The Effect of Teaching in Native and Foreign Language on Student's Conceptual Understanding in Science Courses
Sabri KOCAKULAH, Evrim USTUNLUOGLU and Aysel KOCAKULAH
Balikesir University, Necatibey Faculty of Education, Balikesir
Izmir University of Economics, English Teaching Department, Izmir
TURKEY
Abstract
The effectiveness of teaching academic courses such as mathematics and science in a foreign language has been investigated by several international studies in the literature. Even though the studies conducted have brought up contradictory results, most of them reveal that learning academic courses through a foreign language medium may pose conceptual, linguistic and psychological problems. Until now no research investigating the effect of foreign language on conceptual understanding has been conducted in Turkey. In this study, the effect of teaching in a foreign language on students' understanding the concept of Energy in a science course was investigated. Causal-comparative research design was used to determine the differences between students who took the science course in native and foreign language and the effect of language on conceptual understanding. The results indicated that students who were taught "Energy" in a foreign language, English, had more misconceptions than the students who were taught in their native language, Turkish.
Introduction
Social awareness of and efforts spent on foreign language teaching have been clearly increasing in Turkey for years. Along with this awareness and effort, language teaching has undergone many fluctuations and dramatic shifts over the years resulting in more emphasis on the need for all students to become competent language learners.
These fluctuations and shifts in foreign language teaching in Turkey have brought about striking changes which have created several problems as well. One of these problems is related to the selection of schools and their program content. In Turkey, after compulsory elementary school, students study hard to get into state or private secondary schools where they have one year preparatory stage and follow an immersion program. They have to take a central exam to be a student there. These schools use English as the medium for instruction for mathematics, sciences and other academic subjects. Other secondary schools which also accept students after this central exam teach academic courses in the native language, Turkish, and teach English as a course for four hours a week. The differences between these two systems, in the course of time, have raised issues such as students' attainments levels in courses like mathematics and science since these students have a central university exam in Turkish. Thus, foreign language teaching has vacillated between the two approaches in the Turkish educational system: teaching academic courses through foreign language and native language (Koksal, 2002; Koksal, 2003).
Never-ending discussions and criticism of the effectiveness of teaching in a foreign language and the methods to be followed call more attention to this problem in Turkey. It is especially salient at the present time because government policy seems to be in favour of abandoning foreign language as a medium for instruction in secondary schools. The main objections against the use of foreign language as the medium for instruction are students' misconceptions in academic subjects and their academic failure. However, studies across the country related to those discussions are inadequate and need further research, as stated by the Ministry of Education, and several universities and experts in Turkey (Baskan, 1978; Demircan, 1988; Ministry of Education; 1990, 1996).
Research done outside Turkey has looked into the effect of teaching academic subjects in foreign languages as well as bilingual education programs covering problems related to psychology, linguistics and exams. Having conducted several studies concerning the effect of foreign language, Cummins (1981a; 1989; 1992) highlights two levels of language proficiency: the Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills (BICS) and the Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP). The former (BISC) represents the language of natural, informal conversation, whereas the latter (CALP) is the type of language proficiency needed to read textbooks, participate in dialogue and debate, and provide written tests. In other words, CALP requires both higher levels of language and cognitive processes in order to develop the language proficiency needed for success and achievement in school. Cummins (1982), Chamot (1981) and Shuy (1981) liken the relationship of language proficiency and academic achievement to an iceberg. While CALP, measuring higher levels of skills, is represented below the waterline, BICS, measuring lower levels of skills, is represented above the surface of the water. The studies by Krashen and Biber (1987), Rosenthal (1996) and Spurlin (1995) support the results by Cummins (1981a; 1982) and state that students who have not developed their CALP could be at a disadvantage in studying academic subjects and science in particular because this course requires an in-depth understanding of concepts acquired by reading textbooks, participating in dialogue and debate, and responding to questions in tests. Once again, stressing the difference between CALP and BICS, educational and linguistic theorists (Cummins, 1981a; Krashen, 1982 and Krashen, Long and Scarcella, 1979) explain that foreign language students may become quite proficient in the grammar, vocabulary and sentence structure of the English language, but may lack the necessary cognitive academic language proficiency to learn the subject matter in science courses.
