Saturday, April 19, 2014

Learning Outcomes and Attitudes of Grade 9 Students toward Studying Science in English

Salubsri Charoenwet 
Suratpittaya School Surat Thani 84000 Thailand salubsri@gmail.com
Zurida Ismail zurida
University Sains Malaysia Penang Malaysia zurida@usm.my

Abstract
The importance of English language has increasingly gained more attention in the Thai education system, particularly in the coming ASEAN Community scheme in 2015. The aim of this study is to investigate the results of integrating English in teaching science in the context of Thai education. Grade 9 students from secondary school in Multilanguage Program (MLP) participated in the enriched program of learning science using English language as a medium of communication. The unit taught was Genetics and learning materials in English including the test were provided. Learning outcomes and students’ attitudes were examined after 18 periods of learning activities. The content test in Genetics was administered in Thai language to this group of students similar to those who were in the normal program in order to assess their knowledge regarding the subject content they have learned. The results showed that the posttest score was statistically higher than the pretest’s at the level of 0.05 with the average percentage of pretest and posttest score 47.60 and 72.50 respectively. The average score from the assessment test using the Thai exam paper provided satisfying results with the average percentage of 82.58. The data from the questionnaires revealed positive attitudes of students participating in this program. However, it is found that supplementary hours in Thai are apparently required to promote understanding and in-depth learning of the science content.

Keywords: Learning science, Integrated English learning, Science in English, Students’ attitudes


Presented in International Conference on Information Business and Education Technology (ICIBET 2013) March 14-15, Beijing, China 

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