A Text Analysis of How Passive Voice in a Biology Textbook Impacts English Language Learners

Hamline University Hamline University

DigitalCommons@Hamline DigitalCommons@Hamline

School of Education and Leadership Student

Capstone Theses and Dissertations

School of Education and Leadership

Fall 10-23-2016

A Text Analysis of How Passive Voice in a Biology Textbook A Text Analysis of How Passive Voice in a Biology Textbook

Impacts English Language Learners Impacts English Language Learners

Karli Jo Neilson

Hamline University

, [email protected]

Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.hamline.edu/hse_all

Part of the Education Commons

Recommended Citation Recommended Citation

Neilson, Karli Jo, "A Text Analysis of How Passive Voice in a Biology Textbook Impacts English Language

Learners" (2016).

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

. 4219.

https://digitalcommons.hamline.edu/hse_all/4219

This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Education and Leadership at

DigitalCommons@Hamline. It has been accepted for inclusion in School of Education and Leadership Student

Capstone Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@Hamline. For more

information, please contact [email protected].

A TEXT ANALYSIS OF HOW PASSIVE VOICE IN A BIOLOGY TEXTBOOK

IMPACTS ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS

Karli Neilson

A capstone submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters

of Arts in English as a Second Language

Hamline University

Saint Paul, Minnesota

October 2016

Committee:

Primary Advisor: Lisa Robb

Secondary Advisor: Adele Hansen

Peer Advisor: Cecilia Oberg

KARLI NEILSON

2016

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I want to thank my committee members, Lisa Robb, Adele Hansen, and Cecilia Oberg for

their patience, knowledge, and support. Thank you to my friends and family; I could not

have done this without your encouragement. Rachel, you kept me motivated to the end!

To my husband Jon, thank you for pushing me and believing in me over the last several

years. Lastly, thank you to Parker Neilson, who provided the last bit of motivation to

complete this project.

iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................. 1

Challenging Features of Academic Language ................................................................ 3

Scientific Vocabulary .................................................................................................. 4

Nouns and Nominalization ......................................................................................... 6

Passive Voice .............................................................................................................. 8

My Research ............................................................................................................... 8

Role of the Researcher .................................................................................................... 9

Background of Researcher ............................................................................................ 10

Guiding Questions ........................................................................................................ 12

Summary ....................................................................................................................... 12

Chapter Overviews ........................................................................................................ 13

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................... 14

The Purpose of this Study ............................................................................................. 14

The Language of Science .............................................................................................. 14

Construction of Passive Voice ...................................................................................... 15

Agent and Agentless Passives ................................................................................... 16

Verbs, Tense, and Aspect .......................................................................................... 17

Why Passive Voice is Preferred in Scientific Text ....................................................... 20

The Role of Passive Voice in Learning ........................................................................ 23

Difficulties for Students ............................................................................................ 23

The Challenges of the Construction of Passive Voice .............................................. 24

The Gap ......................................................................................................................... 26

Research Questions ....................................................................................................... 27

Summary ....................................................................................................................... 27

CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY ......................................................................... 28

Overview of Chapter ..................................................................................................... 30

Quantitative Research Paradigm ................................................................................... 30

Qualitative Research Paradigm ..................................................................................... 31

Mixed Research Paradigm ........................................................................................ 31

Data Collection ............................................................................................................. 32

Participants ................................................................................................................ 32

Location/Setting ........................................................................................................ 34

Data Collection Technique 1 .................................................................................... 34

Data Collection Technique 2 .................................................................................... 36

Data Analysis ................................................................................................................ 37

Verification of Data ...................................................................................................... 38

Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 39

CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS ......................................................................................... 40

Findings ........................................................................................................................ 41

Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 44

CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................ 46

Major Findings .............................................................................................................. 46

Limitations .................................................................................................................... 50

Implications ................................................................................................................... 51

Further Research ........................................................................................................... 53

REFERENCES ................................................................................................................. 55

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1 Template to collect data

Table 4.1 Collected data

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

“Miss, it’s a teacher’s job to teach.” This sentence will probably haunt me for the

rest of my professional teaching career. A struggling English Language Learner (ELL)

told me this after I asked what he was thinking. We had just ended our co-taught biology

class. The biology teacher was beyond frustrated at the low level of student

comprehension in the classroom. My student observed the fact that one of his teachers

had given up on him as well as the rest of his classmates. I was caught somewhere in the

middle. My obligation is to teach where the principal tells me to teach. As an English as a

Second Language (ESL) teacher I do not get to choose which subjects I teach or which

classrooms I co-teach in. I cannot control the actions of my colleagues. I can show up, do

my best, and believe in my students. However, that is not always enough to create a

successful learning environment. This student, whose eyes were moist when he shared his

thought with me, felt broken. I did, too.