A study by Johnstone and Selepeng (2001) backs up the claims by Cummins (1981b, 1982; Spurlin, 1995; Krashen, 1982). Johnstone and Selepeng (2001) state that students struggling to learn science in a second language lose at least 20 percent of their capacity to reason and understand in the process. This study has implications for countries which teach their students through the medium of a foreign language rather than in native language. Short and Spanos (1989) claim that basic proficiency is not adequate to perform the more demanding tasks required in academic courses since students do not have exposure to, or lack an understanding of the vocabulary and context-specific language.
The effects of bilingual education on academic subjects and its implications have also been investigated. Research on bilingual education programs and academic achievement has shown that bilingual program students made dramatic gains compared to the success of students schooled in second language only. The study by Collier showed that after 4-5 years of instruction, bilingual program students achieved dramatically whereas the English-only group dropped significantly below their grade level (1989, p. 522). Several studies have also shown that bilingualism may be positively associated with cognitive and academic performance (Duncan and De Avila, 1979; Kessler and Quinn, 1980; Bain and Yu, 1980; Swain and Lapkin, 1981).
Studies by Cassels and Johnstone (1983, 1985), Pollnick and Rutherford, (1993) reveal that learning academic courses through the medium of English poses problems for students whose mother tongue is not English. The explanations given for these problems are linguistic and psychological. Studies exploring the underlying psychological problems indicate that second language learners are frustrated by failure to see meaning in texts and start to have a tendency toward rote-learning. Therefore, not much is stored in memory since what is learned by rote is easily forgotten. Linguistic effects are a result of one's lack of knowledge of grammar, rules of syntax, as well as meanings of words used in different contexts. Poor knowledge of these rules puts second-language learners at a disadvantage, being less able to see meaning in texts, when compared with first language counterparts who have been exposed to inherent and informal methods of learning their language at an early stage (Howe, 1970; Johnstone and Selepeng, 2001).
The results of the study investigating the effect of language on performance of second language students in science examinations by Bird and Welford (1995) also showed the effect was significant. There were significant differences in performance of modified forms of the questions between British school pupils and pupils for whom English was the second language. The study gave a clear indication that the wording of questions in science examinations was a real influence on the performance of second language students.
The studies mentioned above are consistent with Vygotsky's perspective on development and learning. Vygotsky (1978) proposed that the role of language in the development of understanding can be explained in two ways: First, language accommodates a medium for learning. This means that learning can basically take place in a social context and social interaction is the essence of learning. Second, language is a tool which helps the child to construct a way of thinking. Vygotsky considers that students’ understanding is formed and social experience is internalized through two-stage transformation: social level (interpsychological) and individual level (intrapsychological). Vygotsky strongly claims that concepts can not be acquired in conscious form without language and a child can not have a conscious understanding of concepts before they are explained in a related context using language (Vygostky, 1978).
In the light of these studies, in this study, the effect of a foreign language, English, as a medium for instruction, on conceptual understanding of "The Energy Unit" in a science course was investigated. The reason why it was chosen is because this unit is related to everyday experiences and also covers abstract concepts. As explained by Pfundt and Duit (2000), how to teach the topic of 'energy' is investigated in many studies because of its nature, containing abstract concepts.
The Ministry of Education and several universities have stated that no research related to the effect of foreign languages on conceptual understanding has yet been conducted in Turkey and the results of these types of studies are needed to inform and identify government policies and education targets. This study is of particular importance because several changes in schools following the immersion program are being planned in the Turkish educational system (Ministry of Education, 1990; 1996).
Purpose
The main objectives of the study are.
i) to investigate the differences in conceptual understanding of "The Energy Unit" between students who study science in the native language and a foreign language;
ii) to compare the performance of students who study in the native language and in a foreign language on problems based on conceptual understanding;
iii) to generate suggestions for better conceptual understanding and the ways of teaching an energy unit taking into consideration the effect of language.
