The science textbook : reading problems faced by Lebanese elementary students

Abstract

Students all over the world are facing serious challenges in their attempt to learn science especially since the science textbook is still the main source of information and students’ ability to read to learn science is less than satisfactory. In fact, students who are both native and non-native speakers of English are faced with challenges and difficulties when they read to learn science from their textbooks (Wellington and Osborne, 2001). These difficulties include problems with scientific vocabulary (technical words) (Snow, 2010; Wellington and Osborne, 2001) and everyday words used in a scientific context (non-technical words) (Carlsen 2007; Wellington and Osborne, 2001). Non-native speakers of English are at an additional disadvantage since they need to learn two languages concurrently, the second language (English) and the language of science. The purpose of this study was to investigate the problems that Lebanese elementary level students who are non-native speakers of English face while reading their science textbooks. Participants in this study were 196 grade six students from six private elementary schools in the Beirut and Mount Lebanon area that use science textbooks published in Lebanon. All participating students took a multiple choice test and a grouping worksheet which examined their comprehension of technical and non-technical words. Moreover, 20 students were randomly selected for interviews during which they were asked to explain their answers in the grouping worksheet and to discuss the meanings of some of the problematic technical and non-technical words. Results of the study indicate that Lebanese students are facing serious difficulties with the comprehension of most of the technical and non-technical words. For example, most students found the technical words with multiple meanings challenging and resorted to the everyday definition of those words. Moreover, the majority of the participants assigned either opposite meanings or imprecise meaning and chose look-alike and sound-alike words w