Scientific literacy: A systemic functional linguistics perspective

Fang, Zhihui

doi:10.1002/sce.20050

Cited by 336 publications

(244 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…ESL students are often required to meet institutional standards for English language proficiency. However, science and scientific language embodies a specialised and unique view of thinking and reasoning that uses a distinct variety of language (Fang, 2005).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To analyse the qualitative value of the written responses, each Quick Write and Final Analysis answer was scored categorically Level 1, Level 2 or Level 3 based on Bloom's taxonomy (Table 1) which is designed to reflect higher-order critical thinking (Fang, 2005). Bloom's Taxonomy details 6 cognitive learning objectives from lowest to highest order thinking as knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Use of Content Based Instruction and Socratic Discussion for ESL Undergraduate Biomedical Science Students to Develop Critical Thinking Skills

Burder

Tangalakis²,

Hryciw³

2014

JCT

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Content based language instruction can assist English as a second language (ESL) students to achieve better learning and teaching outcomes, however, it is primarily used to understand content, and may not help to develop critical analysis skills. Here we describe a pilot study that used a 'Socratic' small-group discussion in addition to content based instruction, to enhance critical thinking skills in ESL Biomedical Science students. Students were provided a detailed protocol for the analysis of a research journal manuscript and participated in a Socratic discussion. Students wrote evaluative pieces to summarize the manuscript's topics, both before and after the small-group discussion. Overall, a third of all students displayed an improved critical thinking score based on Bloom's taxonomy. However, only 20% of ESL students improved their critical thinking score, while 42% of non-ESL students improved. Despite this, students agreed that the Socratic discussion improved their understanding of science and enhanced their ability to review scientific literature. Importantly, ESL students believed that the discussion made them feel positive about their ability to read scientific literature. Thus, specific tools for enhancing critical thinking in the ESL student group should further be developed, with investigation of the retention of these skills warranted.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Use of Content Based Instruction and Socratic Discussion for ESL Undergraduate Biomedical Science Students to Develop Critical Thinking Skills

Burder

Tangalakis²,

Hryciw³

2014

JCT

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“…Språk och i synnerhet skriftliga texter som används inom det naturvetenskapliga ämnesområdet kännetecknas ofta av en hög grad av informationstäthet, abstraktion och teknikalitet (Fang, 2005;Halliday & Martin, 1993;Veel, 1998). Tekniska termer och abstrakta begrepp är centrala delar av en naturvetenskaplig diskurs.…”

Section: Naturvetenskapliga Och Vardagliga Språk I Undervisningenunclassified

“…Även andra grammatiska metaforer, exempelvis participformer såsom "vattenlevande" och "frilevande", bidrar till en förtätning av nominalgrupperna, och är vanliga i mer beskrivande texter (Nygård Larsson, 2011). Detta språkbruk kan sammantaget skapa svårig-heter för elever (Serder & Jakobsson, 2016) samtidigt som grammatiska metaforer är en viktig resurs i skapandet av ett naturvetenskapligt språk eftersom det medger att processer kan diskuteras som fenomen (Fang, 2005). Painter, Derewianka & Torr (2007) menar att en medveten användning av grammatiska metaforer blir särskilt central för språkutvecklingen i den naturvetenskapliga undervisningen under de senare skolåren.…”

