Avoidance Strategies as a Result of Linguistic Overload in Biology Class

Abstract

Studies in the field of second-language-learners in German showed that students apply different strategies if they are exposed to a linguistic overload in school. These strategies very often result in behaviour of avoidance. In this paper, a case study from biology class illustrates a student named Lela who applies an avoidance strategy: She refuses to read schoolbook texts on her own and the autonomous work on a crossword puzzle, too. To capture the reason for Lela’s behaviour this case study uses participatory observation protocols (OP) which are analysed via Key-Incident-Analysis. Moreover, we analysed the respective schoolbook texts and the crossword puzzle. Results reveal that Lela’s avoidance strategies are not symptoms of laziness or a lack of interest but linguistic complexity in schoolbook texts and missing support of learning language of schooling.

Keywords

• avoidance strategy
• biology education
• language of schooling
• Key-Incident-Analysis
• case study
• linguistic overload