The Effects of English Language Proficiency and Scientific Reasoning Skills on the Acquisition of Science Content Knowledge by Hispanic English Language Learners and Native English Language Speaking Students by

Introduction and Purpose of the Study Scientific literacy for all students has been a major educational goal in the United States understanding of science makes it possible to discuss scientific issues that affect society, to use scientific knowledge and processes in making personal decisions, and to share in the excitement of scientific discovery and comprehension " (p. ix). Often, this understanding of science has proven to be very elusive for Hispanic English language learners in the United States. It has been stated by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1990), that to neglect the science education of students is to deprive them of a basic education, handicap them for life, and deprive the nation of talented workers and informed citizens. The neglect of science education for Hispanic English language learners today appears to be most prevalent in the In most classrooms in the United States, the English language is used as the medium of instruction for science. Therefore, one of the objectives of this research study was to examine the effects of English language proficiency on the acquisition of science content knowledge by Hispanic English language learners. The theoretical foundation to investigate this factor was Cummins' (1981, 1986, 1991) work on cognitive academic language proficiency, which relates both cognitive and linguistic processes to the academic success of students, more specifically non-native English language learners. According to Cummins (1980), there are two levels of language proficiency: the basic interpersonal communicative skills (BICS) and the cognitive-academic language proficiency (CALP). The basic interpersonal communicative skills (BICS) concept represents the language of natural, informal conversation. Basic interpersonal communicative skills (BICS) are used by students when talking about everyday things in concrete situations, that is; situations in which the context provides cues that make understanding not totally dependent on verbal interaction alone (Cummins, 1980, 1992; Skutnabb-Kangus, 1981). Cummins (1980) refers to this everyday conversational ability as context embedded or contextualized. It has been found by Cummins (1980, 1992) and more recently by Rosenthal (1996) that in context embedded or contextualized communication, the conversation deals with familiar events or matters that require that the speakers react and CALP is the type of language proficiency needed to read textbooks, to participate in dialogue and debate, and to provide written responses to tests. Students who have not yet developed their cognitive-academic language proficiency (CALP) could be, according to these researchers, at a disadvantage in learning science …