A Case Study of Emergent Bilinguals Meaning-Making during Multimodal Science Lessons in a Bilingual Primary School

Abstract

The learning of science presents difficulties to bi/multilingual learners (BMLs), mostly due to the demands of scientific language. However, when viewed through a contemporary language lens the language of science is multimodal and presents alternate meaning opportunities. This study attempts to address the BML's needs by reconceptualising their issue through a contemporary theoretical lens. The aim is to investigate and describe how the use of non-linguistic resources, plays a role in BML’s meaning-making in science.