Science and Geography

why not in English?

Why not indeed?

Keith Kelly
keithpkelly@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’ Language
T1 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
 Construction
Hints 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