English for Natural Sciences

ENGLISH FOR NATURAL SCIENCES

Widya Kiswara

The Graduate Program (S2)
of English Language Studies
Sanata Dharma University
Yogyakarta

Abstract

English is an international lingua franca and a language of knowledge which is also used in Natural Sciences. The spread of it is becoming faster because more and more people learn it. People learn English for Natural Sciences to improve their quality of their lives. Junior and Senior High School students will able to get enough good sources and able to understand English Science better. In the level of approach, content based approach which would lead the learners to learn is discussed. In the level of design, there are two kinds of proficiencies needed to achieve the goal. The first proficiency is basic interpersonal communications skills (BICS) and the second one is cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP). This paper aimed to search for the accountability of English for Natural Sciences in the level of paradigm, approach and design.

Key words: lingua franca, BICS, CALP,   approach, design

Introduction
English is considered as a lingua franca which means that it has the essential value of being a means of global communication (Bechler, 2004). A lot of people who speak different languages use English to exchange and negotiate meanings in economic, politics, science and technology as well. Graddol (2006) describes thoroughly the increasing numbers of English speakers, by providing analyses of demography, economy, technology, society and language. The internet, for instance, has increased the number of the English users since more or less 51% of internet users in 2000 used English.      
English is also the language of knowledge (Gatehouse 2001). A lot of books were written in English and in that year, 80% of science and technology came first in English.   It is the age of enormous and unprecedented expansion in scientific activities on an international scale. Graddol (2006) states that 85% of...