Research Questions
The research questions for the study are:-
i) Are there any quantitative differences between students who study science in the native language and a foreign language in terms of conceptual understanding of "The Energy Unit"?
ii) Are there any qualitative differences between students who study science in the native language and a foreign language in terms of conceptual understanding of "The Energy Unit"?
Method
Procedure
First, a research design and a timetable concerning the pilot study, interviews with the teachers, achievement and conceptual understanding tests were identified. Necessary permissions were obtained in order to carry out the research.
In this study, causal-comparative research design was used. Causal-comparative design determines the cause, or reason, for existing differences in the behaviour or status of groups. This design is retrospective; that is, it starts with an effect and seeks its possible causes (Gay and Airasian, 2000). Since this study was conducted to determine the differences between students who took the science course in native and foreign language and the effect of language on conceptual understanding, this approach was decided to be used.
The research was conducted at two types of schools - one following an immersion program, English, and the other teaching academic courses in the native language, Turkish- because they accept students based on their success identified by a nation-wide standardized central exam. Thus, the two schools both had students with a similar level of achievement based on this exam. In addition to this central exam, an achievement test was administered to students to identify groups of equal achieving students at each school. The test aimed to evaluate the general academic achievement and to identify any significant differences between the two schools. In this study, Ss1 refers to the students who were taught in a foreign language, English and Ss2 refers to the students who were taught in the native language, Turkish.
Two science teachers participated in this study. One of them taught "The Energy Unit" in the native language, Turkish, while the other taught in a foreign language, English. It was not possible for researchers to find a teacher who was able to teach at both schools because of the specialized foreign language and science training required to teach the science course in English in Turkey. Thus, researchers compared the method both teachers applied in the classroom, their experiences, the curriculum, and the materials they used in the classroom. Both teachers had over 7 years teaching experience, followed the same curriculum and syllabus, and used the same materials in the classroom. They both used traditional teaching methods, teacher-centred and mostly based on questions and presentations by the teachers.
In-class observations were made by the researchers to monitor the similarity of the teaching process.
Achievement Test
The first design of the achievement test consisted of 40-multiple choice questions about the topics taught in the 8th grade science courses. These questions were chosen from standardized tests and passed through a process of refinement and validation. To do this, the questions were revised based on the reactions on the three science teachers about face validity, clarity of language and suitability for the age level concerned. Researchers did not include questions about "The Energy Unit" in the achievement test since students had not yet learned this unit.
In order to optimize the reliability and validity of the original test, the test was first given to a pilot group of 60 grade 8 students. After necessary revisions stemming from the item analyses of the pilot study, in terms of item difficulty and item discriminatory indexes, a 25-question achievement test was formed. This refined version of the test had Coefficient Alpha (or KR-20) of 0.87 and average item difficulty index of 0.65.
Before the "Energy Unit" was taught, the finalized achievement test was administered simultaneously to five 8th grade classes at the English medium school and five 8thgrade classes where academic courses were taught in Turkish. Five classes were chosen from each school to ensure that the five classes at each school had the same science teacher. ANOVA (Analysis of Variance) was used for statistical analysis of the achievement test. The results indicated that there were significant differences among the groups in both schools [F=9,616; (p=,000<.05)] (see Table I). In order to identify which groups were equal to each other, LSD (Least Significant Difference) test was applied. Statistically, three groups from Ss1 and three groups from Ss2 were found to be equal. Table II shows that the means of the second (20.1579), the fourth (20.0588) and the fifth (20.8571) groups from Ss1 are close to the sixth (20.3824), seventh (20.0000) and the tenth (20.5946) groups from Ss2.
Table I. Comparison of 8th Grade Students Based on the Classes at Both Schools In Terms of Achievement.
Table
II. The Results of LSD Significance Test of 8th Grade Students Based
on the Classes at Both Schools.
*The
mean difference is significant at the .05 level.
After 3
equal groups at each school were identified statistically, a conceptual understanding
test was given to the students after "the Energy Unit" was taught
to both groups in the second term by two science teachers.
