SIGNIFICANCE OF LIMITED ENGLISH PROFICIENCY AND CULTURAL CAPITAL TO THE PERFORMANCE IN SCIENCE OF CHINESE-AUSTRALIANS

This investigation of Chinese-Australian students and their learning o f chemistry indicates that despite students' efforts to learn chemistr y with understanding, difficulties in speaking and writing English wer e factors that limited performance. An hegemony based on the use of En glish to learn chemistry and assess performance placed students with l imited English proficiency (LEP) in a position of potential failure. H owever, as might be expected df voluntary minorities, LEP Chinese stud ents endeavored to use English to make sense of what happened in class and to demonstrate the extent to which they had learned chemistry. At the same time, they employed Cantonese in their oral and written disc ourse and exhibited high levels df commitment to learn, effort, and ta sk orientation in and out of school. These practices were consistent w ith those expected by the teacher and that typically occurred in schoo ls in their native Hong Kong. The study supports the assertions that l earning chemistry can be facilitated when LEP students are provided op portunities to fully employ their native langauge tools and when the m icroculture of the classroom fits the macroculture of life outside the classroom.