The Influence of 8ative Language on Ghanaian Junior Secondary School Students\' Understanding of some Science Concepts

African Journal of Educational Studies in Mathematics and Sciences Pub Date : 2008-11-19 DOI:10.4314/AJESMS.V3I1.38602

E. Ngman-Wara

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引用次数: 2

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate the effect of the native language of Junior Secondary School (JSS) students on the meanings they give to science words when used in and out of science context. Two multiple choice tests involving twenty-five common words in science were administered to 1028 students (573 males and 455 females) from twelve Junior Secondary Schools (6 urban and 6 rural) in Northern Ghana. The tests first sought to find out the extent to which the students' understand the science concepts and secondly to find out how their native language influenced this understanding. The general performance of the students was very low. They performed better on ‘science concepts with native language equivalent words' than those without ‘native language equivalent words' with percentage mean scores of 32.2% and 29.1% respectively. In this light, the paper argues that the native language of the learner has an influence on the students' understanding of science concepts and that the native language of the student can not be ignored during science instruction. There is therefore the need to develop language register for science instruction. African Journal of Educational Studies in Mathematics and Sciences Vol. 3 2005: pp. 43-52

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母语对加纳初中生对某些科学概念理解的影响

本研究的目的是探讨初中生的母语对他们在科学语境中和在科学语境外使用科学词汇的意义的影响。对来自加纳北部12所初中(6所城市和6所农村)的1028名学生(573名男性和455名女性)进行了涉及25个科学常用词的两项选择题测试。这些测试首先是为了找出学生对科学概念的理解程度，其次是为了找出他们的母语如何影响这种理解。学生们的总体表现很差。他们在“有母语对应词的科学概念”方面的表现比没有“有母语对应词”的学生好，平均得分分别为32.2%和29.1%。因此，本文认为学习者的母语会影响学生对科学概念的理解，在科学教学中，学生的母语是不可忽视的。因此，有必要为科学教学开发语言语域。非洲数学与科学教育研究杂志Vol. 3 2005: pp. 43-52

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African Journal of Educational Studies in Mathematics and Sciences

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