Acceso usuarios
Pablo Antonio Archila
, Anne-Marie de Mejía, Jorge Molina
While the world is beginning to recognize that rigid monolingual education formats (e.g. English medium instruction) limit student engagement, it is becoming increasingly clear that the development of flexible bi/multilingual practices is crucial for optimal science education. A fundamental goal of bilingual science education is to promote bilingual scientific literacy (BSL). Although bilingual scientific argumentation (BSA) is an essential aspect of BSL, there is little published evidence on how to support BSA. This intervention study aimed to provide empirical evidence for the theoretical claim that recorded oral feedback (ROF) can be used as a type of formative assessment to support BSA. Using a quasi-experimental single-case research design, we analyzed the BSA produced by thirty-seven undergraduates (13 females and 24 males, 16–27 years old) during a bilingual science course taught within a ROF-based formative assessment environment. The findings indicate that ROF helped the participants’ creation of arguments, anticipation of counterarguments, and construction of rebuttals in Spanish, in English and in a hybrid fashion (Spanish-English code-switching). The results provide valuable evidence for bilingual science educators to consider the use of ROF as a genuine formative assessment practice to support BSA. Implications related to supporting students’ development of BSA skills are discussed.
