Premium
Significance of limited English proficiency and cultural capital to the performance in science of Chinese‐Australians
Author(s) -
Tobin Kenneth,
McRobbie Campbell J.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
journal of research in science teaching
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.067
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1098-2736
pISSN - 0022-4308
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1098-2736(199603)33:3<265::aid-tea2>3.0.co;2-r
Subject(s) - mathematics education , class (philosophy) , task (project management) , language proficiency , psychology , science education , pedagogy , chemistry , computer science , engineering , systems engineering , artificial intelligence
This investigation of Chinese‐Australian students and their learning of chemistry indicates that despite students' efforts to learn chemistry with understanding, difficulties in speaking and writing English were factors that limited performance. An hegemony based on the use of English to learn chemistry and assess performance placed students with limited English proficiency (LEP) in a position of potential failure. However, as might be expected of voluntary minorities, LEP Chinese students endeavored to use English to make sense of what happened in class and to demonstrate the extent to which they had learned chemistry. At the same time, they employed Cantonese in their oral and written discourse and exhibited high levels of commitment to learn, effort, and task orientation in and out of school. These practices were consistent with those expected by the teacher and that typically occurred in schools in their native Hong Kong. The study supports the assertions that learning chemistry can be facilitated when LEP students are provided opportunities to fully employ their native language tools and when the microculture of the classroom fits the macroculture of life outside the classroom. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.