The Role of Metalanguage in an Explicit Literacy Instruction on Scientific Explanation

Abstract

This paper illustrates the role of metalanguage in an explicit literacy instruction to talk about the forms and functions of scientific genres, particularly the genre of explanation. In the context of science, metalanguage refers to the technical terms for talking about scientific language using words like law, hypothesis, and evidence. Despite many efforts to use literacy strategies to address the challenges of learning scientific language, the conventional genres commonly found in science remain implicit in most science classroom teaching. In order to explicitly discuss the nature of scientific genres and how they are linked to scientific practices, scientific metalanguage provides a potential literacy tool. To illustrate this argument, we draw on a case study where four teachers and their grade nine students learned how to use a specific type of metalanguage to describe scientific explanation. Analysis of their classroom discourse showed that the use of the metalanguage facilitated explicit communication about the logical sequence, epistemic structure, and validity of scientific explanation. Based on the findings, we discuss the usefulness of metalanguage for teachers and students to describe and analyze scientific genres as well as how these genres are used to construct and communicate scientific knowledge.

Exploring Pre-Service Chemistry Teachers’ Pedagogical Scientific Language Knowledge

“…Students' challenges with Chemish itself can occur because, according to Lemke [18], the scientific language has its own semantics, supplemented by its grammar, rhetorical structures, and figures of speech. Additionally, one can examine the features of scientific language at three levels: the vocabulary, grammar, and genre level [19]. Finally, Chemish includes three different components: macroscopic (e.g., substances and phenomena), microscopic (e.g., molecules and atoms), and symbolic (e.g., formulas and equations) [20,21].…”

“…According to Kulgemeyer [33], thematizing the differences of everyday and scientific language and considering students' alternative conceptions and preconceptions according to the scientific language are important when teaching science. However, approaches that focus on the "hidden conventions" of scientific language, and thus on metalanguage, "that govern the way language is used to produce and communicate scientific knowledge" are missing [19] (p. 1312). Metalanguage in the context of science therefore "refers to the technical terms for talking about scientific language" [19] (p. 1312).…”

The characteristics of diagrams in scientific explanations: Multimodal integration of written and visual modes of representation in junior high school textbooks

“…A thematic pattern is typically shown as a diagram consisting of nodes and lines, with a node representing a key word and a line representing a semantic relationship between two nodes. Lemke's (1990) original work in thematic pattern only incorporates the analysis of verbal text, but this limitation has since been supplemented by other researchers who have added visual elements in thematic patterns (e.g., He & Lin, 2019; Tang, 2020; Tang et al, 2011). The purpose of creating thematic patterns is to facilitate the analysis and show visually how the different verbal and visual connections come together in the construction of scientific explanations.…”

“…The technical terms used in PRO (premise, reasoning, outcome) are examples of a metalanguage to describe scientific language at the level of genre. This metalanguage was introduced to students who subsequently used them to construct scientific explanations (Tang, 2016; Tang & Rappa 2020). In the same way, terms such as narrative, analytical, classification, temporal, and comparative are currently used by researchers to describe scientific images, but they can similarly be introduced to teachers and students.…”

Multimodal Genre of Science Classroom Discourse: Mutual Contextualization Between Genre and Representation Construction

“…This was most evident in the teacher's and researchers' interventions to ensure the students' meaning-making developed along scientific genres, even though the project did not foreground genre during the research. Research on representation construction must therefore take into account the role of genre, not only as a lens for researchers to consider the contextual purpose of the surrounding activity but also for teachers to highlight and explain the genre requirements as a form of explicit disciplinary literacy (see Tang & Rappa, 2020). For instance, in an experimental account genre, teachers could be more explicit in naming the variables in the experiment and discussing the rationale of the experiment, instead of focusing on the "results."…”