Holistic approach in the portuguese education system to develop literacies of science integrated with english

Abstract

The goal of an STS-oriented Science curriculum is to develop students’ scientific literacy that makes them fully engaged participants in the responsible discussion of socio-scientific issues. Participation fundamentally requires the ability to communicate about and by means of Science, as well as the use of other languages in international discussions. This work – framed in a socio-constructivist perspective of both foreign Language and Science learning – aims to understand, within a school project of 7th, 8th and 9th grades, the intersection between the construction of Science concepts and contexts with its “language(s)” and the practice of English in the same class, through an approach that confers more importance to Language (CLIL), in general and that of Science, in particular. This descriptive-explanatory case study involves four classes, two Natural Science teachers and one English teacher. Data has been collected through (teacher) interviews, a (student) questionnaire and observation. Student’s answers to questions related to Science, English and their combination will be shown and integrated with preliminary information resulting from observations, aimed at characterizing the context. Content analysis has been used for interpreting open-ended answers while statistical analysis was employed on the close-ended ones. There is evidence that this approach fosters communication and awareness of and about Science. Data collection/analysis should be continued for a more complex source correlation, and to enhance the understanding on how the presence of another language may enrich the scientific culture.