Section: Naturvetenskapliga Och Vardagliga Språk I Undervisningenunclassified

Semantiska vågor – elevers diskursiva rörlighet i gruppsamtal

Larsson

Jakobsson

2017

NorDiNa

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Högskolan i Halmstad och Malmö högskola, Sverige anders.jakobsson@mah.se Pia Nygård Larsson medverkar för närvarande i två forskningsprojekt om språkliga perspektiv på lärande i naturvetenskapliga skolämnen. Hennes forskning rör ämnesundervisningens språkliga, textuella och didaktiska dimensioner. Pia Nygård Larssons doktorsavhandling från 2011 bär titeln "Biologiämnets texter -text, språk och lärande i en språkligt heterogen gymnasieklass". Hon är fil dr i svenska med didaktisk inriktning och universitetslektor i svenska som andraspråk vid Malmö högskola, fakulteten för lärande och samhälle.Anders Jakobsson is the former research leader of the project Large-scale Studies and Students' Achievement in Science (PELS), the Network of Re-analyses of Large Scale Studies (RASS), and the research project about The relation between trends on large-scale science studies and how teaching and learning are constituted in science classrooms (MAW 2013(MAW -2016. During later years the research interest have been related to how science teaching and learning are constituted and outlined in various school environments from the perspectives of classroom discourse and use of language in classroom activities. AbstractIn order to use and understand a scientific language students need the ability to move between everyday and scientific discourses. This article analyses exploratory talks and use of language when students collaboratively discuss a science assignment. The aim is to develop an analytical tool that can facilitate understanding and visualization of students' language use. The concepts of discursive mobility (Nygård Larsson, 2011) and semantic waves (Martin, 2013; Maton, 2013) constitute the starting point in the analysis and the students' discussions are explored by using the concepts of semantic gravity and semantic density. The results display that all of the students' conversations contain a certain degree of discursive mobility. However, there exists differences in how the conversations move between everyday and scientific languages and in terms of how successful the students are to formulate a specific subject language. In some conversations, everyday expressions become a productive resource and a bridge to a more scientific language. InledningSenare års forskning inom naturvetenskapernas didaktik har alltmer riktats mot språkliga perspektiv på lärande i de naturvetenskapliga ämnena. I grundskolan är målet inte primärt att eleverna ska tala som naturvetare, men de behöver utveckla ett funktionellt språk där naturvetenskapliga termer och begrepp används på ett ändamålsenligt sätt och som ett redskap för att utveckla förståelse. Att elever kan förstå och använda ett sådant språk är således också centralt för deras lärande. För att åstadkomma denna utveckling behöver de närma sig den naturvetenskapliga praktiken, som i skolan kan beskrivas som en form av hybridpraktik med hybrida former av språkbruk (Bakhtin, 1981).

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“…결국 과학 학습에서 언어가 갖는 중요 성을 과학 용어에 제한하는 관점은 실은 언어가 아 니라 언어에 담겨 있는 과학 개념의 중요성을 언급 하는 것의 또 다른 표현이라 하겠다. 물론 과학의 개념을 표현하는 과학 용어들은 일상 용어와는 달리 전문 용어화되어 그 자체로도 생소할 뿐 아니라 일상적 의미와는 다른 의미로 쓰인다거나, 일상 용어와는 달리 복잡하고 긴 용어 구조를 갖는 등 고유한 언어적 특성을 가지고 있기는 하다 (Fang, 2005;Reeves, 2005;Wellington and Osborne, 2001). 그러나 과학 학습과 언어의 연관성은 과학의 어휘나 어구의 의미를 명확히 이해하는 것 이상을 의미한다.…”

Section: 서 론unclassified

Understanding of the Linguistic Features of Earth Science Treatises: Register Analysis Approach

Seungho¹,

Shin²,

Cha³

et al. 2010

Journal of the Korean earth science society

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This study identified the linguistic features of Earth science treatises through the analysis of the register. Data included three Korean treatises that were in geology, atmospheric science, and oceanography. The register of Earth science treatise was as follows: First, there were semantic, referential connections between Themes and Rhemes, that the messages and main points of the texts were expressed coherently and cohesively. Second, some predicates were used which were related to deductive inference, abductive inferences, or causal relation according to the genre elements of each text. The logical relations were not represented by the conjunctions but by the types of predicates. Third, most texts in the treatises showed interpersonally weak relationship using mental predicates related to possibilities, which meant scientists expressed indirectly their interpretation, explanation, or arguments. From these results, we argued that some activities of unpacking the language of science be included in science curriculum in order to improve students' literacy of science texts and understanding scientists' knowledge construction.

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Scientific literacy: A systemic functional linguistics perspective

Cited by 336 publications

References 13 publications

Use of Content Based Instruction and Socratic Discussion for ESL Undergraduate Biomedical Science Students to Develop Critical Thinking Skills

Use of Content Based Instruction and Socratic Discussion for ESL Undergraduate Biomedical Science Students to Develop Critical Thinking Skills

Semantiska vågor – elevers diskursiva rörlighet i gruppsamtal

Understanding of the Linguistic Features of Earth Science Treatises: Register Analysis Approach

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