I work at an urban high school in the upper Midwest. Despite the story above, I

absolutely love my job. The students that I work with are wonderful, respectful,

responsible, caring, and kind. They work very hard. They have overcome enormous

obstacles before arriving in the United States, and they continue to overcome enormous

obstacles as they navigate new lives in America. They are the reason I love my job.

My ESL teaching colleagues care so much about our English Language Learners

(ELLs). They give their time, hearts, and money for these students. I feel very fortunate

to work with a department of caring teachers who genuinely want our ELLs to succeed.

While my ESL colleagues and I feel as if we have won the lottery each day, working with

these students, not all high school teachers feel the same. In my three years of experience

at this high school I have seen how other teachers feel very frustrated by their own

perceptions of our students’ lack of shared background knowledge, lack of formal

education, and lack of academic English language that they bring to the classroom.

Personally, I find it exhilarating to try to learn about my students’ lives and see how I can

connect my knowledge and experiences with theirs.

As I mentioned above, one of the subjects that I teach is a co-taught biology class

designed specifically for ELLs. Typically, biology is designed for tenth grade students. In

this class there are a variety of ages and grade levels. I have students who are fifteen, and

I have students who are twenty-one years old. Most of my students have never received

formal educations, many of them work after school to support their families in the United

States as well as in their home countries, and some of them are already married with

children. This class is intended for students who have English language proficiency levels

3-5 World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment (WIDA) designation. In my

experience, this class has been more successful in the past when the students are actually

performing at the intended WIDA level. This year, however, many of our students are

below a WIDA level 2. The majority of students are below a WIDA level 3. This has

presented numerous academic challenges in our classroom.

While most of the students are able to use English in a meaningful way for

everyday use in informal situations, the use of academic English in the classroom is still

quite complicated for the majority of my students. Cummins (1994) explains this as

students needing more time to acquire academic language. He notes that it takes

approximately two years for students to become fluent in conversational English.

Students then need an additional three to five years to become fluent in academic English

and to master the skills required for using academic English. In our school, most of my

students are pushed into mainstream classes by their third year of high school, which

oftentimes means that they have literally only ever attended any kind of school for three

years. This presents many challenges in our classroom. One challenge is the designated

text that we are required to use. This text was not designed for ELLs and contains very

technical academic language, including specific vocabulary, nominalization, and the use

of passive voice. All of these features, including many others, interfere with the

comprehension of written academic English for ELLs, which I will investigate below.

Challenging Features of Academic Language

According to research by Fang (2007), there are several features that cause

challenges for ELLs. Some of these features include technical vocabulary, ordinary

words with non-vernacular meanings and usages, relative pronouns, and lengthy nouns.

Additionally, Nilagupta (1977) finds that language features such as negative words,

embedding, and deletion present problems for ELLs. Both Fang (2007) and Nilagupta

(1977) find that nominalization and passive voice construction create challenges for

ELLs. I have found that my own students oftentimes struggle with technical vocabulary,

passive voice, new meanings for ordinary words, and when words change forms, like

they do with nominalization. Because scientific writing and text are so specific to the

science field, the features mentioned above all help play a role in facilitating the

understanding of scientific text. Next, I will highlight a few of these features.

Scientific Vocabulary

Technical vocabulary in scientific text plays a large role in student comprehension

because scientific texts rely heavily on technical vocabulary. Fang (2007) uses this

example to illustrate technical vocabulary in text: “Protozoans that move using flagella

are called flagellates and belong to the phylum Zoomastigina” (p. 494). In this sentence,

the italicized words are technical vocabulary words and account for nearly one half of the

whole sentence. When students are unfamiliar with several words in one sentence, and

need to pause to look up meanings, it slows down the understanding at an incredible rate.

This makes comprehension for ELLs very difficult.

In addition, scientific vocabulary uses Greek and Latin roots in many words,

based on the scientific work of Aristotle and Linneaus. According to Fang, Schleppegrell,

and Cox (2006), it is helpful for students if root words and affixes are explicitly taught so

students can develop a better control over technical vocabulary and improve their overall

understanding of science. In my co-taught class, as well as in every biology class in our

school, students have Greek and Latin “root word” quizzes each week. Students are

expected to learn a minimum of 150-250 vocabulary words within a school year. The

biology teachers believe that these quizzes are important for the students. Their hope is

that students will be able to memorize the root words from an isolated list and then be

able to transfer their meanings to the numerous scientific words that use those roots. This

strategy has been partially effective for ELLs when they are only expected to repeat exact

definitions of the root words when prompted. However, ELLs have largely been unable

to transfer the definition of the root words to the new scientific words as they appear in

class, especially if unprompted.