Participants
After the
achievement test had been analysed, total 214 students coming from those 3
classes at each school participated in the study. 107 of the students were
from the immersion programme secondary school. 63 were male and 44 were female
students. The remaining 107 students were from the native language secondary
school 58 were male and 49 were female students.
Instrument
The
conceptual understanding test: During the process of structuring the
instrument, concepts in the energy unit were first identified and a concept
map was formed (see Figure 1). Meanwhile, literature about energy was reviewed
to prepare the questions covering those concepts. It was decided to include
six questions in the instrument, two of which were adopted from the studies
of Brook and Driver (1984) and the rest of the questions were designed by
the researchers. Additionally, experts' opinions were taken into consideration
and the questions were translated from English into Turkish by a linguist.
The
conceptual understanding test was tested on two focus groups, one from
the school taught in Turkish and one from the school taught in English
for piloting purposes. After interviews with experts in the field and
students about the comprehensibility and clarity of the questions, the
questions were revised and only four questions (see Appendix) were
included in the test. Figure 1 shows the connection of the questions in
the conceptual understanding test to the related concepts.
Questions
were asked in the native language, Turkish. The reason for this was to reveal
any difference between the two groups of students taught in Turkish and English
and to identify whether students had assimilated "the Energy Unit"
conceptually. If the aim were to evaluate how much they could understand in
English, this would be measured with a reading comprehension paragraph. Taking
those reasons into consideration, researchers decided to give the instrument
in Turkish.
Figure
1. Concept map for energy unit and the distribution of test questions.
Data
Analysis
The student
responses obtained from the conceptual understanding test were coded
in different
categories using the same categorization process as that employed by Driver
and Erickson (1983). First, the nomothetic approach was used to identify
a
set of scientifically acceptable response categories together with the correct
response to each question developed by the researchers and experts in
the
field. Then, the students' answers to the open-ended questions were categorized
according to scientifically acceptable or unacceptable ideas. Coding
continued
ideographically (Kocakulah, 1999). The response categories in the scientifically
unacceptable group were later developed. Under this category, different
ideas
were classified into mutually exclusive sets according to the ideas related
or unrelated to energy. The total percentages of students in each response
category were recorded. The coding system used in the analysis of four questions
is illustrated in Table III, which shows the two main categories - "scientifically
acceptable arguments" and "scientifically unacceptable arguments"
with their sub-categories.
Table
III. Coding System Used for Students' Responses to Conceptual Understanding
Test
Findings
Findings of the
conceptual understanding test are presented quantitatively and
qualitatively. In quantitative findings, responses given
to four-open ended questions by the two groups of students were
analysed in
percentages. In qualitative analysis, responses to open-ended
questions were
interpreted conceptually.
Quantitative
Findings
The findings
are presented and discussed separately question by question.
Table
IV. Distribution of Students' Responses in Conceptual Understanding
Test.
*Df: shows
the difference between Ss1 and Ss2
Analysis
of the Skier question:
Skier
question (see Appendix) was to evaluate comprehensibility level of concepts
concerning
"transfer of energy" , "kinetic and potential energy"
(see Figure 1). The results showed a difference of 18.69% in favour of Ss2.
This shows that those who studied the science course in the native language
were capable of giving more scientifically acceptable explanations than those
who studied in the foreign language (see Table IV).
Analysis
of the Clockwork mouse question:
Clockwork
mouse question (see Appendix) is related to the concepts of "transfer
of energy" and "potential energy of a spring" and aims to evaluate
students' ability to synthesize. As Table IV clearly shows that the difference
between the percentages of the students at both schools who gave full arguments
has decreased to 0.94%. On the other hand, the difference between the two
groups regarding the scientifically unacceptable responses concerning "the
concept of energy" has been found to be 11.23%, which shows that more
Ss1 lack the ability to use coherent conceptual explanations
related to energy than Ss2. The results also indicated
that 9.34% of Ss1 and 6.54% of Ss2
gave scientifically wrong responses. A difference of 2.80% can be interpreted
as showing that Ss1 have more misconceptions and difficulties
in explaining the question than Ss2 do.
