Supporting students and teachers to meet the language challenge in content subjects

Abstract

Studies suggest that there is a clear correlation between academic achievement and proficiency in the language of schooling (LPU, 2016). In her discussion on local curricular reform and English Across the Curriculum, Spiteri (2019) argues that a focus on students’ literacy skills should therefore be central to Malta’s efforts to meet EU achievement targets. This research takes cue from this call and bases itself off the concept of Literacy Across the Curriculum (Bentley-Davies, 2012, p. 5). Firstly, it identifies the literacy requirements of the Science Learning Outcomes Framework and identifies the linguistic challenges of the year 7 coursebook (KS3 Science, Book 1). Secondly, it develops ten language scaffold sets designed to accompany this coursebook. Finally, it conducts interviews with four science teachers which reveal a problematic prominence of Maltese in science lessons, an awareness of the lexical difficulties of the subject but a lack thereof in morpho-syntax, a generally positive approach towards all teachers being teachers of language and some willingness towards language sensitive planning. Four conclusions were derived, first, that students need to be supported in viewing English as a tool, rather than a challenge; secondly, collaboration between content and language teachers can ensure that language support does not stop at the lexical level; thirdly, content teachers need to be supported in facing the constraints that incorporating a language focus might pose; and lastly that providing teachers with examples of language scaffolds might be one way of encouraging literacy support across the curriculum.