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UPSI Digital Repository (UDRep)
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| Abstract : Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris |
| Teaching and learning in a second or a third language is not an easy task. Literatures have indicated that teachers and students involved have to struggle in order to cope with a language policy that requires them to teach or learn in an unfamiliar language. There is no doubt that in the learning process, language is the most powerful tool to deliver knowledge and skills. It becomes more difficult for learning to occur effectively if the language of instruction becomes a barrier to the learners. This study focuses on the teaching and learning of mathematics and science in English in Malaysia, where English is a second or a third language to both teachers and students. The main aim of this research is to investigate how languages are used in mathematics and science classes taught in a second or third language, and to understand how these are supported with multimodal resources. This study employed qualitative methods, involving a multiple case study and interpretive research paradigm. A number of approaches to data collection were used including classroom observations and video recording. Data were gathered mainly from classroom videorecording, supported by video-stimulated recall interviews of teachers and students, and classroom observation. Transana, an analysis software tool is used to analyse the data through a coding procedure. One of the main findings coming out of the study concerns the usage of English. As the language of instruction, English was only used in a formal form with the support of provided resources. However, Malay and a mixture of languages supplemented the function of English in situations when English proved inadequate for meaning generation. The next finding shows that, in most cases, English was the main language used for content related talk in which English resources such as textbook and written notes were available for the teachers. Malay on the other hand, was used for other types of talk, such as organisational, disciplinary and informal talk, as well as teacher-students interactions during group work discussion. Another important finding of this research is the teachers' and students' choice of languages. Their choice of languages were influenced by several factors, but the major influence seemed to be the teachers' language level where language shifting in the classroom was highly dependent on the teachers' language resources needed to express complex meanings. Finally, as the main contribution to the field, it is found that a range ofmodes such as gesture, visual and mathematical representations, artefacts and embodied experiences, as well as natural language, seemed to playa crucial role in the meaning making and translating process in bilingual mathematics and science classes. This research has demonstrated in some detail the pedagogical implications of Malaysia's language policy, and by extension has highlighted some significant issues around the implementation of a policy of bilingual teaching in mathematics and science, more generally. |
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