ELL Scaffolds for High School Science: Supporting English Learners in Biology, Chemistry, and Physics
High school science courses — biology, chemistry, physics, environmental science — each have highly specialized vocabulary, unique text genres, and demanding discourse norms. For ELL students, mastering the language of each discipline is a prerequisite to demonstrating scientific knowledge. This page provides scaffolds designed for the specific language demands of high school science, organized by subject area.
The Language Demands of High School Science
High school science instruction involves multiple language registers and genres within a single course. Students are expected to:
- Read dense textbook and primary source science text with complex nominalizations and technical vocabulary
- Write formal lab reports using passive voice, precise quantitative language, and the conventions of scientific writing
- Engage in scientific argumentation using claim-evidence-reasoning structures in both oral and written form
- Interpret and describe graphs, data tables, diagrams, and models — a language task that requires specific vocabulary for visual interpretation
- Use mathematical language in context — writing equations, describing relationships, interpreting units
ELL students often have strong scientific backgrounds and conceptual knowledge but lack the English academic language to demonstrate that knowledge in expected formats.
High-Priority Science Vocabulary by Subject
Biology
Chemistry
Physics
Science Writing Language
Sentence Frames for High School Science
- The purpose of this investigation was to determine ___.
- It was hypothesized that ___ would ___ because ___.
- The data indicates that ___.
- These results are consistent with ___ because ___.
- A possible source of error that could have affected the results is ___.
- My claim is supported by evidence showing ___.
- This evidence is significant because ___.
- An alternative explanation is ___, however ___.
- The mechanism by which ___ occurs is ___.
- This pattern can be explained by ___.
- The graph shows a ___ (positive/negative/no) correlation between ___ and ___.
- As ___ increases by ___, ___ increases/decreases by ___.
- The outlier at ___ may be explained by ___.
- Based on the trend, I would predict that ___.
- The units of ___ are ___, which tells us ___.
- Based on the evidence, I think ___.
- I want to build on what ___ said. I think ___.
- I'm not sure I agree because ___.
- Can you clarify what you mean by ___?
- The data supports this because ___.
Supporting ELLs Across High School Science Courses
Pre-teach lab vocabulary before investigation. Before any lab, introduce the key procedural and conceptual vocabulary students will encounter. A brief vocabulary preview with visuals dramatically improves ELL students' ability to follow procedures and record data accurately.
Scaffold formal lab report writing. Provide a structured template for each lab report section with sentence starters, examples, and formatting guidance. The genre conventions of scientific writing are learned, not innate — ELL students need explicit instruction in these conventions.
Make disciplinary language visible. Post the vocabulary of scientific writing — indicates, demonstrates, suggests, supports, contradicts — and the connectives of scientific reasoning — therefore, however, consequently, in contrast — as permanent classroom references.
Use bilingual resources for concept access. Allow students to read a passage in their home language to build conceptual background before encountering the same content in English. Comprehension in the home language accelerates English acquisition, not the reverse.
How Assist ELD helps
Paste your high school science lesson, lab procedure, or assessment task and Assist ELD generates subject-specific vocabulary, sentence frames for lab reports and scientific argumentation, and supports calibrated to ELP 1–2 and 3–4.