Chemistry Teachers’ Attitudes and Needs When Dealing with Linguistic Heterogeneity in the Classroom - Affective Dimensions in Chemistry Education - page 281

sciences and the humanities representing nonoverlapping magisteria. It would
appear that chemistry teachers are often not sensitive enough to recognise the
linguistic difficulties their students have and don t feel competent in or responsible

for dealing with linguistic issues. It is also the case that many teachers lack
strategies for dealing with such problems in their chemistry classes. A not infre-
quent opinion which researchers constantly hear from teachers is that the severe
time shortages built into the chemistry curriculum are a good reason not to deal with
linguistic heterogeneity and its attendant difficulties (Cho & McDonnough, 2009 ).
In their study of 221 teachers of science (including chemistry), Lee et al. ( 2009 )
evaluated teachers ' perception of teaching science to ELL students. The study
revealed that teachers rarely participate in professional development activities
dealing with language and linguistic difficulties in science class. Over half of the
teachers took additional coursework at the university level, and only 10 % had not
had teacher training experience for language and science. In other countries
coursework offers on this topic also remain rare for in-service training opportuni-
ties. Although the majority of teachers in Lee et al.

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s( 2009 ) study stated that they
had attended courses dealing with linguistic heterogeneity, they went on to state
that they had used the acquired strategies primarily to promote English language
development in only a tiny number of science lessons. They had also elected to
allow the use of ELL students

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native languages in a few lessons.
When it comes to organisational support, Lee et al. ( 2009 ) stated that science
teachers are generally supported by their principals and that they often collaborate
with other teachers at their school. However, collaboration normally entails sharing
teaching materials and activities, dividing up assessment tasks, comparing students

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work or swapping stories about teaching experiences with their co-workers. During
such meetings they only rarely discuss the problems of heterogeneity and diversity
on their classes, for example, issues of ELL students.
Teachers tend to view students poor skills in reading, writing and mathematics

as moderate barriers to most science teaching and learning. Furthermore, Lee
et al. ( 2009 ) also identified school-level constraints, parents, family and community
as other moderate barriers. A quantitative research study of 33 teachers carried out
by Cho and McDonnough ( 2009 ) revealed that the language barriers and ELL
students

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lack of foundational science knowledge represented the largest challenges
to educators.
Teachers in Cho and McDonnough

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s( 2009 ) study selected different strategies
for dealing with the above-named challenges. The most prevalent accommodation
made by the teachers was giving ELL students additional time to complete assigned
tasks. More than a half of the participants stated that they always (or quite often)
provide ELL students with extra time to complete basic tasks. The second most
popular strategy was slowing down the teachers

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rate of speaking to aid in under-
standing, followed closely by the strategy of grouping ELL students together so that
they can help one another. It is interesting to note that alternatives like providing
different tasks and assignments, substituting differentiated instructional materials
or using other grading/assessing methods were the least-adopted accommodations
on the list, occurring rarely or never. One explanation mentioned by Cho and

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