Analysis
of the Porter question:
Students
were asked to give an explanation of the concept of "potential energy"
based on mass, height and gravitational acceleration. The analysis of the
Porter question (see Appendix) shows that 16.82% of Ss2
answered this question correctly as opposed to only 4.67% of Ss1.
There has been no difference found between the two schools concerning scientifically
acceptable and partly correct responses. The striking point, in view of the
results, is the difference between the percentages of the two groups of students
who gave scientifically unacceptable responses. While the percentage of Ss2
who used the concept of energy but scientifically wrong is 53.27%, the percentage
of Ss1 is 63.55%. A difference of 10.28% indicates that Ss1 had more misconceptions
concerning "energy" than Ss2 had. Furthermore,
it is seen that the number of Ss1 giving wrong explanations
unrelated to energy is more than the number of Ss2 (1.87%).
Analysis
of the Compressed spring question:
Compressed
spring question (see Appendix) aims to evaluate comprehensibility of "kinetic
energy", "potential energy of a string", "heat energy"
and "frictional force" by the two groups of students. It is striking
that more Ss2 gave completely correct and partially
correct responses than Ss1 did (31.78%). In addition,
it should be noted that percentage of scientifically unacceptable responses
given by Ss1 is also higher than the percentage given
by Ss2 (24.31%).
Quantitative
findings show that students at the English medium school gave more scientifically
unacceptable arguments than students at the native language school. The following
section covers qualitative findings in detail related to students' responses
at both schools.
Qualitative
Findings
This section
examines samples of misconceptions. First, responses were categorized for
each question in the conceptual understanding test. Analysis revealed that
Ss1 used quite different concepts related to the questions.
This situation yielded the fact that more response categories were given by
Ss1 than were given by Ss2, which
might demonstrate that Ss1 had more misconceptions than
Ss2 did. Second, each category was examined in detail
and common misconceptions were identified. This process was particularly important
for the researchers to bring up the matter of difficulties in learning since
those misconceptions were used in all responses by many students. Table V
shows some of the striking misconceptions given to the questions by students.
Table
V. Common Misconceptions Identified in Students' Responses
Table
V briefly indicates that Ss1 have more misconceptions
than Ss2.
Particularly the difference between two groups increases in response categories
in which there are misconceptions that can be attributed to the effect
of
language. To illustrate, the rate of Ss1 (36.45%) stating
that "it is necessary to give an object power in order to set it in
motion"
is more than the rate of Ss2 (19.63%). It is interesting
to note that students used the concept of "power" instead of "energy".
The following excerpt proves how the concept of "energy" becomes
identical with the concept of "power".
"When
Ayse winds up her clockwork mouse, she gives power to
it. While the clockwork mouse is moving, its energy is reduced with
friction;
it has no power when it stops" (from student
106)
It is also
interesting to note that students often used "force", "acceleration",
"velocity" instead of the concept of "energy". For example,
some Ss1 (20.56%) used expressions such as "Energy=Force
x Distance" and "energy equals to work". As indicated in Table
V, 28.03% of Ss1 and 14.95% of Ss2
confused "potential energy" with "kinetic energy" and
explained the question related to the compressed spring as follows:
"spring
has kinetic energy when it is compressed" (from student
22)
Table V
indicates that students have many misconceptions about "potential energy".
The idea that an object has to stop in order to have potential energy was
accepted by 42.06% of Ss1 and 30.84% of Ss2.
Students at English medium instruction school (44.86%) and students at native
language instruction school (40.19%) thought that only the objects at a certain
height from ground have potential energy. Moreover, 23.36% of Ss1
and 19.63% of Ss2 explained that objects always have
potential energy. Compared to Ss2, more Ss1
(37.38%) stated that motionless objects do not have energy. In the case of
clockwork mouse question, students reasoned that the clockwork mouse's energy
would depend on its movement, in the sense that the clockwork mouse would
only have energy when moving, or would have the most energy when moving.
