Teaching science in multilingual contexts: an exploratory study into the experiences and insights of Maltese science teachers as they learn about teaching in multilingual scenarios

ABSTRACT

In Malta, Maltese and English are learnt in school from age five. During Science lessons, teachers and learners normally use Maltese to talk about key concepts yet the written medium of instruction is English. This has been the practice adopted in Science classrooms for many years. The influx of migrants in recent years has yielded a multilingual classroom scenario that is relatively new to Maltese teachers. This change constitutes a challenge for teachers and students as a good number of these migrant learners are not familiar with these languages so there is no language of instruction that can support good communication. This paper will probe into Maltese teachers’ experiences and insights as they learn about how they can teach Science in such a scenario. Through teachers’ interviews, it will probe into how teachers engage in teaching Science to classes that include multilingual learners. The strategies that these teachers have used during the past few years in order to cope with the situation that has developed will be presented and discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Multilingualism
• language
• classroom talk
• teaching strategies
• Science teaching
• Malta

Acknowledgements

I am in debt to both the Maltese Directorate of Education and the school administration of the three state schools. These have welcomed me and allowed me to talk to the thirteen teachers who participated in this study. I also wish to thank the thirteen Science teachers who shared with me their experiences, frustrations and joys with so much readiness and transparency. These teachers are indeed an example of committed and passionate teachers who work at teaching young people about the intricacies and beauty of science.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).