Using Arabic language to support the vocabulary development and increase achievement in biology for Syrian refugee students

النوع : Mémoire

The purpose of this action research is to study the effectiveness of an intervention of explaining the content in mother language Arabic and practicing the use of the scientific vocabulary terms in English to be used, for Syrian refugee students on scientific vocabulary development and increasing achievement in biology. This study was done in Omar Al Zeine School, on grade 6 Syrian students. In this action research, the data collection techniques employed were observations and the examination of documents. The intervention was applied to one section of a grade 6 class. Pre-tests and post-tests were done to the 5 Syrian students. The time taken for the intervention was two weeks on two different biology topics. Data obtained from tests were analyzed by using SPSS 16.0 program. A paired samples t-test revealed a statistically reliable difference between the mean average of the pre-intervention (M=4.8, s=2.68) and that in the post-intervention test (M=11.5, s=1.87), t(4) = -9.571, p=0.001. This indicates that the intervention done for Syrian refugee students supports the vocabulary development and increase achievement.