The Development of Thai EFL Secondary School Students’ English Science Vocabulary Knowledge through Science Vocabulary Crossword Puzzle (SVCP) Practices: Action Research

Vocabulary plays an important role in the Content-Based classroom, making EFL Students’ science vocabulary knowledge critical to their content understanding. The purpose of this action research was to enhance students’ science vocabulary knowledge of 9thgrade students through science vocabulary crossword puzzle (SVCP) practices. The research group comprised 33 students of a science classroom using English as the medium of instruction in their second semester of the 2020 academic year at a large secondary school in Bangkok. The action research cyclical process of Kemmisand McTaggart (1981) was adopted through the steps of (1) Plan, (2) Act, (3) Observe and (4) Reflect. The innovation being introduced was a collection of science vocabulary crossword puzzle materials. The research instruments used were the science vocabulary knowledge test and the students’ opinion questionnaire towards SVCP practices. The assessment of students’ vocabulary knowledge was conducted before and after the delivery of crossword puzzle practices. The data was analyzed by a dependent sample t-test. The research findings were as follows: (1) After implementing SVCP practices, the mean of students’ science vocabulary knowledge score had increased by a statistically significant 0.05.and(2) students had positive opinions toward the SVCP practices.

Enhancing Technical Vocabulary Through Morphological Analysis Instruction For Biology-majored Students

This paper aims to investigate the effectiveness of morphological analysis instruction on gradetenbiology-major studentsin TanTaoHigh SchoolfortheGifted inLong An, Vietnam, andto find out whether they can catch up with the level of biotechnology students in Tan Tao University, in terms of science vocabulary performance. The instruction selectively targeted technical multisyllabic words that occur frequently in the participants’ corpus. Thirty-one students including eighteen grade-ten biology students as the experimental group and thirteen biotechnology students as the control group participated in the study. For data collection, pre-posttest was designed, validated and applied for the experimental and control group. Apart from the regular teaching method, the experimental group also received explicit morphemic analysis instruction, while the control group only received their regular teaching. Pretest to posttest results revealed that each group registered an increase in the respective means, however, the experimental group surpassed the control group up to 5.9 mean difference. Morphemic analysis confirms its effectiveness in boosting the students’ vocabulary acquisition of multisyllabic terminologies that facilitates their learning. The paper ended with some pedagogical implications for teaching technical terms.

Clues: Using Generative Strategies to Improve the Science Vocabulary of Secondary English Learners With Reading Disabilities

English learners (ELs) with reading disabilities (RDs) have been among the lowest performers on academic achievement tests that assess vocabulary. To meet academic demands and prepare for college or careers, ELs with RDs clearly need support in terms of vocabulary acquisition; however, relevant research is scarce. This study investigated the effects of the CLUES strategy, a generative vocabulary strategy, on the ability of students to analyze and define unknown science terms relating to biology. The study further evaluated students’ ability to maintain vocabulary gains over time and to generalize the CLUES strategy. The results showed that participants benefited from the use of the CLUES approach to define novel science terms and maintain their ability to use this strategy over time. The participants themselves generally expressed satisfaction with the CLUES strategy and recommended it to their peers.

Sounding Out Science

With the current focus to have all students reach scientific literacy in the U.S, there exists a need to support marginalized students, such as those with Learning Disabilities/Differences (LD), to reach the same educational goals as their mainstream counterparts. This chapter examines the benefits of using audio assistive technology on the iPad to support LD students to achieve comprehension of science vocabulary and semantics. This research is composed of quantified data supported by qualitative information. Significant statistical evidence from pretest and posttest ANCOVA analysis reveals that audio technology is beneficial for seventh grade LD students when learning unfamiliar science content. Analysis of observations and student interviews support the quantified findings. This chapter provides useful information for the rising number of identified LD students and their parents and teachers by providing the benefits of using audio assistive technology to learn science. Audio assistive technology can be the tool to bridge the gap for LD students to achieve scientific literacy.