Semantic Waves for Revealing Different Levels of Knowledge in Middle-School Science Classes

This paper reports on an educational research and development project in
progress. The project aims to make science lessons in the Danish middle-school
(grades 4-6) more accessible to all students by increasing science-teachers’
awareness of the linguistic challenges second-language learners in particular
(can) encounter in science lessons and materials. The aim of the paper is to
demonstrate teacher-development and strategies for making ‘science knowledge’ visible to all students by integrating meaningful language work in science lessons. The project takes its point of departure in an understanding of students’ learning where linguistic interactions are seen as crucial for accessing scientifc understandings. In the paper we introduce an analytical approach using semantic waves from Legitimation Code Theory (LCT). Observations and transcriptions of conversations from 4th grade science lessons provide data for semantic gravity analysis, which leads to discussions of how awareness of semantic waves can encourage teachers to integrate language activities in science lessons in order to scafold their students’ science understandings and participation.