Exploring Science Teachers’ Approaches to Facilitating Student Classroom Talk When Using a Foreign Language: A Case of Four Secondary Schools in Tanzania

Engaging students in talking science in the classroom is key to their successful learning and the basis for more advanced practices such as developing critical thinking skills. Talking science, however, is challenging to many students who do not get to speak their mother tongue in the classroom. Although studies conducted in multilingual contexts like Tanzania have contributed much to the understanding of these challenges, little is known regarding which approaches teachers use to facilitate student engagement in talking science when a foreign language is used in science teaching and learning. This article investigates six teachers’ approaches to facilitating students’ science talking in a foreign language context at four secondary schools in Tanzania. The study is based on video recordings of teachers and students, and on interviews with the teachers. Thematic analysis of the collected material suggests that teacher questioning, peer reading and writing, peer and teacher evaluation and, occasionally, using students’ home language, were approaches used by the teachers to engage students in talking science. While the use of open questions and students’ home language appeared to engage learners to talk confidently in a science context, much of the teaching focused on repeating learned material. Follow-up interviews conducted with three of the participating teachers disclosed that not all of them supported open questioning techniques or the use of students’ home language. Based on these findings, recommendations for action and venues for further research are proposed.