To improve the transfer of the knowledge of root word and affix meanings to new

unfamiliar scientific words, teachers could ask students to use or create example

sentences with the new words or definitions. Additionally, when the root word then

appears in lessons as a new scientific word, the connection between the root word and the

new scientific word should be explicitly taught. Students should also experience

meaningful dialogues with the new words. As Schleppegrell (2012) explains it is more

effective to teach vocabulary when it is in context and not in isolation, and when students

engage in purposeful activities with vocabulary and language.

Another difficult concept for ELLs is when ordinary words have other scientific

meanings that students are unfamiliar with. Fang (2007) uses this example, “Fishes that

swim in schools are often safer than fishes that swim alone…” (p. 495). If students just

use the concept of the word “schools” that they are familiar with, then this could lead to

much confusion and take away from the meaning that the text is trying to convey. In my

co-taught biology classroom students often struggle with the word “genes” during our

unit about genetics and heredity. I always make a point to draw a pair of jeans on the

board and describe the difference between the words “jeans” and “genes,” to try to make

sure that the students’ normal usage of the word “jeans” does not interfere with their

understanding of the scientific word “genes.”

Even though students are able to decode words like “genes” and “schools” they

do not always realize that these words have other meanings, which can be frustrating and

confusing for students. McKeown and Beck (1988) recommend that whenever teaching

new meanings of words students should be exposed to rich lessons with many activities

and contexts, and high frequency encounters with new words. Extension activities should

be given to use outside of the classroom. The extension activities can be particularly

helpful to lower achieving students who may have a difficult time finding ways to use the

new vocabulary on their own.

Nouns and Nominalization

According to Fang et al. (2006) there are several ways that nouns impact text and

comprehension. Nouns can be specific participants (“the cat”), or generalized participants

(“rocks”), abstract (“this pattern”), or technical (“undergrowth”), a construction of

judgment and value (“dreadful meowing”), or nominalized phrases (“the arrangement of

atoms”) (p. 266).

Nominalization is the transformation of verbs or adjectives into nouns or noun

phrases. Zwiers (2008) explains that nominalizations are used to shorten long

explanations into only a few words. For ELLs this can be quite challenging because

students need to process more information in each sentence, which oftentimes includes

more abstract concepts, processes, and relationships. Zwiers (2008) uses this example to

illustrate nominalization, “The virus adapted to survive outside the body. This mutation

allowed it to be passed on by casual contact” (p. 37). The word “mutation” is the

nominalization, and readers need to understand how this word was condensed and is now

being used as the subject in the next sentence. Fang et al. (2006) note that nominalization

can introduce abstraction, ambiguity, and uncertainty, which have the potential to lower

the reader’s interest, engagement, and understanding of a text.

In my co-taught biology class students particularly struggle with nominalization

during the evolution unit. We discuss many concepts like adaptation, variation,

overproduction, and evolution. Students are not usually able to make the connections that

these words are nouns that have been transformed from verbs or adjectives without direct

instruction from the teacher. Students also mix the words and use nouns for verbs and

verbs for nouns. From my direct teaching experience, the concept of nominalization can

be quite complicated for ELLs to identify, interpret, and use accurately.

Another feature of language that proves to be difficult for ELLs is lengthy nouns.

The language of science packs a lot of information into one sentence, and oftentimes uses

lengthy noun phrases to accomplish this. Fang (2007) uses this example to demonstrate a

lengthy noun, “A tornado is a rapidly whirling, funnel-shaped cloud that reaches down

from a storm cloud to touch Earth’s surface” (p. 501). He continues by noting that in

everyday language this phrase would be broken up into smaller sentences like this, “A

tornado is a kind of cloud. It is shaped like a funnel and moves very quickly. It reaches

down from a storm cloud to touch Earth’s surface” (p. 501). Fang et al. (2006) provide

this example for a lengthy noun, “A mineral is a natural nonliving solid with a definite

chemical structure” (p. 259). These lengthy nouns can be very difficult for ELLs to

comprehend because so much information is packed into one sentence.

Passive Voice

Finally, the use and prevalence of passive voice present very large challenges for

ELLs. Passive voice is often chosen over active voice in science texts for many reasons.

Cowan (2008) identifies the top reasons that passive voice is used as when the speaker

does not know who the agent is or wants to keep the agent concealed, when the identity

of the agent is already understood, or when the action is more important than the agent

who performed the action. Schrampfer Azar (2000) uses, “Our house was built in 1980”

to demonstrate that it was more important that the house was built, as opposed to who

built the house (p. 57). For ELLs it can be quite challenging trying to decide who the

agent is or why the agent might be omitted from a sentence.