The reasons
why students have many misconceptions related to potential energy, transfer
of energy, conservation of energy, and frictional force are explained with
samples as below:
Responses
Including Unacceptable Ideas about Potential Energy
Students
should know the concept of "potential energy" in order to
explain the situations given for the questions of 1, 2 and 4. However,
it is seen
that both groups of students had difficulty in explaining the concept of "potential
energy". Ss1 attributed different meanings to "the
concept of potential" due to its meanings in foreign language. The
concept
"potential" was explained by many students as an energy already
existing in the structures of objects. This misconception might have stemmed
from the dictionaries that students used. When defined in dictionaries, the
word "potential" is explained as "power; force, potential
as existing in possibility; not at present active or developed, but able
to become
so".
Samples
of answers by Ss1 about potential energy are outlined
below. For instance, 20 students responded the question by using a similar
explanation;
"Skier
has potential energy as long as he does not move" (an example
from student 72)
while 19
students referred to potential energy such as:
"A
clockwork mouse has potential energy when it is not moving. Potential
energy is transferred
into kinetic energy when it moves. That is, it consumes more energy and
it has only potential energy when it stops." (an
example from student 93)
As
indicated in Table V and in students' responses, Ss1
do not have scientifically acceptable ideas about when and how potential energy
is used.
Responses
Indicating the Lack of Understanding about the Transfer of Energy
The students
were asked to explain "how one form of energy is transferred into
different form?" which related to questions 1, 2 and 4. Ss1
gave variety of explanations concerning those questions compared to the Ss2.
Particularly the concepts they used in their responses indicated diversity.
It was seen that Ss1 often used "release of energy",
"degradation of energy" and 'the waste of energy" instead of
using 'transfer of energy". The following explanation given by student
91 is an example of the lack of understanding about 'transfer of energy":
"A clockwork
mouse has state energy while motionless. After it stops moving, and while
it is motionless, it still has state energy. When Ayse winds up the mouse,
it has got potential energy. When the potential energy is consumed, the potential
energy of mouse is ready to turn into kinetic energy. When the mouse starts
moving, kinetic energy is released and it has the highest energy in this state"
Another
student who could not explain the transformation of energy from one form into
different form gave the following explanation;
"Before
Ayse winds up the clockwork mouse it has no energy. While winding
up the clockwork
mouse, some of Ayse’s energy passes through the clockwork mouse" (an
example from student 48)
In this
example, the student thinks that the transfer of energy is the transmitting
of energy from one form (Ayse) to another (the clockwork mouse) without any
change. In fact, the answer should have indicated that Ayse's energy is transferred
to the clockwork mouse as potential energy.
Situations
in Which Conservation of Energy is Considered as Conservation of Velocities
While answering
the Skier question, students were expected to consider that total energy is
conserved during transformation and that the energy is changed into a different
form.
Responses
concerning conservation of energy reveal that both groups had difficulty in
explaining "the transfer of kinetic energy and potential energy".
In frictionless systems, however, Ss1, attributed the
source of kinetic energy (which objects have due to motion) only to the concept
of velocity (which objects inherently have). Ss1 students
thought that the kinetic energy of those objects was already formed at the
moment of movement due to their intrinsic velocities they already had instead
of thinking that the objects had potential energy. They explained conservation
of energy as conservation of velocity. The following example is given to indicate
how 20 students in the Ss1 group used the term "velocity"
instead of 'kinetic energy".
"Murat
will lose velocity while skiing down from hill A and climbing up hill
B. He
will start climbing up at hill C with the help of gained velocity while
skiing down at hill B. But, his speed will be zero before he comes
to summit C due
to gravity and he will start skiing back. He will ski reversely, with
gained velocity at hill C, but he will be unable to reach the summit
of hill B since
his velocity again comes to zero." (an example from student
12)
This explanation
proves that the student ignored the concepts of "potential energy and
kinetics energy" and conservation of energy was explained through the
speed change of the object in motion. It is certainly possible to explain
the change of kinetic energy which an object has by considering the change
of its speed. However, it is interesting to note that the student did not
mention the word "energy". Briefly, it was stated that what changed
during movement was not energy, but speed and that conservation of energy
was conservation of speed.
