Sense-Making Through Hybrid Talk: High-Achieving Secondary Students' Language Use during Practical Work

Abstract

This study contributes to discussions on facilitating students' sense-making in science by analyzing the utterances of high-achieving students in dialogues during practical work and identifying characteristics of their language use and learning processes. The context of the study is a general science course at an upper secondary school in Norway. During four lessons, students from two classes conducted three exercises in electrochemistry. Data consist of video recordings from group work and whole-class dialogues, students' written explanations, and their grades in science. Using the Bakhtinian concept of hybrid constructions (i.e., utterances including both vernacular and scientific elements), we analyze dialogues about scientific concepts and possible explanations for observations made during practical work. The analysis focuses on mixed-ability groups that include one or two high-achieving students. These students' successful learning processes enable the identification of language use that is part of sense-making dialogues. We found that all students participating in dialogues used a mixture of vernacular talk, hybrid constructions, and scientific language during their learning processes. The content of scientific explanations proposed by high-achieving students initially tended to be correct but superficial. The content then became more complex and hybrid and displayed errors and inaccuracies when students discussed detailed explanatory mechanisms, and finally, it became complex and largely correct. The results indicate that the high-achieving students' use of hybrid constructions during practical work was beneficial for their learning. We discuss challenges related to creating situations in science teaching that encourage all students to engage in hybrid talk during sense-making dialogues.