LEARNING SCIENCE THROUGH ENGLISH: AN INVESTIGATION OF THE VOCABULARY SKILLS OF NATIVE AND NON-NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKERS IN INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS

Abstract

This paper describes a study carried out at nine international schools in Europe and Asia, to investigate the command of non-technical vocabulary amongst native and non-native speakers of English. A total of 758 pupils participated in the study. Data were collected using multiple-choice tests designed and administered in the early 1980s in a large sample of schools in Great Britain to test secondary school pupil’s command of ninety difficult non-technical terms. In this paper, our data are compared with the British sample and the findings are set in the context of theories relating to English as a Second Language (ESL) learning. Non-native speakers attending the schools in the study sample show a deficit in their command of non-technical vocabulary, compared to their native speaking counterparts, amounting to about two years at each grade level tested. Native speakers surpass or equal their counterparts in the original British study. [Chem. Educ. Res. Pract.: 2003, 4, 233-247]