Primary School Pupils’ Use of Verb Collocations in Science Assessment: Patterns of Linguistic Behaviour by Language Background Factor
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MDPI
Materia
Verb collocations Content-area assessment English language learners
Fecha
2023-12-03Referencia bibliográfica
Buendía-Castro, M.; Afitska, O. Primary School Pupils’ Use of Verb Collocations in Science Assessment: Patterns of Linguistic Behaviour by Language Background Factor. Educ. Sci. 2023, 13, 1208. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13121208
Patrocinador
EAL-Science Project, 2013–2015 & 2018–2019Resumen
This article explores patterns of linguistic behaviour and challenges associated with low(er)
linguistic competences in primary school learners in subject-specific areas of the curriculum. The
study draws on science test data, specifically on two assessment tasks, collected from 209 primary
school students, aged between 9 and 11 years (Key Stages 5 and 6 of the statutory framework for
learning in England). The population sample is made up of learners from six state primary schools in
Yorkshire and the Humber Region, UK. Some of the learners speak English as their mother tongue
while others speak English as their second or third language. Learner test data were analysed in
order to answer the following research questions: (1) What verb collocations do learners use when
demonstrating their content knowledge on the topic of “separating solids and liquids” in Science?
(2) Do English language learners (ELLs) and English native speaking learners (ENSs) use verb
collocations differently? If so, what is the nature of these differences? The results revealed differences
between linguistic performances in the two groups of learners. ENSs tended to produce natural
collocations with motion verbs. ELLSs, however, faced challenges in producing idiomatic language.
They also encountered more difficulties than ENSs in understanding assessment tasks’ instructions
and/or in reporting subject-specific knowledge in response to the assessment tasks.