ABSTRACT
Teaching science through English is a growing phenomenon around the world. In this chapter, I start off by providing an overview of the challenges that teachers and students face when learning science through English in various cultural contexts. I then move on to report a study in Hong Kong which explores the teaching and learning process in EMI science classrooms (physics, chemistry, biology) from eight secondary schools. Drawing on 34 hours of video-recorded classroom observations of 19 teachers and 545 students, I explore the patterns of classroom interactions (turn-taking, ratio of talk, language choices, question types) in traditional (or early-full) EMI versus MOI-switching (or late-partial) schools (switching from L1 Cantonese to L2 English), between grades 10 and 11. I discuss the method of observational data collection; challenges collecting, processing, and analysing this type of data. I then provide the observation scheme used in this study. By providing an evidence-based, detailed analysis of authentic classroom interactions, this research hopefully sheds light on ways for improving the quality of instructional practices in different EMI classrooms worldwide.
