ prior knowledge and home cultural and educationalexperiences to the learning task whenever it was possible. Sally’s classwasnever quiet, instead,students were active partici- pants in class discussion, asking questions and responding to a problem. Students’ questions and opinions were not ignored or dismissed but listened, validated,andappreciatedbytheteacher.Inher class,eventhenewcomerswere not left alone. They were arranged to sit with the students who spoke the same language so thatthey could translatethe lesson to them in the first few weeks or theywere assignedtositcloseto theteachersothatshecouldgive extrahelpand checking on their understanding constantly. Sally believed that the challenge for her students in learning biology was to make sense of the concepts that they were learning through actively participat- ing the learning process. Sally wanted her lesson to build on what students already knew, thecultural and educationalbackgrounds that they brought with themthroughclassdiscussionabout science.Becauseofher effortsand a sincere and positive attitude,her students felt comfortableto aska question, to respond to her questions,andtocommunicatefortherealpurpose oflearning biology.In a lesson on female menstrual cycle, an active dialogue was initiated by the studentandaninteractionbetweenthestudentandtheteacherdealingwithbiol- ogy is shown in the following class observation excerpt. Downloaded by [University of Cape Town Libraries] at 01:31 05 June 2015 Miss, I have a question. Go ahead. When does the female cycle start? When does the female menstrual cycle start in an average girl? Remember the article I brought you in earlier. It could start as early as 8 or 9, or it could start at 13 or 14. Even 19. What made you say that? My mom said they can have babies in that age [19]. Oh,that’s true.The female menstrual cycle canbegin asearlyas 8 years or as late as 19 years of age. It is individual. For every singlegirlitisdifferent.Onegirlmaystartsay10yearsofage,11 yearsofageandyet her sistermaystartat15.Everygirlisalittle different. Student 1: Teacher: Student 1: Teacher: Student 2: Teacher: Student 2: Teacher: Here we see students take manylinguistic risks by contributingto a meaningful discussion. Students’ genuine questions about the topic and their perspectives gained from home were well accepted and validated. Building on that under- standing, Sally elaborated and reinforced the key concept. Sally’s sensitivity to

15. Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 52 students’culturalknowledge wasalsoreflected onher flexibility in allowingher students to include their home cultural component in the projects and home- work. For example, several of her students used their home country diets to make a food pyramid. Also, many students had interviews with doctors or nurses from their own countries for their science projects. Students in Sally’s class all liked her way of teaching biology, and many students noted that she was their best teacher among all teachers in that school. Here are few excerpts from students’ interview responses: Sheismybestin thisschool.She oncebroughtin acrayfishforustolookat. That makes me remember. Yesterday she brought in a model of the cell membraneofahuman’sbrain.It’sexciting.Biologyismyfavoritesubject. Downloaded by [University of Cape Town Libraries] at 01:31 05 June 2015 [Sally] is funny and she is nice to foreign students. [Sally] explainsthingsvery clearlyso thateveryoneunderstands.Also,she answers all the questions that we ask. I think the best way for a teacher to teach is like her. She is talking biology like giving us a story about biology. I am so interested in listening to her stories about biology and getting to ask or answer questions about them. Enriching the curriculum and providing a rich language use environment Students taught from the Regents Biology Variance curriculum conducted four science projects related to the topics that they learned throughout the year. These four projects were a report on the visit to American Natural History Museum, monthly journal entries on their observations of a natural phenome- non or an experimental study with the plants and animals, reading report on a specific medical science development in the magazines and newspapers, and interview report on someone in the field of medical sciences. One student from AlbaniawhohadbeenintheUSforhalfayearinterviewedherfatherandwrote, I interviewed an Albanian doctor specialised in cardiology. He has been working for 30 years at the medical field. I interviewed him because it was my desire to recognise his interesting career, which is dedicated to human service… At the end of this investigation I asked myself that do I want to enter thiscareer?Myearlychildhooddreamhasbeentobeadoctor.Raised in a family where my father is a doctor and looking to him and admiring him for what he was doing, I always wondering what else can I be better that being a doctor. Having this dream I have been working hard all these years to gain a strong background in school. One student from Indonesia who had been in the US for three years wrote journalentriesabouther experiment withandobservationofthetwoplants,one with sunlight and the other without any light. Here is an excerpt from her journal. April 29, 1998 The plant [Accent Carmine Impatiens] in the shoe box is almost dying. The unbornbabyflowerisalldead.Someoftheleavesarealreadyfallenapart.I

