Chapter 4: Integrating Flexible Language Supports within Online Science Learning Environments

Students learn best when instruction builds upon the resources and knowledge that they bring to the classroom. We have developed multilingual scaffolding for English language learners within an online science project. The scaffolding allows students to freely switch the “paragraph” and “support” languages in terms of both written and spoken text. Students can therefore harness their proficiencies with written and spoken English and Spanish as they switch back and forth to make sense of the science concepts and the critical academic English. This chapter presents preliminary analysis of student usage of these supports.