Language in Physics Instruction

Krabbe, H.; Rincke, Karsten; Aleksov, Robert

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-87391-2_13

Cited by 2 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…Students in classes in which the mother tongue is the MI have a better understanding of the course materials and better comprehension of lectures; they do better in terms of content analysis and comprehension of the content of textbooks and lectures. By contrast, there are several language barriers in EMI classes, and students spend more time and effort to understand the scientific topics during class discussions; this finding is in line with those of other researchers (e.g., Espinas & Fuchs, 2022;Krabbe et al, 2021;Wilson, 2021). Higher proficiency in the MI will lead to better cognition and understanding of the scientific content, whereas poor IC due to low proficiency in the MI will lead to misunderstandings and weak comprehension of the course learning outcomes.…”

Section: Mother Tongue As MI and Icsupporting

confidence: 85%

“…Also, Wilson (2021) found that low MI proficiency hinders students’ comprehension and achievements of learning outcomes in US public schools. Krabbe et al (2021) stressed that human language is crucial for expressing complex and abstract ideas in physics: they found that MI proficiency correlates with the understanding of complex physics concepts, and they recommended that language promotion should be an inherent part of physics teaching.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Instructional Communication and Medium of Instruction: Content Instructors’ Perspectives

Alhamami

2023

Sage Open

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This paper hypothesizes that higher proficiency in the medium of instruction (MI) is a precondition for effective instructional communication (IC), with the latter being essential for higher cognitive processes, positive affects, and better performance in the learning environment. The reported study used questionnaires comprising open-ended questions to survey 341 content instructors who taught on 26 undergraduate programs with English as the MI (EMI) in a Saudi public university. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the resulting qualitative data, and the results reveal four themes. The first theme is the advantages of using the students’ mother tongue (Arabic in this case) as an MI; the findings show that doing so is related to robust IC, with the latter leading to better cognition, positive affects, and stronger performance in the learning environment. The second theme is the advantages of using EMI, which can be classified into three main areas: more educational resources, better international research collaboration, and more international job opportunities. The third theme is the use of code-switching in EMI classes because of poor IC; instructors code-switch for three purposes: cognitive, affective, and performance. The fourth theme is suggestions from participants for how to improve IC in EMI programs: the findings recommend the use of IC theory and linguistic relativity to examine EMI programs; also, collaboration among IC researchers, cognitive linguists, and EMI researchers will help understand how the MI influences students’ success; furthermore, policymakers must design curricula that consider the perspectives of content instructors and provide them with training to overcome several IC barriers in EMI programs.

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Section: Mother Tongue As MI and Icsupporting

confidence: 85%

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Instructional Communication and Medium of Instruction: Content Instructors’ Perspectives

Alhamami

2023

Sage Open

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“…On the other hand, developing proficiency in the language of instruction is a major learning goal in the science classroom (Härtig & Höttecke, 2022). The language use of natural sciences demands precision, accuracy, and clarity, and in science classes students are required to develop the ability to describe, explain, and communicate scientific concepts and phenomena using scientific language (Krabbe et al, 2021). Therefore, besides acquiring content-specific knowledge and abilities within science education, students also need to learn-and need to have opportunities to learn-the specialized vocabulary, terminology, grammatical features, and conventions of scientific language within the language of instruction used in their science classes (Schleppegrell, 2004;Wellington & Osborne, 2001).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A minority language as language of instruction in the science classroom: A case study of a science teacher teaching at a German-speaking school in Namibia

Feser,

Haagen-Schützenhöfer

2023

EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed

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Previous studies on the challenges teachers face when teaching science in German, as well as their corresponding coping strategies, feature a significant blind spot because—to our knowledge—they have only been conducted in regions, where German is the majority language. To address this blind spot, the present case study explores the perspectives of a science teacher on the role of German as language of instruction in a context in which German is a minority language. To this end, we conducted a narrative interview with a science teacher at a German-speaking school in Namibia and analyzed it qualitative-reconstructively. Our data analysis revealed that two meta-themes, which we labeled “teaching while navigating a monolingual norm” and “teaching while handling shortages,” pattern the key challenges and coping strategies of our interviewed teacher when she is teaching science in German language. The implications of this finding are outlined at the end of this paper.

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Language in Physics Instruction

Cited by 2 publications

References 20 publications

Instructional Communication and Medium of Instruction: Content Instructors’ Perspectives

Instructional Communication and Medium of Instruction: Content Instructors’ Perspectives

A minority language as language of instruction in the science classroom: A case study of a science teacher teaching at a German-speaking school in Namibia

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