16. Integrating Language and Content 53 could see the difference now between the second plant [and this one]. The second plant [at the window] is stillgreen. Most of its leaves are green and little turn black… I give them water. The second plant looks very nice and theleavesarewidelikeyesterday’sleaves.Thebranchesaregrowingtaller. By now I could answer my own questions between the two plants that I experimented… Another student from Bosniaand who had been in the US for only half a year wrote a letter to The New York Timeseditor to argue againstcloningafterreading articles on cloning in that newspaper. It’s not an easything to have a clear idea about something like cloningthat is new and seems to be interesting. By thisentire picture thatIgave, Ithink that supporting and approving the idea of ‘cloning’ destroys the saintly conceptofthefamilyisandahealthyfamilyismoreusefulthan‘cloning’is. Downloaded by [University of Cape Town Libraries] at 01:31 05 June 2015 AthirdstudentfromBangladeshandlivingintheUSforayearandhalfwrote abouthisreflection onthetriptoAmericanMuseum ofNaturalHistorytosee an exhibition on diversity and evolution. Ihavelearneda lotaboutearliesthumansandtheiractivities.Ialsolearned about our earliest ancestors and how were they like with us. I may never wouldhavelearned itif didn’tgo to themuseum.Thanksonceagainto my science teacher to gave me an opportunity to do my project about our ancestors. Although the above students’ writing has errors, the idea shines through. It reveals thatwhen students arechallenged to learn in an authenticandmeaning- fulway,theywillmakeleapsindevelopingbothlanguageandacademiccontent knowledge. The reading and writing experiences that these students had extended their thinking and expressed their intelligence about biology in a rele- vantandanew way.Bylinkingbiologylearningwithreadingandwritingactivi- ties, teachers fostered students’ both language and academic learning skills simultaneously. Connected with the teaching topics, all three teachers often assigned their classesreadingpassagestakenfrompopularsciencemagazinesandnewspapers and writing assignments based on the reading. For example, in learning about environmental issues, students in Sally’s class were assigned to read a poem about how our earth changed into only a ball a few feet in diameter, floating around us (see Figure 1). The reading to writing questions were: (1) (2) Do you agree with the author? Why or why not? Is the Earth a special place? Why or why not? One student wrote: Yes,Iagreewiththeauthorbecauseitistrue.Whentheearthissmallevery- body will take care of it. When it’s huge nobody can take care of it. They cannotseewhat’shappeningtotheworld,howwearedestroyingtheearth, andhowwearekillinglotsoflivingthingsforsurvivesomepeople. Ithink the earth is special because it’s very beauty and wonder. It has nature,

17. Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 54 animals, people and most special about it is that it’s the only one. So as future generations we just want to say ‘People should take care of this earth’. We should not only care for ourselves. We should also take care of animals, trees, etc. If the earth were only A few feet in diameter, floating a few feet above a field somewhere, people would come from everywhere to marvel at it. people would walk around it, marveling at its big pools of water, its little pools and the water flowing between the pools. People would marvel at the bumps on it, and the holes in it, and they would marvel at the very thin layer of gas surrounding it and the water suspend ed in the gas. The people would marvel at all the creatures walking around the surface of the ball, and at the creature in the water. The people would declare it precious because it was the only one, and they would protect it so that it would not be hurt. The ball would be the greatest wonder known and people would come to behold it, to be healed, to gain knowledge, to know beauty and to wonder how it it could be. People would love it, and defend it with their lives, because they would somehow know that their lives, their own roundness, could be nothing without it. If the earth were only a few feet in diameter Downloaded by [University of Cape Town Libraries] at 01:31 05 June 2015 Figure 1 The Floating Earth - Author unknown (Winter, 1990) As shown in the above, a reading activity here was used as a content specific activity and was introduced creatively and meaningfully to make connections withthetextbookconcepts.Unlike thediscursivediscourseused in thetextbook writing, the poem was written using much personalised vocabularyand simple sentencestructures.Thus,studentswhohaddifficultywithreadingthetextbook could easily read the poem for meaning. The poem was also used as a sound board for reflection that facilitates thinking. By doing extra reading like this studentsnotonlyfullyunderstoodtheconcept,butalsolearnedtoexpressthem- selves in science. Conclusion The findings of the study offer implications for teachers to work effectively with linguistically and culturally diverse students. The three teachers’ approaches to these students and the learning tasks they designed, though varied, are still similar in principle in that they all strongly believed in the abili- ties oftheir ESL students.They all verbalised and demonstrated their belief that allstudentscanlearn.Thosebeliefs andexpectationsareconveyed throughtheir daily teaching. As Lisa, Sally and Mike have shown, when there is a language barrier, when students lack background knowledge about a subject, and when the new concept is abstract,instead of demanding students to figure it out, they

