Enhancing Science Teachers’ Language Awareness with the Use of a Content-Language Integrated Framework for Developing Student Writing

This study presents the development of a content-language integrated analytical tool for examining students’ challenges in science writing. We describe its role in the professional learning of teachers and illustrate its impact on enhancing the teachers’ language awareness. When teachers assess their students’ science writing, science conceptual accuracy is high on teachers’ agenda given the predominant albeit legitimate concern for conceptual development. Consequently, the language demands central to effective writing are often neglected. To address this gap, we developed a multi-level evaluation framework from our analysis of a range of student science written texts, which could be used as a tool by teachers to assess their students’ language. The framework was used in a professional learning program to raise three in-service biology teachers’ language awareness to improve their students’ ability in writing scientific texts. Analysis of videos and transcripts of science lessons revealed three main ways in which the teachers adapted this framework to clarify the criteria for successful writing as well as provide feedback in their Grade 10 classrooms. Their instructional uses of the framework illustrated the procedural dimension of their enhanced language awareness. Implications for the professional development of science teachers are discussed.