Science and Geographywhy not in English?

Why not indeed?

Keith Kellykeithpkelly@yahoo.co.uk

English-German School, Plovdiv

Assumptions

• The teacher speaks English

• The students speak English

• The resources are learner friendly

• There has been attention to language in materials design

• The methodology revolves around interaction between the learner and the learning

Aural Input

• Highly contextualized

• Short formal monologues on technical topics

• Latinate and Greek origin words

• Visuals

• Realia

• Real life

Acid Rain

• Teacher input– Semi-scripted

• Guided listening– Label– Take notes– Verb phrases

Visual guide

Text Input

• Can be dense (History example - Vocab)• Information transfer • Diagrammatical representation of language

(graphic organizers)• Ideational frameworks (Burgess @man.ac.uk)• Paired reading

– Hidden Text example– VPS Total Cloze example

• Integrated skills (Diet and disease)

Info Xfer

Seeing ‘structure’ in texts

Oral Production

• Presentation work - Planets

• Contextualized

• Pronunciation

• Chunked sounds

• Real content, real commentary

• Paired speaking, group speaking– Question loop Biology templates

Talking about acid rain

Students’ LanguageT1 Here we go

S1 Gases are released from car exhausts and factories and they went up to the clouds there they react with uhm water in the clouds and fall down as acid rain and the acid rain runs off the hills, and leaching of the sea, or rivers and affects the chemistry of salts in the river.

T2 Very good

T1 yes, that was nice, thank you very much, perhaps we have the second group of two to do that again, that was good, was perfect, uhm, well, uhm, Benedict, would you please go over to the front to show what is being read by, uhm, Irina (?)

S2 Uhm, the gases are released from cars or factories and arise into the sky. There, they are, they react with the water in the clouds and then they fall down, it falls down as acid rain. It runs off, it runs off the hillside and is leaching into the river and there it affects the water and soil chemistry.

T1 Thank you very much.

Language Analysis

Presentation Work

Forces

Gravity

Materials

Trigonometry

Design

Hypothesis

Presentation

Improvement

ConstructionHints and tips for a better rocket:

Make sure you bear in mind the friction that will occur if your rocket body is too tight, or too loose, and also if your nose cone is not fixed in place properly it is likely to simply be blown off!

What about length? Will your rocket fly better with a long body or a short one?

It's a good idea to leave the plastic tube inside your rocket while you are sticking it together, and while you are fixing the nose cone in place.

Don't forget the design! There will a prize for the best rocket flight and design will be a factor in the decision of the judges!

Try experimenting with the size and shape of your fins. Will your rocket flight be more successful with bigger or smaller fins?

What about wings? Will your rocket fly longer and further with wings? If you decide to build wings for your rocket what shape should they be? Long and thin or short and wide? You can build whatever you like!

Launch

Tracking and measuring

Written Production

• Genre specific writing• Writing frames • Sentence writing• Text writing• Substitution tables • Word-lists• DARTs

– examples

Vocabulary

• Which words? (Discourse analysis)– Subject-specific– General-academic– Peripheral language

• Organization VPS glossary

• Tools and instruments (mapping, concordancing / searching)

Content

• Group surveys – Heredity– Speed reaction

• Concept of space– My space, your space, their space

• The universe– rockets

• Cosmetic– practical

Heredity – surveying variation

Taste buds

‘Zh’ Class Road Safety

Speed reaction

Practical

Real Life

Student-focus

Spaces -students as focus

Cosmetics

Conclusions

• Identify the language – Predict an ideal utterance– Simplify or expand it

• Think about the task– Speaking, paired reading, lab write up

• Embed the language– Sentence starters on a handout– Substitution table on a poster