Evelien Van Laere

The Role of Students' Home Language in Science Achievement: A Multilevel Approach.

The present study aimed to identify the role of both student- and school-level characteristics in primary school students’ achievement in the science curriculum. As societies become more culturally and linguistically diverse, many students enter the classroom with a home language that is different from the language of instruction used at school. This study takes into account both the home language and literacy in the language of instruction in relation to student achievement in science subjects. Questionnaires, reading performance tests, and science achievement tests were administered to 1,761 fourth-grade students from 67 schools across Flanders (Belgium). Multilevel hierarchical regression analyses show that the home language and literacy in the language of instruction play an important role in science achievement at the student level, next to gender and socioeconomic status. Students with a home language that is different from the language of instruction experience difficulties with science subjects. Moreover, the higher students’ performance on reading comprehension and self-assessed proficiency in the language of instruction, the higher their score on science achievement tests. At the school level, a schools teachability expectations are one of the key factors related to students’ science achievement. Limitations of this study and future directions for research are discussed.

Supporting science learning in linguistically diverse classrooms

Computer-based learning environments (CBLEs) are a promising means to support language minority (LMi) students in acquiring knowledge and skills through the integration of authentic support in their home language. This study aimed to determine the use of scientific bilingual content offered to fourth-grade students (n?=?250) in the CBLE E-Validiv and to identify both student and classroom characteristics related to this use. All the content in E-Validiv is accessible in the language of instruction and one of six other languages. For LMi students, the other language is set to their home language. Multilevel hierarchical regression analyses show that especially LMi students who assess themselves as highly proficient in their home language use the content more in the other language than language majority students. However, even LMi students focus mainly on content in the language of instruction, which indicates that they particularly apply their home language to support their learning process in the language of instruction. Additionally, students who perform higher on science subjects access content more in the language of instruction. The presence of linguistic diversity in the classroom and the positive use of linguistic diversity by the teacher do not seem to matter. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed. A computer-based learning environment offering bilingual content is presented.Language minority students access the language of instruction and their home language.They use their home language particularly as a support for learning.Proficiency in their home language plays a role in the use of bilingual content.Higher science achievement is positively related to use of the language of instruction.

What can technology offer to linguistically diverse classrooms? Using multilingual content in a computer-based learning environment for primary education

ABSTRACT Computer-based learning environments (CBLEs) have the potential to integrate the linguistic diversity present in classrooms as a resourceful tool in pupils’ learning process. Particularly for pupils who speak a language at home other than the language which is used at school, more understanding is needed on how CBLEs offering multilingual content can assist them. With this study, we aim to gain insight into the way pupils interact with a CBLE which provides support in their home language through different digital tools. Therefore, E-Validiv was developed, a CBLE offering multilingual content, namely in the language of instruction and pupils’ home language. Six fifth-grade pupils were videotaped while working on E-Validiv and their activities were logged. Afterwards, they were interviewed by means of stimulated recall on the way they had used the CBLE. The results show that the pupils functionally use their home language to support their learning process. Pupils interact with the multilingual CBLE through different digital tools to improve understanding of words and content. The study also identifies barriers which may hinder pupils to use the multilingual content in an optimal way.