ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the thematic discourse pattern that is associated with the content of science. Thematic pattern is a pattern of semantic relationships among the words that are used to describe a specific science content. Unlike commonly used notions like vocabulary and scientific concept, thematic pattern provides a more explicit and transparent way to examine content matter based on the actual words we hear, say, read, and write in the classroom. This chapter discusses how we know and learn the meaning of a word through its semantic relationships with other words as well as how a scientific concept is built and assessed through a thematic pattern of semantic relationships. With an understanding of thematic pattern, the chapter then introduces several discourse strategies that make explicit the language challenges that many students face in learning science, including strategies such as critical semantic connection, unpacking abstraction, and jumbled sequencing.
