The Language Demands of Science Reading in Middle School

The language used to construct knowledge, beliefs, and worldviews in school science is distinct from the social language that students use in their everyday ordinary life. This difference is a major source of reading difficulty for many students, especially struggling readers and English-language le...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inInternational journal of science education Vol. 28; no. 5; pp. 491 - 520
Main Author Fang, Zhihui
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London Routledge 14.04.2006
Taylor & Francis
Subjects
Content Area Reading
Curriculum subjects: programmes and methods
Educational sciences
English Instruction
Exact and natural sciences
Language Research
Language Usage
Linguistics
Middle School Students
Reading Difficulties
Science Education
Scientific Literacy
Semantics
Teaching Methods
Textbooks
USA
Science
Reading
Language
Lower Secondary
Reading Comprehension
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Summary:The language used to construct knowledge, beliefs, and worldviews in school science is distinct from the social language that students use in their everyday ordinary life. This difference is a major source of reading difficulty for many students, especially struggling readers and English-language learners. This article identifies some of the linguistic challenges involved in reading middle-school science texts and suggests several teaching strategies to help students cope with these challenges. It is argued that explicit attention to the unique language of school science should be an integral part of science literacy pedagogy.
ISSN:0950-0693
1464-5289
DOI:10.1080/09500690500339092