Hur framställs naturvetenskapliga begrepp i biologiböcker? : En läromedelsanalys i biologiämnet för åk 4-6 ur ett andraspråksperspektiv

The background of this study is that the study results in science subject for many multilingual students are heading in a downward trend. Research has shown that many multilingual students are having a hard time adjusting to the advanced language used in the classroom. Which contains difficulties for students in understanding the content of science and assimilate to the teaching. The first aim of this study has been to research how scientific concepts in the subject of biology are being introduced through textbooks. The scientific concepts that were being analyzed are species, ecosystem, food chain, photosynthesis, and circulations in nature. The second aim is to research how multilingual students are getting support by the textbooks. The study´s aim and research questions have been executed through qualitative and quantitative analysis of two science textbooks in biology. Something that was identified in the result was the certain concepts were not mentioned at all and that one of the textbooks many times did not mention the scientific concepts by their scientific name. A conclusion of the study is the importance of combining the scientific language with the everyday language in education as to the subject of science with multilingual students. The textbooks contain different kinds of scaffolding strategies to introduce scientific concepts as for support by illustrations and photographs, short pieces of text and connections to other concepts.