Masks and vaccinations are recommended. Plan your visit
The direct and engaging experiences of hands-on, inquiry-based science draw out students’ sense of wonder, and readily lend themselves to conversation. Students are excited by their discoveries, motivating them to share, discuss, and debate their ideas with others. Science talk is an instructional discourse practice that capitalizes on this enthusiasm and gives students regular and deliberate opportunities to process their thinking and communicate about what they have seen and done. Through exchanging views with others, students develop their understanding of the science beyond what could be achieved individually.
Discussions are an integral part of doing science. When students have conversations in which they share their observations, interpret evidence, and explain their findings, they support one another in making connections, refining ideas, and developing new perspectives. The student-to-student and student-to-teacher interactions that take place during science talk not only support science learning, but also lead to the development of language.
“Language is our essential cultural tool–we use it to share experience and so to collectively, jointly, make sense of it.… Language is therefore not just a means by which individuals can formulate ideas and communicate them, it is also a means for people to think and learn together.”
Neil Mercer, The Guided Construction of Knowledge: Talk Amongst Teachers and Learners, Multilingual Matters Ltd., ©1995
The use of language supports the development of language. Experiences and ideas are expressed through producing and listening to language that is used in meaningful contexts. Providing frequent opportunities for talk within a science unit affords multiple meaningful contexts for developing language and creates opportunities to bridge from using everyday language to developing the language of science. This is beneficial to all students, but particularly to English language learners.
The ultimate goal of science talk is to create a discourse-rich classroom culture where the natural synergy between language and meaning making supports all students in expressing ideas, developing language and acquiring new knowledge of scientific phenomena.
There can be many speaking and listening demands embedded in science talks, especially for English language learners. Students may have a lot to say, but may not have the ability to say it perfectly in English. The language that individual students use may range from a few words, to everyday language, to formal scientific and academic language. In science talks, students are encouraged and allowed to use the type of language that is accessible to them in order to fully support the expressions of their ideas. Determining appropriate scaffolds to support varying levels of language proficiency is critical to enable all students to engage, make meaning, and show what they know.
Science talk supports science learning by:
Science talk supports language development by:
Science talk can take on many different forms, but in all cases it relies on the establishment of a welcoming environment where all students feel respected and comfortable taking risks. It requires conscious effort and patience on the part of the teacher to set the conditions that address its inherent language demands (i.e., the language needed to express ones ideas and understand those of others) and provide the supports necessary for students of all language proficiencies to participate. Creating a culture of talk is a purposeful process; it takes time for both teachers and students to develop the skills that support productive conversations.
Classrooms with successful cultures of talk tend to share certain features and practices:
• Listen carefully to each other.
• Take turns talking.
• Speak one at a time, without interrupting.
• Politely agree or disagree and explain why.
• If confused, ask questions.
• Stay focused on the discussion topic.
• Respond to one another.
Science talk can be used for various purposes, all of which can be productive to students’ meaning making. Talks can be conducted to elicit students’ prior knowledge, gather initial ideas about an investigation, generate questions, plan investigations, make meaning of data, and draw conclusions. Science talk gives teachers a window into students’ thinking, which helps them make decisions about how to support students as they progress in their language development and science understanding.
The purpose of a science talk can guide the teacher in determining its timing and format. Science talks can take on many different participant structures (pair share, small-group, whole-group, etc.); they can be brief or extended, and they can occur at different stages in an investigation. For example, a teacher may initiate a science talk between pairs of students to allow them to summarize their observations before sharing them aloud or recording them on a class chart. A small-group discussion can be a good way to give students opportunities to share and discuss their ideas informally before creating a more formal presentation to the group. A whole-group discussion can support students working together at the end of a unit to make meaning of a series of experiences.
There is a strong reciprocal relationship between science talk and science writing. Talking can be a precursor to writing, and writing can be a precursor to talking. For instance, students can have a science talk before writing so they can listen to others and rehearse their own language and ideas before committing them to print. Writing in their notebooks, in turn, can give students a reference to draw upon when sharing out in a whole-group science talk. The combination of science talk and science writing supports the learning of science ideas and, in the process, helps students develop the language to express these ideas.
To see examples of science talk in action, explore the annotated classroom videos that accompany IFI’s Educators Guide for Inquiry-based Science and English Language Development. Additional resources for information on science talk can be found in the Institute for Inquiry Resource Library.