Fang (2007) adds that passive voice can be helpful for writers to appear to be

objective and to also have authority by not mentioning the “…actors involved in the

scientific process…” (p. 504). For example, “Photosynthesis and respiration can be

thought of as opposite processes” (p. 504). Instead of saying “scientists think that…” an

author can use passive voice so that the focus is more on the actual scientific process as

opposed to the actor doing the thinking (Ding, 2002). This can put distance between the

reader and the text, which can be challenging to students who often prefer to feel a

human connection to the author of a text (Fang, 2007; Germano, 2005).

My Research

Even though there are many challenging features of academic language for ELLs,

I plan to investigate the use of passive voice in our biology textbook. Reasons for my

decision will be explained below.

Role of the Researcher

I am currently in my third year as an ESL teacher in the upper Midwest, and I

have a K-12 teaching license. I work at a public high school in an urban environment.

There are approximately 2,000 students in the school and roughly 40% of them are ELLs,

although we only provide direct services to approximately 25% of the ELL population.

Most students who receive direct services are new to the United States and have lived

here for less than 3 years. Many of the students in our school are considered to be Long

Term ELLs, which means that they have been considered an ELL for more than five

years. For the most part, our Long Term ELLs do not receive direct services. The

students speak a variety of languages; however, the most prominent first languages (L1)

are Karen, Hmong, Somali, and Spanish.

In addition to currently co-teaching ESL students in a sheltered (ESL students

only) biology classroom, I also teach an English Language Development (ELD) class that

focuses on furthering the understanding of biology concepts as well as improving

academic English language usage and understanding. In the co-taught biology classes

there are about 70 students total, and they are divided into two class periods. I then serve

about 60 of those 70 students in the ELD classes. There are two ELD classes. I see 30 of

the students on one day, and I see the other 30 on the following day. The 60 students

rotate on an every other day basis. On days when students are not in my ELD, they are in

a Human Geography ELD.

I also teach a separate class with about 42 Level 1 Language of Science ELLs.

These students are all different than my biology students, and they are divided into two

classes. Every Level 1 student starts with this class. The focus of the Level 1 class is

reading, writing, speaking, and listening through the topic of science. The majority of my

students in all of my classes come from refugee camps, and have had very limited to no

previous formal education. Some of them are learning to read and write for the first time

in their lives. All of my students are currently grades 9-12 and ages 14-21, and they are

mixed together in every class.

Background of Researcher

In the past I have worked briefly at an elementary school that served grades K-4

predominantly Spanish speaking students. My primary job was teaching technology and

computer skills to all students in addition to teaching vocabulary and reading strategies in

small groups to ELLs. Since then I have taught level 2.5 Language and Literacy to high

school students ranging from grades 9-12 and ages 14-21. I have co-taught a grade 9

English Language Arts (ELA) class made up of both mainstream and ESL students. I

further supported the ESL students with an English Language Development (ELD) class

that was focused on furthering the understanding of the ELA class and improving

academic English language usage and understanding. I also spent a summer teaching

adult ELLs at both Levels 1 and 5. The Level 1 class focused on reading, writing,

speaking, and listening through the topic of health in the United States. The Level 5 class

focused on writing for students who were aiming to obtain their General Educational

Development (GED).

When I started thinking about the topic for my thesis, I decided to focus on my

co-taught biology classes. As I mentioned above we have had numerous academic

challenges with these students this year. I believe that the main challenge has been that

this co-taught biology course is designed for students at a WIDA level 3 or higher. This

year, the majority of our students scored lower than a WIDA level 3 and several even

scored less than a WIDA level 2 (which means that students are able to read at about a

first or second grade level). This means that their access to academic English is severely

limited. The biology teacher has been frustrated because they are missing out on so much

biology content that their English-speaking peers have access to. I have been frustrated

because I am not given enough time to focus on further developing their language, as

most of the class time (in both the co-taught biology class and the ELD class) is dedicated

to biology content. As a teaching pair, we have both been frustrated and upset at the lack

of access to academic language and content our students are exposed to.

As I mentioned above, the vast majority of our students come from refugee

camps. Most of them have very limited to no prior formal educational experience. With

the lack of formal schooling, the lack of academic English, and the “new” concept of

Western education, learning styles, and expectations, our students have very limited

background knowledge of what we teach in the classroom. They have huge obstacles to

overcome in the classroom, not to mention the challenges they face outside of the

classroom as they adjust to new lives in the United States. All of these factors have

created a very difficult academic learning environment.

With these frustrations in mind, I plan to focus on the textbook intended for our

co-taught biology class. Because the students’ academic English levels are so low

according to WIDA, we oftentimes do not even use the textbooks. This presents a large

disadvantage to the ELLs because instead of taking the time to teach them how to access

and practice using the language in the textbook; we water the text down to a lower level

by using other sources of text or paraphrasing in our own words. I want my students to be

able to access the language in their textbooks, and the passive voice is something that

appears on most pages. I believe that if my students can understand that the passive voice

is a tool they can use, it could give them a voice in the classroom and help them to access

the textbook. For this study I will analyze the textbook by investigating the prevalence of

the passive voice in the biology textbook, challenges that the passive voice present, and

research strategies that can help students understand the passive voice.