Situations
in Which Frictional Force is not Understood
It was
found that students gave scientifically unacceptable answers using the concept
of frictional force for the first and fourth questions even though those questions
were not directly related to frictional force. When the responses are examined,
Ss2 think that there will not be an action impeding
the motion in situations in which there is an absence of frictional force.
This is a scientifically acceptable explanation even though it does not take
part in the full argument part of the student responses. On the other hand,
Ss1, attributing an opposite meaning to the frictional
force, stated that frictional force was a kind of force that maintains motion
and motion can not be maintained without the existence of this force.
The following
examples are among the typical answers which are given by 16 Ss1
students;
"When
there is no friction, the skier does not move, because there must be a frictional
force between the ski and snow in order to push the ski". (an
example from student 108)
"The
skier has to stop after a while due to lack of friction, because speed increases
only in case of frictional effect" (an example from student 84)
or
"If
there was a friction between ski and snow, the skier could climb over the
hill" (an example from student 81)
As seen
in the extracts, although Ss2 fully comprehended
the concept of "frictional force" , Ss1 have
understood the opposite of what is actually true. This may be given
as a concrete example
which shows the effect of a foreign language on conceptual understanding.
Discussion
The analysis
of responses to conceptual understanding test questions, each of which involved
the use of ideas about types of energy, energy conservation and transfer,
illustrated the difficulties experienced by students in using such ideas.
The discussion which follows focuses on two main issues: the proportions of
students using accepted ideas about energy and the types of ideas, other than
the scientifically accepted ideas, commonly used by students.
The quantitative
and qualitative findings indicate that students who studied "the Energy
Unit" in the native language were capable of giving more scientifically
acceptable explanations than those who studied in a foreign language. In other
words, Ss1 used quite different concepts related to
the questions and came up with more response categories, proving that they
had more misconceptions. The results of this study are consistent with the
results of several studies which suggest that students who have not developed
their cognitive academic language proficiency could be at a disadvantage in
studying academic subjects and science in particular since this course requires
reading textbooks to gain a deep understanding of concepts, participating
in dialogue and debate, and responding to questions in tests (Cummins, 1981b,
1982; Krashen, 1982; Krashen and Biber, 1987; Rosenthal 1996; Spurlin; 1995).
As results
suggest more Ss1 lack the ability to use coherent
conceptual explanations related to energy than Ss2 do,
although both groups of students had difficulty in explaining the questions.
Results
show that more Ss1 used the concept of "force" instead of "energy"
and confused "potential energy" with "kinetic energy".
Explanations regarding questions 1, 2, and 4 revealed that Ss1 had
misconception about "transfer of energy" instead, they used "release
of energy", "degradation of energy" and "waste of
energy".
On the other hand, more Ss2 gave completely correct
and partially correct responses when considering "kinetic energy",
"potential energy of a string", "heat energy" and "frictional
force" as compared to Ss1. These results back
up the claims by Johnstone and Selepeng (2001) that students who learn
science
in a second language lose at least 20 percent of their capacity to reason
and understand the process. Claiming that basic proficiency is not adequate
to perform the more demanding tasks required in academic courses, Short and
Spanos (1989) suggest that students might lack conceptual understanding.
The reason
why Ss1 students gave more scientifically unacceptable
answers than did Ss2 can be explained by BICS and CALP
(Cummins 1981a; 1982). Ss1 may have the language of
natural, informal conversation, but lack language proficiency needed to read
textbooks and to give scientific explanations in written tests. The fact that
students are quite proficient in the grammar, vocabulary and sentence structure
of the English language does not mean that they have the necessary cognitive
academic language proficiency to learn the subject matter (Cummins, 1981a;
Krashen, 1982).
Studies
by Cassels and Johnstone (1983, 1985), Pollnick and Rutherford, (1993) reveal
that learning in academic courses through the medium of English poses problems
for students whose mother tongue is not English. One of these problems is
rote-learning. Students who study main courses in a foreign language have
difficulty connecting new and old information meaningfully. They can not store
much in long term memory and lose information. Linguistic effects are also
a result of one's lack of knowledge of grammar, rules of syntax as well as
meanings of words used in different contexts. In this study, for example,
responses to questions highlighted the idea that for many students the notions
of energy and of power are strongly associated. More than one in three students
focussed on the concept of power to set an object in motion, and some used
the word "power" in a similar way to that in which a scientists
might use "kinetic energy".
