Issues with biology of EAL students

Pronunciation - Many words in the biology are difficult enough to sound out and pronounce for
those of us who’s first language is English, they are obviously even more difficult when your
first language it not. If you can’t pronounce a word, it is very hard to want to learn about it so
generally students will just skip over it which doesn’t do them any good.
Vocab - As a discipline, biology encompasses a lot of topics, concepts, and issues that students
are required to learn. There is a lot of vocabulary that needs to be addressed in any biological
topic being studied, and many of them often get overlooked. Some words and concepts may also
be too abstract because of the use of foreign/Latin roots and words (Cimer, 2012). For students
with English as an additional language, being able to understand vocabulary is very beneficial
when it comes to learning this subject.
Comprehension - There are a lot of biological events and concepts that are studied and cannot be
seen with the naked eye which makes it hard for students who are learning English to understand
and comprehend (Cimer, 2012).
Readings - In some textbooks, the biology curriculum includes very detailed knowledge and
covers topics or concepts that are difficult to learn. Because they are not used in everyday life,
many students are uninterested and unwilling to learn about them.
Content - If classroom activities and texts aren’t relevant to students daily lives and don’t include
practical work or experiments, then students may feel they are only required to memorize the
factual knowledge, but again, they won’t actually be able to understand what is being taught,
which means they aren’t learning optimally (Cimer, 2012).
Writing - Writing in biology is another difficulty EAL students face because if they don’t
understand what it is they are learning about, then they will not be able to record their thoughts.
While there is not a lot of writing in biology, one key writing piece are lab reports. It is hard for
EAL students to become engaged when writing lab reports because they are often seen as boring
and irrelevant.
Help - When students don’t understand a concept, it is important that we give them as much help
as necessary to get the message across to them, but sometimes this can result in the student
taking advantage of the teacher. We as teachers need to be able to distinguish the difference
between helping a struggling student, and doing the work for lazy ones.
Lesson Plan 1
My lesson plan is a hands on activity for the students to engage in where they are given the
opportunity to walk around the school or classroom in order to record observations.
Focus – the focus of this task is to teach students how to make observations
Strategy for teaching – allow students to be hands on and engage in group work
Task - arrange students into small groups and have each group go around the class room and
record 20 things with as much detail as they can
Purpose – the purpose of this is to engage the students in hands-on activities because they allow
for students minds to grow and learn based on the experiences and environment they are exposed
to. EAL students learn better while “discussing, investigating, creating, and discovering with
other students” (Lizardi, 2017). Students begin to make decisions on their own and require less
teacher support when they become familiar with the subject they are learning. This allows for a
more interactive learning experiences to occur (Lizardi, 2017).
Helpful Solutions
Pictures and visuals – To make biology learning more effective to EAL students it is beneficial
to teach biology through the use of visual materials like picture and video demonstrations
because it gives them a visual to relate the words and concepts too.
Real life examples – teaching through practical work helps to engage the students with what they
are learning and helps them better understand how and why what they are learning can pertain to
everyday life
Content – it is important that you simplify the content within the curriculum and never assume
that topics are already known. Assuming students know what you are talking about because it is
considered to be common knowledge will most likely just lead to more confusion.
Study – If you can incorporate teaching a variety of different study techniques as the same time
you are teaching the course content, it will not only help students with biology but it will also
help them in their other subjects.
Focus words – at the beginning of each class, put vocabulary words that you want to bring
attention to on one side of the board. As you teach the class, write in the definitions of those
words beside each and have the students create their own glossary of terms to keep in their notes.
Fill in the blank notes – this is an effective strategy to use when there are a lot of new terms and
definitions that are being taught.
Root word – breaking down words and teaching students the meanings of different prefixes and
suffixes is a good way to help them learn difficult vocabulary

References
Çimer, A. (2012). What makes biology learning difficult and effective: Students' views.
Educational Research and Reviews. 7(3): 61-68.
Lizardi, R. (2017). Hands-on Activities. Colorado! Retrieved from
http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/hands-activities