As far as personal biases, I want to find ways to help my students become more

successful in the classroom. I have often heard them making comments about how

challenging the language is, and I am struggling to uncover those challenges.

Guiding Questions

My general research questions are: How often does the use of passive voice occur

in the textbook Biology (Nowicki, 2008)? What does the use of passive voice look like in

Biology (Nowicki, 2008)? What types of issues can passive voice cause for teachers and

students, including classroom expectations of using the textbook? What strategies can

help ELLs better understand and use the passive voice?

Summary

In this study, I will focus on the use of the passive voice in a biology textbook in a

co-taught biology ESL classroom because I want to find out how this type of academic

text interferes with the general understanding of the text for ELLs. This is important

because understanding the role of the passive voice and the challenges it presents to ELLs

in a co-taught biology ESL classroom will shed light on what its role is, how it may

impact learning, and how students can better understand and use the passive voice.

Chapter Overviews

In Chapter One I introduced my research by establishing the purpose for the study

and providing general research. The context of the study was briefly introduced, as was

the background of the researcher. In Chapter Two I provide a review of the literature

relevant to the understanding, construction, and usage of the passive voice. Additionally,

challenges to student learning are also presented. Chapter Three includes a description of

the research design and methodology that guide this study. Chapter Four presents the

results of this study. In Chapter Five I reflect on the data collected and discuss the

limitations of the study, its implications, and recommendations for further research.

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

The Purpose of this Study

The goal of this paper is to investigate the use of passive voice in a textbook used

for an ESL co-taught biology classroom. I will specifically explore how often the use of

passive voice occurs and what it looks like in the textbook Biology (Nowicki, 2008), what

types of issues the passive voice can cause for teachers and students, including classroom

expectations of using the textbook, and strategies that can help ELLs better understand

and use the passive voice. This chapter presents the language of science in relation to

student comprehension. Next, the construction of the passive voice is explored, including

a discussion of agent and agentless passive examples. This is followed by a discussion of

when and why the passive voice is preferred in scientific text. Finally, the challenges that

passive voice presents to students are examined.

The Language of Science

The language of science presents many challenges for students. Fang (2007)

examines how scientific writing challenges middle school ELLs. He finds many text

features that impact student understanding such as: nominalization, technical vocabulary,

ordinary words with non-vernacular usages, prepositions, conjunctions, pronouns,

ellipsis, subordinate clauses using passive voice, lengthy nouns, complex sentences, and

the use of passive voice. Additionally, Nilagupta (1977) finds that for university students,

language features such as negative words, embedding, deletion, nominalization, and

passive voice construction present problems for both native English speakers and ELLs.

Fang (2007) discusses the importance for all science teachers to teach the

language of science and not just the content of science. He discusses the importance of

explicit and authentic teaching in context and how using student writing can help

facilitate reading comprehension. He warns against using watered-down texts and

emphasizes that in order for students to fully understand scientific thinking and

understanding, they need to have an understanding of scientific language. These are all

reasons why it is so important for all science teachers to teach the language of science, in

addition to teaching the content of science.

Construction of Passive Voice

Put simply, in an active voice sentence the subject does the action. For example,

“Mark played the saxophone.” Mark is the subject, and he performed the action of

playing the saxophone. In a passive voice sentence the subject receives the action. For

example, “The saxophone was played by Mark.” The saxophone is the subject that

received the playing by Mark.

Sometimes the “doer” of the action is omitted in passive voice construction. An

example would be “The saxophone was played.” In this case it is not important who

played the saxophone (the “doer”), but it is more important that the saxophone was

played (by someone). While active voice sentences are direct and show who does the

action, passive voice sentences are usually less direct. This can be very beneficial in

scientific text, even though this often presents challenges for ESL students. The benefits

of the passive voice will be further discussed later on.

Schrampfer Azar (2000) describes the passive voice as when the object of an

active verb becomes the subject of the passive verb. Stanley (1975) describes the passive

as when the object of an active sentence becomes the subject of the passive sentence and

notes that the structure of the sentence changes from SVO (Subject Verb Object) to OVS

(Object Verb Subject). In addition, Cowan (2008) identifies the passive voice as when the

object noun phrase in the active sentence moves into the subject position in the passive

sentence. Following that change, the subject noun phrase then moves to the end of the

sentence.

Schrampfer Azar (2000) gives this example of active voice: “Mary (subject)

helped (verb) the boy (object)” (p. 56). Mary is doing the action; she is helping the boy.

