The perception and experiences of teachers about language issues in the biology classroom

This study is mainly based on the exploration of language issues in the biology classroom. The findings of the study reveal that there are many language issues in biology teaching that are encountered by teachers and students. Language issues include difficult and specific terminology, unique way of writing, long and difficult pronunciation and alien phenomenon. These issues are creating hindrance in students’ performance and looking at their career in biology. Sometimes, it discourages students from participating in the biology classroom discussion because of the limited vocabulary that students hold in biology. Students prefer to remain silent because of the lack of familiar scientific vocabulary. Teachers have also tried to connect biological terminology with students’ daily practices by translating the words. But it seems useless because many words in biology cannot be translated into the native language. Therefore, it is recommended to organize training sessions for teachers where they can learn about these issues and also work collectively to solve these issues in the classroom.

The one key recommendation for the biology teachers is that they should reflect on their daily practices, especially reflecting on language issues. Reflection is a key to think and review classroom teaching practices and make alterations in the way of teaching. It also helps to overcome the classroom teaching issues that teachers and students encounter in the biology classroom. The findings of this research also suggested that teachers are not well aware of the language issues in biology classrooms. Therefore, it is recommended to conduct more training and/or workshops on language issues in biology classrooms.

The action research should be conducted in Pakistan to teach teachers innovative ways for biology teaching. The cross-analysis study on different contexts should be conducted because it will give awareness about the language issues and teachers’ routine practices. Based on findings, survey questionnaires should be developed to conduct a nationwide study for the generalization of the findings and making aware the concerned educational intitutes.This study cannot be generalized to the whole population of the biology teachers because there are contextual challenges and studnets intellectual diversities that might brings variations.