The relationship between students' interest in bilingual science learning and students' English competence

Abstract

The correlation of students' interest in bilingual science learning and their English competence was investigated. Forty-six students of elementary-school teacher candidate program participated in this study. The students received five topics of science (Heat, Changes in Matters, Plant Life and Environment, Simple Machine, Animal Life and Environment) with English usage embedded. The students' interest in science learning involving English was examined. Meanwhile, the students' mastery of general English was measured. The result shows that the students' interest in bilingual science learning and their English mastery is not significantly correlated. The finding suggests that the students might still enjoy and get benefit from bilingual science learning despite their English abilities. This leads to the opportunity to have more bilingual science classes to enhance not only students' science mastery but also their English competence.