The passive example becomes “The boy (object from previous sentence) was helped

(verb) by Mary (subject from previous sentence)” (Schrampfer Azar, 2000, p. 56). The

boy, who was the object in the active sentence, now becomes the subject in the passive

sentence. Now the emphasis is on the boy and the fact that he was helped. The important

part is not about who helped the boy; instead the important part of the sentence is that the

boy was helped.

Agent and Agentless Passives

As Watabe and Brown (1991) note, when using passive voice there is the option

of using an agent by phrase. This means that the word “by” can be optionally inserted

before the subject noun phrase. Because using an agent is optional, Cowan (2008)

explains the two types of passive sentences as being either passives without agent by

phrases or passives with agent by phrases. Here is an example using an agent by phrase:

“These spare parts were manufactured in Thailand by highly trained workers” (p. 394).

The subject noun phrase is “highly trained workers” and by is inserted directly before this

phrase.

Schrampfer Azar (2000) identifies the subject noun phrase as the agent. The agent

always follows the word “by” in a passive sentence and causes the action in a sentence.

The active example would be “Mary helps the boy,” which would become, “The boy is

helped by Mary” (p. 56) in the passive voice. The agent in this example is the word

“Mary,” because Mary is the noun that does the action and follows the word by. The

agent causes an event to happen (Ding, 2002).

The more common form of passive voice, especially in scientific texts, is the

agentless passive (Cowan, 2008). This is because oftentimes it is either not known or not

important who performs the action (Cowan, 2008; Schrampfer Azar, 2000). An example

of an agentless passive is, “These spare parts were manufactured in Thailand” (Cowan,

2008, p. 394). Here the word by is not used, because it is not known and/or not important

who manufactured the parts (that would be the agent), but it is more important that the

parts were manufactured.

Verbs, Tense, and Aspect

Additionally, the verbs require changes to be grammatically correct in the passive

voice. The main verb needs to be changed to its past participle form, and the auxiliary

verb “be” needs to be changed to its appropriate form (Cowan, 2008; Watabe & Brown,

1991). An example in active voice is “Anders Celsius (subject) invented (verb) the

centigrade thermometer (object)” (Cowan, 2008, p. 392). This example becomes “The

centigrade thermometer (subject) was invented (verb) by Anders Celsius” (p. 392) in the

passive voice. Here the past participle “invented” is used and the appropriate form of the

auxiliary verb “be” becomes “was.”

According to Schrampfer Azar (2000) only transitive verbs can be used with the

passive voice. Transitive verbs are verbs that can be followed by an object. Examples of

transitive verbs are: build, cut, find, like, make, need, send, use, and want (p. A1). An

example sentence using a transitive verb would be, “The student needs a pen” (p. A1). In

this sentence the pen is the object and follows the transitive verb “needs.” Intransitive

verbs do not work with passive voice, because an object cannot follow them. Examples of

intransitive verbs are: agree, arrive, come, cry, exist, go, happen, live, occur, rain, rise,

seem, sleep, stay, and walk (p. A1). An example sentence with an intransitive verb would

be, “The baby cried” (p. A1). This sentence only has a subject (baby) and a verb (cried)

and does not have an object. An example of an intransitive verb used incorrectly is, “I am

suffered from a cold and feel terrible” (Hinkel, 2002, p. 233). In this example “suffer” is

an intransitive verb and cannot take a direct object. Therefore, this example is

ungrammatical.

Cowan (2008) explains that the passive voice can exist in all tense and aspect

combinations and describes tense in relation to verbs expressing “…the time that an

action occurs in relation to the moment of speaking” (p. 350). Cowan (2008) and Hinkel

(2004) describe the three English tenses as the past, the present, and the future. Cowan

(2008) lists these examples of tense: “He helps her” (present tense), “He helped her”

(past tense), and “He will help her” (future tense) (p. 351).

Hinkel (2004) describes the two English aspects as the perfect and the

progressive. Cowan (2008) explains that, “Aspect expresses how the speaker views the

action of the verb” (p. 351). If an action is viewed as complete it is considered to be the

perfect aspect, while an action that is viewed as ongoing is considered to be progressive

(Cowan, 2008). An example using the perfect aspect is, “The book has been read by

John” with “has been read” representing the perfect aspect (Hinkel, 2002, p. 233). An

example using the progressive aspect is, “The letter is being written by Mary” with “is

being written” representing the progressive aspect (Hinkel, 2002, p. 233).

According to Cowan (2008) here are the twelve possible combinations of tense

and aspect in English: “She works” (simple present), “She worked” (simple past), “She

will work” (simple future), “She is working” (present progressive), “She was working”

(past progressive), “She will be working” (future progressive), “She has worked” (present

perfect), “She had worked” (past perfect), “She will have worked” (future perfect), “She

has been working” (present perfect progressive), “She had been working” (past perfect

progressive), and “She will have been working” (future perfect progressive) (356).

