Content Teachers' Perspectives of Student Challenges in Processing Science and Mathematics Texts in English at an Emirati University

There is a worldwide concern about science and engineering undergraduate students, particularly those who are English language learners, struggling with their entry-level content courses. From a teacher cognition perspective and drawing on semi-structured interviews with chemistry, mathematics and p...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Reading psychology 2021-01, Vol.42 (4), p.364-387
Main Authors: Wyatt, Mark, Midraj, Jessica, Ayish, Nader, Bradley, Curtis, Balfaqeeh, Muna
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Barriers
Chemistry
College students
Consciousness Raising
Content Area Reading
Decoding (Reading)
English (Second Language)
English as a second language learning
English language learners
Faculty Development
Foreign Countries
Grammar
Higher education
Interviews
Introductory Courses
Language of Instruction
Language teachers
Linguistic interference
Mathematics
Mathematics education
Mathematics Teachers
Morphological processing
Morphosyntax
Organic Chemistry
Physics
Reader Text Relationship
Science education
Science Materials
Science Teachers
Second Language Learning
Semi Structured Interviews
Student Motivation
Syntax
Teacher Attitudes
Teacher education
Undergraduate Students
Vocabulary Development
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Summary:There is a worldwide concern about science and engineering undergraduate students, particularly those who are English language learners, struggling with their entry-level content courses. From a teacher cognition perspective and drawing on semi-structured interviews with chemistry, mathematics and physics teachers at a university in the Middle East, we sought to gain insights into the extent to which language is seen as interfering with content learning and how this issue is being addressed. Focusing particularly on challenges students face with processing written text in English, since this emerged through thematic analysis as the investigated content teachers' primary concern, we explore reported practices and highlight needs for in-service professional development. We suggest that science and mathematics instructors may need heightened syntactical and morphological awareness to prepare them to more effectively help their students to decode dense word problems. They may also need consciousness-raising, so that they can see themselves as language teachers too.
ISSN:0270-2711
1521-0685
DOI:10.1080/02702711.2021.1887020