Technology and ELL Science Learners: CRESMET Researchers Look for Ways to Build on Students' Strengths

As part of the NSF-funded TODOS project---Technology Opening Diverse Opportunities for Science---Atkinson and Clark are developing and testing language supports in online environments that draw upon the linguistic, social and scientific resources children bring into the classroom.

While some students who are English language learners have had extensive schooling in their native tongue prior to arriving in the United States, others may have had minimal formal instruction.

Despite this fact, researchers have argued that all students bring valuable knowledge and skills from their home experiences and cultures into the school setting.
The TODOS R&D initiative has worked to model online language supports that draw upon these resources to help students learn science while simultaneously building proficiency in academic English language use.

According to Atkinson and Clark, considerable research suggests that cutting off students entirely from their primary language in the classroom may have negative effects on their academic achievement and a variety of affective measures. It is more effective, the research demonstrates, to allow students to use their primary language to support their progress in gaining mastery of their second language as well as critical subject matter competence.

The two CRESMET researchers are thus working to develop language supports that harness students’ meta-linguistic knowledge as they switch between Spanish and English.  
Online learning environments provide a promising medium for these supports, because the technology is highly versatile and easily adapted and disseminated in virtually any setting.
While the initial work focuses on Spanish-speaking students in Arizona, the researchers’ eventual goal focuses on implementing these supports to serve multiple groups of students simultaneously in highly diverse classrooms across the country and around the world.

TODOS is a member of and receives NSF funding through the Technology-Enhanced Learning of Science (TELS) Educational Accelerator Center at the University of California at Berkeley. As part of TELS, TODOS collaborates with researchers at U.C. Berkeley, the Concord Consortium, Penn State, Technion, North Carolina Central University, Norfolk University, Harvard University, Boston University and Mills College. For more information on TELS visit http://telscenter.org/

The CRESMET researchers have embedded strands of their TODOS research in the Math & Science Partnership Project Pathways led by Marilyn Carlson. Download a PowerPoint presentation for an overview.

Atkinson and Clark are assistant professors in ASU’s Mary Lou Fulton College of Education.