While Schrampfer Azar (2000) notes that some forms of tense and aspect are

rarely used in the passive, such as progressive forms of present perfect, past perfect,

future, and future perfect, she lists these passive voice examples: “The boy is helped by

Mary” (simple present), “The boy is being helped by Mary” (present progressive), “The

boy has been helped by Mary” (present perfect), “The boy was helped by Mary” (simple

past), “The boy was being helped by Mary” (past progressive), “The boy had been helped

by Mary” (past perfect), “The boy will be helped by Mary” (simple future), and “The boy

will have been helped by Mary” (future perfect) (p. 56).

Why Passive Voice is Preferred in Scientific Text

When considering the impact that passive voice has on ELLs it is important to

understand not only what the passive voice is, but also what it does in a text. The passive

voice is predominantly used and preferred over active voice in scientific text because the

passive voice has specific purposes in scientific text (Ding, 2002; Fang, 2007).

Ding (2002) describes the two main reasons why scientific writing uses the

passive voice as being necessary for what he refers to as the “falsifiability” of science and

for cooperation among scientists. The “falsifiability” of science refers to the fact that

scientists do not always have valid theories, so other scientists must be able to repeat the

experiments and potentially find them to be invalid. The theories are usually written in

passive voice without a “by phrase,” which allows the experiments to have the potential

to be invalid and for the scientists to express their beliefs in the “falsifiability” of science.

Additionally, using passive voice helps the authors to “…remove these personal

privileges, qualifications, or reservations from accounts of scientific experiments” (Ding,

2002, p. 146). By doing this, the focus is not on the scientist involved and their potential

bias, but on the experiment itself.

The cooperation of scientists is needed because scientists themselves are not

usually the main focus of a sentence (Ding, 2002). Instead, the work of scientists is the

focus of a sentence, and passive voice can be used to articulate this. Oftentimes the most

important focus of a scientific text is not on who conducts the experiment, but on the

“materials, organisms, methods, theories, figures, symbols, findings, analyses, processes,

tables, and concepts” that are used (Ding, 2002, p. 138). Additionally, scientists need a

cooperative understanding that there is a shared knowledge base of scientific work in

their community. This helps to both collectively advance science and to talk about the

objects of science, since “Science represents the world in terms of things and

objects…and appears to be thing-centered instead of human-centered” (Ding, 2002, p.

143). Passive voice is used to best express these ideas and keep the scientific writing

focused on objects as opposed to the people conducting the experiments and research.

Another very important reason that passive voice is used in scientific text is

because it allows the author to appear to have more authority and be viewed as more

objective by readers (Fang, 2007; Germano, 2005). The passive voice is used when the

people or objects impacted by the action are more important than the actor doing the

action (Schrampfer Azar, 2000; Zwiers, 2008). Additionally, the passive voice can be

used when the actor is unknown or irrelevant (Cowan, 2008; Stanley, 1975). Cowan

(2008) lists this as an example, “His car was stolen in Detroit” (p. 395). In this sentence

the most important aspect is that the car was stolen. It is not known who stole the car, so

the actor remains unnamed.

Passive voice focuses more on the object rather than the subject. This allows the

subject to remain nameless and allows the author to avoid assigning blame or reveal who

the actor is (Cowan, 2008; Germano, 2005; Stanley, 1975; Zwiers, 2008). An example

with a nameless subject is, “The radius is then plugged into the formula for the area of a

circle” (Zwiers, 2008, p. 36). The important part of the sentence is that the radius is used

in a formula to find an area of a circle; it is not important who plugs in the radius (the

subject). An additional example from Cowan (2008) is, “Rather than dwelling

unnecessarily on the causes of this fiasco, let’s just say that mistakes were made” (p.

395). In this example blame is not put on the actor, nor is the actor revealed. The focus is

on the fact that mistakes happened and not on who made the mistakes.

Similarly, textbook companies and authors can benefit from using the passive

voice because it has the ability to omit the person at fault for certain acts. This can allow

people to avoid taking responsibility for their actions (Fang, 2007; Germano, 2005;

Plummer, 1988). Then textbook companies and authors do not need to get involved with

blaming companies, institutions or people for an act, or force others to take responsibility

for an action. Instead they can discuss the result of the action without placing any blame.

Fang (2007) lists this as an example, “As forests were cut down, firewood became more

expensive” (p. 505). This construction allows for the person or institution responsible for

deforestation and higher prices of firewood to go unnamed. If the author were to use an

active construction like, “As logging companies cut down forests, firewood became more

expensive” this could open up the potential of a lawsuit to the author or textbook

company from logging companies (p. 505).