18. Integrating Language and Content 55 adapt their teaching to create the maximum opportunity for learning. With the rapidly growth of non-native English speaking students in science classrooms, this kind of understanding, orientation, and effort becomes important. In their creation of a positive and challenging biology learning environment, the three teachers used a range of strategies consistent with the literature of teaching diverse students in both second language teaching and science educa- tion(Banks&Banks,1997;Carrasquilllo&Rodriguez,1995;Chamot&O’Malley, 1994; Enright & McCloskey, 1988; Freeman & Freeman, 1998; Gersten, 1996; Krashen, 1985;Swain & Carroll, 1987). In working with diverse students whose native language is not English, they are more attentive to their students’ back- grounds and cultural differences (Freeman & Freeman, 1998; Scarcella, 1992). They all took on the role of both a language teacher and a science teacher (Rich- ard-Amato & Snow, 1992; Genesee, 1993; Spurlin, 1995). In their classrooms, language and biologyare not independent ofeachother but closely interwoven. The three teachers all tailoredtheir instructionto ease students’ difficulties with content knowledge by adjusting their input and using various ways to convey meaning(Enright&McCloskey,1988;Krashen,1985).Whentheseteachersshow that they do care and bring content knowledge to a level that students can comprehend, students do appreciate and learn. Both the teachers and students in this study have articulated a need for more enrichment andelaborationofthecontentknowledgeratherthansimplification. Extra readings, more student and student interactions, and after school science projectsasdemonstratedhereseemtobebothpromotinglanguagedevelopment and providing the intellectual challenge. Two major linguistic and cognitive benefits ofusing thesespeaking, reading,and writingactivitiesin biologylearn- ing are worthy noting. One, the experiences that these students had, such as interviews with a scientist, a series of observations of a scientific problem, a reflection on a museum visit and on reading a scientific article, have enabled them to make the connection between science learning in school and in real life. Two, teachers’ use of reading, writing, listening, and speaking activities, specially Lisa’s group work, reduced speaking anxiety and enabled students to communicate science and use speaking to do scientific reasoning. These activi- ties provide the students with ample opportunities and rich contexts for active language use and language and literacy skills development (Chamot & O’Mal- ley, 1994;Freeman & Freeman, 1998;Snow et al., 1989).All this showsthatwhen working with linguistically and culturally diverse students, subject matter area teachers do have an important role to play to speed up these students’ second language learning and their academic success. The findings of this study points to the need in teacher education for more exposure and practice of responsive teaching to linguistically and culturally diverse students. In teacher training programmes, preservice teachers need not only to learn about established research theories, but also field tested methods and techniques for dealing with diverse learners. Surprisingly, among the three teachers,onlySally had taken coursesin second language teaching andlearning andmulticulturaleducation.Itisessentialforallteacherstohaveanunderstand- ingofmulticulturalandmultilingualissuesandtraininginteachingpracticesfor dealing with linguistic and cultural differences before they go into the teaching field. As has been shown by this study, at the high schoollevel, facing demand- Downloaded by [University of Cape Town Libraries] at 01:31 05 June 2015

19. Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 56 ing subject matter standards, science teachers need more varied and detailed pedagogical knowledge in order to tailor their lessons to their students’ needs. Knowledge about second language learners and modelling ofeffective teaching will benefit all teachers who are working with ESL students on a daily basis. The effective strategies and techniques used by the three biology teachers offer us models for effective teaching practices.As our public schoolsin the21st century are becoming more and more linguistically and culturally diverse, it becomes incumbent foralltheteacherstobecome sensitivetowardthesediverse students’ backgrounds and needs and modify their instruction so that second language students can succeed academically as they develop English proficiency. Downloaded by [University of Cape Town Libraries] at 01:31 05 June 2015 Correspondence Any correspondence should be directed to Yu Ren Dong, AssociateProfessor of Education,Department of Secondary Education,and Youth Services, Queens College, City University of New York, Flushing, NY 11367 USA. References Adamson, H.D. (1990)ESL students’ use of academic skills in content courses. English for Specific Purposes 9, 67–87. Anderson, O.R. (1990)The Teaching and Learning of Biologyin the United States. New York: Teachers College, Columbia University, Second IEA Science Study. Atwater, M.M. (1994)Research on cultural diversity in the classroom. In D.L. Gabel(ed.) HandbookofResearchonScience Teachingand Learning(A Project of the National Science Teachers Association) (pp. 558–576). New York: Macmillan. Banks, J.A. and Banks, C.A.M. (1997) Multicultural Education: Issues and Perspectives(3rd edn). Boston, MA: Allyn And Bacon. Bernhardt, E., Hirsh, G., Teemant, A. and Rodriguez-Munoz, M. (1996) Language diversity and science: Science for limited English proficient students. The Science Teacher 2, 25–27. Carrasquilllo, A.L. andRodriguez, V. (1995)LanguageMinorityStudents intheMainstream Classroom. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Chamot, A.U. and O’Malley, J.M. (1994)The CALLA Handbook:ImplementingtheCognitive Academic Language Learning Approach. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company. Cummins, J. (1994) The acquisition of English as a second language. In K. Spangenberg-Urbschat and R. Pritchard (eds) Kids Come in all Languages: Reading Instruction for ESL Students (pp. 36–62). Newark, DE: International Reading Association. Enright, S. and McCloskey, M.L. (1988) Integrating English: Developing English Language and Literacy in the Multicultural Classroom. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company. Freeman, V. and Freeman, D.E. (1998) ESL/EFL Teaching: Principles for Success. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Gao, L. (1998) Cultural context of school science teaching and learning in the People’s Republic of China. Science Education 83, 1–13. Genesee, F. (1993) All teachers are second language teachers. The Canadian Modern Language Review 50, 47–53. Gersten, R.(1996)The doubledemands ofteachingEnglish language learners. Educational Leadership53 (5), 18–22. Gibbs, A. and Lawson, A.E. (1992) The nature of scientific thinking as reflected by the workofbiologistsandbiologytextbooks.TheAmericanBiologyTeacher54(3),137–151. Gonzales, N. and Schallert, D.L. (1999) An integrative analysis of the cognitive

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