ABSTRACT: School subjects can provide a good context for learning a second
language. This is especially true for science as it can involve a range of student
centred activities, which involve students in collaborative communication related
to a range of different competences. This paper reflects on one approach to
learning in a second language, using the approach promoted by the PROFILES
project. It illustrates how the PROFILES approach can realise greater potential
for student language development, focusing on learning about carbon dioxide in
an inquiry learning format, permitting experimentation and interpretation of the
outcomes. The approach is via a scenario providing a familiar setting for the
learning and, following experimentation, the approach moves to decision making
where the focus of carbon dioxide is on being a greenhouse gas and effecting
global warming, this leading to a debate on acceptable levels of carbon dioxide
and the effect of deforestation. The latter involves the use of argumentation skills
in a socio-scientific setting allowing the utilisation of a second language in a
different dimension to that of providing scientific explanations.