Expert video exchanges in bilingual biology lessons - student's intrinsic motivation and subject-specific interest

• Published in: Journal of biological education Vol. 54; no. 3; pp. 315 - 327
• Main Authors: Meyerhöffer, Nina, Dreesmann, Daniel C.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 26.05.2020
• Subjects: Bilingual Education; bilingual learning; Biology; Content and language integrated learning (CLIL); Course Content; Cytology; English (Second Language); Foreign Countries; German; High School Students; Intercultural Communication; Language of Instruction; language of science; Native Language; science communication; Science Instruction; Scientific Literacy; Second Language Learning; Student Attitudes; Student Interests; Student Motivation; Teaching Methods; Video Technology; Germany
• ISSN: 0021-9266; 2157-6009
• DOI: 10.1080/00219266.2019.1575265

This paper presents an instructional model to incorporate English-language communication between international practicing scientists and English learners into secondary science lessons. The aim was to identify a method that lets pupils practice English as the language of science and that elicits positive affective attitudes in the form of task-specific intrinsic motivation. As a central condition, the approach had to be feasible in realistic school settings. The pupils that participated in the two studies presented (total n = 218) were native German speakers and interacted with English-speaking experts in the curricular contexts of cytology and immunology via videos. We assessed pupils' task-specific intrinsic motivation (as defined by their interest/enjoyment of the exchange and their relatedness to the expert) and compared it to their subject-specific interest in biology and English before and after the project. We further contrasted the motivational ratings of bilingually experienced and inexperienced groups of pupils. Both groups reported similar and remarkably high task-specific intrinsic motivation for the video exchange. Subject-specific interests remained constant before and after implementing the method and were correlated with interest/enjoyment in the standard, but not in the bilingually experienced classes. The applicability of the exchange model in different topics, subjects, and student groups is discussed.