Sense-making and learning in the 21st century: Science student voices on learning through a second language

Abstract

This research project is a multiple case study of two cohorts of Year 9 students, learning in a content and language integrated learning (CLIL) program in an Australian high school, with a newly introduced learning management system (LMS). This study is a detailed investigation into student discourses emerging from this bilingual environment. It is a discourse analysis with a focus on expert student voices enabling self-regulated learning in a highly challenging classroom setting. The study describes how language choices influence the uptake of learning strategies and digital tool use. The analysis draws out student self-efficacy beliefs and identifies enablers to engaging with the CLIL LMS.CLIL student perspectives and experiences have had little exposure in the current research literature regarding student motivation and self-regulated learning facilitated by an LMS. So far, empirical research about what works best for students has mainly focused on the delivery of information and less on pedagogies affected in using digital learning technologies and how secondary students manage this learning has received only limited consideration. Similarly, bilingual context research has mainly focused on teacher-centred issues, disregarding the student viewpoint on communication processes for meaning making. In the field of bilingual learning environments combined with an LMS, student voices have been unheeded. Attention has been awarded to the design of online learning spaces for CLIL environments rather than student-centred research and the examination of language competencies in and through additional languages. This qualitative study is endeavouring to fill this void by adding valuable insight from student perceptions negotiating a CLIL environment, and the mastery of different discourses and speech genres in and through two languages, relating to academic and social classroom events and arising from personal interrelations of participants, influenced also by digital tool use and facilitated by the LMS.A multiple case study design was chosen to investigate student experiences and opinions in a dynamic CLIL LMS setting. Two cases provided (two cohorts in 2014 and 2015) the data to ascertain the validity of the research questions and determined the research method used. Data was collected from 22 Year 9 students covering 18 biology lessons during six weeks, over two consecutive years. The students’ conversations were audio and video recorded in order to receive a comprehensive picture of their opinions and experiences working in a CLIL LMS. A student-designed questionnaire was organised and administered before and after each research phase to clarify student perceptions and interests regarding their learning in the CLIL environment. Additionally, focus group interviews were managed by an additional CLIL teacher to explain student understanding of self-regulation and scientific open inquiry strategies in this bilingual context, as well as engaging with digital tools, thus providing triangulation of data.Year 9 CLIL student representations emphasised that students’ knowledge of different CLIL discourses and speech genres offered entry to more learning opportunities. Furthermore, self- reported evidence from student voices uncovered a profound interest in learning strategies in order to increase knowledge in two languages. Lastly it was evident that Year 9 students’ aptitude, self-efficacy beliefs and self-regulatory practices developed predominantly through the exposure to a bilingual classroom setting. Working with the German language, Year 9 students frequently realised that their own content knowledge and understanding even in their native language was inadequate, and additional learning strategies had to be sourced and employed. Further to this, engagement with different speech genres (for example technology speech genres), allowed access to more learning opportunities and vice versa excluded students from certain group activities, thereby curtailing the learning processes. In summary, two practical points emerged from this study. Firstly, the bilingual nature and translanguaging practices inform CLIL students to employ different discourses and consequently support self-regulated learning strategies. Secondly, student voices engaging with specific CLIL discourses and social speech genres revealed that self-efficacy beliefs in this bilingual setting influenced the uptake of digital tool-use, language acquisition and production. The implications of these findings provide new ways to evolve educational practice incorporating student voices, offering alternative ways to develop student learning.