Science has its own language.
Students encounter words such as photosynthesis, mitochondria, viscosity, and thermal energy while they are also learning new concepts and trying to follow the language of directions, discussions, labs, and written explanations.
For multilingual learners, that can mean processing the science content and the English used to teach it at the same time.
In the middle school science classrooms where I have co-taught, I have seen how easily language can hide what a student understands. Making science accessible does not mean removing grade-level content. It means giving students a clearer way to enter it and show what they know.
Here are five strategies that can help.
1. Teach Vocabulary in Context
Vocabulary instruction needs to be connected to the science students are learning.
I became more interested in vocabulary instruction after making science vocabulary part of my professional student learning goal. After reviewing pretests and posttests in sixth- and eighth-grade science, I was not seeing the improvement I expected.
Using Classwize, I also noticed students searching Google and copying definitions. They could locate a definition, but that did not mean they understood the word or could use it later.
That experience pushed me to think more carefully about how students encounter vocabulary.
Instead of beginning and ending with a copied definition, students can:
- Examine a word within a science text
- Connect the word to an image or diagram
- Identify examples and nonexamples
- Use the word while discussing an observation
- Return to the word during a lab or written explanation
- Compare useful English and Spanish cognates when appropriate
Flash cards, matching activities, and vocabulary scavenger hunts can provide additional practice, but students still need opportunities to connect each word to an actual scientific idea.
2. Begin With Observation
Students do not always need to begin a science lesson by reading a dense paragraph or memorizing a definition.
An image, object, model, or simple demonstration can give students something concrete to discuss before they are expected to use academic language.
One routine I use begins with three questions:
- What do you observe?
- What does that tell you?
- What do you think it is?
I have used highly magnified images of shark skin, snake skin, pieces of a hornet’s nest, porcupine quills, bumblebees, and lice. Students first describe what they can actually see. Then they make inferences and use those observations to support a prediction.
I have also shown students liquids with different densities and viscosities and asked them why they think the liquids behave differently.
The observation gives students a starting point. Vocabulary and scientific explanations can be introduced as students need language to describe what they notice.
3. Use Sentence Frames to Support Scientific Writing
A student may understand what happened during an investigation but still struggle to write a complete scientific explanation.
Sentence frames can help students connect their ideas without supplying all the thinking for them.
For example:
- I observed _____.
- The data shows _____.
- This evidence supports the claim because _____.
- I think _____ because _____.
- One pattern I noticed was _____.
The amount of support should depend on the student.
A multilingual learner at an earlier level of English proficiency may need a complete frame and a word bank. An intermediate student may need only a sentence starter. A student who can organize the response independently may not need a frame at all.
Sentence frames are most useful when they help students express thinking they already have. They should not turn every response into the same completed sentence.
4. Use Graphic Organizers to Connect Evidence and Thinking
Students often collect information without understanding how to use it.
They may record an observation during a lab or find evidence in a science text but then become stuck when asked to explain what that information means.
A graphic organizer can make that connection more visible.
Depending on the task, students might record:
- What they observed or read
- What they think the information means
- The conclusion or inference they can make
In a lab or investigation, the organizer might begin with I Saw. When students are working with a science text or data source, It Says may be more accurate.
The organizer can also be differentiated. Some students may use a blank version. Others may need guiding questions, sentence starters, or an exemplar that shows how the parts connect.
The purpose is not to complete the thinking for students. It is to help them see how an observation or piece of evidence leads to an inference, claim, or explanation.
5. Build in Repeated Opportunities to Use Scientific Language
Students rarely learn a science term after seeing it once.
They need to encounter the word in different parts of the lesson and use it for a reason.
A term might first appear with an image, return during a reading, be used in a partner discussion, and appear again in a written response. Games, flash cards, scavenger hunts, and digital activities can provide additional practice when they remain connected to the content.
Repetition does not have to mean completing the same worksheet several times.
Students can:
- Match terms with diagrams
- Sort examples and nonexamples
- Describe a term without naming it
- Locate vocabulary in a text
- Use the term to explain an observation
- Revisit the term during a CER response
The format can change, but students should continue using the vocabulary until it becomes part of their understanding of the science concept.
Start With One Barrier
Teachers do not need to redesign an entire science unit at once.
Look at one lesson and ask:
What might prevent a multilingual learner from showing what they understand?
The barrier might be an unfamiliar word, a long set of directions, a blank writing page, or an unclear connection between the evidence and the question.
Once that barrier is identified, the support can be more purposeful.
Start With One Barrier
Teachers do not need to redesign an entire science unit at once.
Look at one lesson and ask:
What might prevent a multilingual learner from showing what they understand?
The barrier might be an unfamiliar word, a long set of directions, a blank writing page, or an unclear connection between the evidence and the question.
Once that barrier is identified, the support can be more purposeful.
Final Thoughts
Making science accessible for multilingual learners does not mean lowering expectations or removing the difficult thinking.
It means paying attention to where language, directions, or organization may be preventing students from entering the task.
Vocabulary in context, observation routines, sentence frames, differentiated graphic organizers, and repeated language practice can give students more than one way to understand the science and explain their thinking.
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