The Role of Language in Physics Education in Bilingual and Multilingual Classrooms

In view of the challenges that students learning sciences in their native language face, identifying pedagogical ways to improve the performance of first-language Maltese speakers who lack adequate proficiency in the English language is crucial. This is so, as these students are faced with a double challenge; learning the language of physics and learning physics in their second language. Since language and understanding are intertwined, Maltese students need to overcome these two obstacles. This study was carried out with my own class in the form of action research. It focused on language use combined with an inquiry-based learning (IBL) pedagogy. This study consisted of three IBL activities where the students were encouraged to use their preferred language when engaging in discussions. This study has shown that much of my students’ learning was gained through interaction with others who are more or differently knowledgeable in some way (peers or teachers) but functioning within their “zone of proximal development” and so making that learning accessible, which is consistent with Vygotsky’s social constructivist theory of learning. This study thus highlights that policy makers should allow an alternative way of science teaching. Such a way should promote code-switching as a mode of instruction for classroom talk alongside a translanguaging pedagogy, as language plays an important role in enabling students to develop their ideas in and through language, as the language the students use to each other and to their teacher enables learning and enables them to verbalise their scientific knowledge. Thus, the use of the students’ mother tongue in the science classroom should be promoted as it offers a rich means for learning science, especially since classrooms in the Maltese context are becoming more linguistically diverse.