Results and Implications
The results of the study
indicate that there is a considerable difference between the two groups of
students: those who studied the science course in the native language (Ss2)
and those who studied in a foreign language (Ss1). Findings
showed that Ss2 gave more scientifically acceptable
answers to the questions than did Ss1. Besides, Ss1
had more difficulties in explaining the reasons for their answers; presumably
because of the scientific language they used in their written explanations.
Abundance
of scientifically unacceptable responses by Ss1 identifies
a close relationship between the language and conceptual understanding in
the science course. In other words, foreign language used in the science course
becomes a barrier for students. Science is a discipline in which experiential
and concrete examples should be presented as an in-class process in order
to improve the level of students' conceptual understanding. Thus, if students
are exposed to everyday concepts by using their native language, it will be
easier for them to understand scientific concepts in a classroom setting.
This will take the load off the students and will give more time to present
experimental examples to comprehend scientific ideas more efficiently. From
the teachers' point of view, it will also be easier to diagnose scientific
misconceptions by asking students to give everyday examples for the topic
taught. Briefly, misconceptions in "The Energy Unit" may be overcome
by encouraging students to talk about them. The more students express their
own ideas about those concepts, the more they will be aware about the limitations
and problems in their understanding the concepts. Therefore, the scientific
language which mediates the meanings of the concepts is important and the
native language should be preferred for such purposes.
The ideas which students
bring into the science classroom may originate from their early experiences
with the physical world. These ideas may include, for example, the knowledge
that motionless objects do not have energy or that objects cannot continue
moving if there is no frictional force. It may be that such intuitive ideas
can be developed towards more formal scientific ideas throughout teaching
about energy. The role of the teacher may be considered to be that of helping
students to modify their intuitive ideas to relate them to the formal
scientific
ideas. This can be done by encouraging students to talk about their own intuitive
ideas either in small groups or as a whole class. This may serve two purposes:
firstly when students talk through their own ideas, they may use the ideas
in familiar situations and thus consolidating the relationship between
science
theory and the experiences with which they are familiar, students' confidence
in theory can be increased by using ideas to make sense of a wider range
of
tasks. Such tasks may involve language activities, such as explaining an
industrial process or writing an imaginative piece of prose. Secondly,
and perhaps more
important in the case of energy, students may become aware that different
people think differently, and this could provide a useful foundation upon
which to introduce the scientific ideas about energy.
As stated by Vygotsky (1978),
language accommodates a medium for learning and is a tool to construct a way
of thinking. Learning takes place in a social context through language and
students need to internalize knowledge in a related context using language.
If students are not competent in that language, they may come up with misconceptions
in understanding. Thus, the results of this study are consistent with several
studies (Cummins, 1989; 1992; Rosenthal, 1996; Spurlin, 1995) conducted in
the field in terms of the effect of teaching in a foreign language on conceptual
understanding in science courses. Teaching the main courses such as mathematics
and science through a foreign language may lead to misconceptions in understanding.
Consequently, students should
be well informed about the different uses of words in different contexts,
so that they can better understand the concept of "energy". However,
this process requires time for students to investigate and discuss the related
ideas in a language in which they can express themselves without any difficulty.
No matter how good they are at foreign language in terms of grammar and
vocabulary,
language competence in a foreign language may be a handicap while expressing
their own ideas for students. As the findings of the study indicate, ideas
for the construction of energy conservation need to be restructured carefully
and analogically. This process could be done through the native language
by
discussing forms of energy in relation to physical systems, investigating
more novel phenomena which are related to the topic and contextualizing
the
concept of energy.
New regulations about teaching
the academic courses in native language will help students' conceptual understanding.
For further studies, it is suggested to conduct research at English medium
universities in different departments such as engineering and business administration,
with a wide range of samples and to come up with different ideas.
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