Investigating student difficulties in English-medium secondary classes: A functional linguist and a science educator in collaboration

IF 3.1 1区文学 Q1 EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

Journal of English for Academic Purposes Pub Date : 2023-11-22 DOI:10.1016/j.jeap.2023.101315

Corinne Maxwell-Reid, Kwok-chi Lau

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

This paper reports on an exploration into difficulties in junior secondary science lessons taught through English in the largely Cantonese-speaking context of Hong Kong. The study was carried out by an educational linguist and a science education specialist working in collaboration, and identified difficulties through student questionnaires, interviews with teachers, and classroom observation. Understandings of genre based in systemic functional linguistics were used in conjunction with knowledge of the science curriculum to investigate these difficulties. Extracts from lessons and teaching materials on energy conversion are discussed, with additional reference to interviews and questionnaires. Analysis revealed the influence of teaching materials on coherence between curricular objectives and teacher discourse. In particular, complex description detracted from explanations, affecting student understanding of the lesson.

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调查学生在以英语为媒介的中学课堂上的困难:一个功能语言学家和一个科学教育家的合作

本文旨在探讨在香港以粤语为主的环境下，用英语教授初中科学课程的困难。这项研究是由一名教育语言学家和一名科学教育专家合作进行的，并通过学生问卷调查、对教师的采访和课堂观察发现了困难。基于系统功能语言学对体裁的理解与科学课程的知识相结合来调查这些困难。讨论了有关能量转换的课程和教材摘录，并附加了访谈和问卷调查。分析揭示了教材对课程目标与教师话语一致性的影响。特别是，复杂的描述影响了解释，影响了学生对课程的理解。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of English for Academic Purposes Multiple-

CiteScore

6.60

自引率

13.30%

发文量

审稿时长

57 days

期刊介绍： The Journal of English for Academic Purposes provides a forum for the dissemination of information and views which enables practitioners of and researchers in EAP to keep current with developments in their field and to contribute to its continued updating. JEAP publishes articles, book reviews, conference reports, and academic exchanges in the linguistic, sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic description of English as it occurs in the contexts of academic study and scholarly exchange itself.