Furthermore, passive voice can be used when the identity of the agent can be

assumed or understood, thus making it redundant to name the agent. For example, “Our

grapes are usually harvested in late August” (Cowan, 2008, p. 395). In this example it is

assumed that workers harvest the grapes and that readers would already anticipate this

information. Another example from Schrampfer Azar (2000) is, “Rice is grown in India”

(p. 57). The reader infers that rice is grown by someone, most likely by farmers.

Lastly, according to Fang (2007) the use of passive voice in scientific text can be

helpful because a lot of information can be packed into the sentence after the verb. For

example, “Much of this plain [Gulf Coastal Plain] was formed from sediments deposited

by the Mississippi River as it entered the Gulf of Mexico” (p. 504). The information

following the verb phrase “was formed” does not need to be broken down into several

sentences, which can save space in a textbook.

The Role of Passive Voice in Learning

Difficulties for Students

There are many reasons why the passive voice can be difficult for students,

particularly for ELLs. Students need to constantly navigate between everyday English

and academic English. Everyday English is spoken in a non-academic environment like

with friends or in a store, while academic English is spoken in the classroom (Zwiers,

2008). Zwiers (2008) also observes that academic English, particularly the language of

science, uses the passive voice much more than everyday English. Therefore, the passive

voice can seem very unfamiliar and daunting for students to use in an accurate manner in

a classroom setting.

Additionally, native speakers of English do not usually use the passive voice

when speaking. Instead the passive voice is typically used when writing in the English

language. If ELLs do not often hear native speakers of English or see writing of native

speakers of English using the passive voice construction, then perhaps it could seem more

foreign, awkward and difficult to use (McDonough, Trofimovich & Neumann, 2015;

Plummer, 1988).

If the passive voice is discussed in a classroom, oftentimes it is to express the fact

that passive writing is generally viewed as being weak academic writing (Germano,

2005). Teachers and professors often discourage the use of passive writing and prefer

active or direct writing. Hinkel (2004) explains that almost every textbook used for

teaching writing views the passive voice as being very undesirable. Even Microsoft Word

considers passive voice sentences as being grammatically undesirable and underlines

them, suggesting more favorable active sentences instead. With such a negative view of

passive sentences, ELLs may have very limited exposure of the passive voice being used

for positive and intentional purposes, such as in scientific writing.

The Challenges of the Construction of Passive Voice

According to McDonough, Trofimovich, and Neumann (2015) passive voice can

be challenging for students to use not only because of its difficult language construction

but also because of the influence their L1 has on the understanding of passive voice.

Nilagupta (1977) finds that it is difficult for students to process the construction of

passive voice if it is rarely used in the writing or speaking of the students’ L1. Zwiers

(2008) observes that the passive voice oftentimes does not even exist in other languages.

If students do not have this type of language construction in their first language, or if it is

rarely used then it can be very confusing and challenging to use in English.

Additionally, Hinkel (2002) explains that the construction of passive voice in a

student’s L1 can be so different than the construction of the English passive that it can

cause a lot of confusion and misunderstandings. He discusses speakers of Asian

languages, particularly Japanese speakers, who have difficulties with English passives

because of the animacy within a sentence. Japanese sentences do not allow for active

verbs to have inanimate subject nouns, while in English this is not a problem. His

example is, “A thermometer measures the temperature” (Hinkel, 2002, p. 233). The

“thermometer” is an inanimate noun and in English it can be used with the active verb

“measures” even though this would not be grammatically correct in Japanese. Because of

these differences, students may have difficulties when constructing English passives.

Because the passive voice can optionally use an agent by phrase and does not

absolutely require an agent by phrase, students might be confused if the agent by phrase

is omitted. When there is not an agent by phrase then the subject must be inferred, which

can potentially be very difficult and present problems for learners (Kline & Demuth,

2010). This can especially be a problem in scientific text, when the agent by phrase is

most often not used (Cowan, 2008).

As mentioned above, Fang (2007) notes that the passive voice construction is able

to pack much information into a sentence following the verb. Therefore, students can

have a difficult time pulling out all of the information in a sentence and then organizing

the information in a useful or meaningful way. As noted above Fang used this example,

“Much of this plain [Gulf Coastal Plain] was formed from sediments deposited by the

Mississippi River as it entered the Gulf of Mexico” (p. 504). Students have to be able to

organize the different facts about the Gulf Coastal Plain. They need to know that a lot of

the Gulf Coastal Plain was formed from sediments. Then, the sediments were deposited

by the Mississippi River. Finally, the Mississippi River deposited the sediments where it

entered the Gulf of Mexico. While it can be beneficial for textbooks to use passive voice

to save space, it can be challenging for students to unpack all of the information in

passive voice sentences.

Finally, Fang (2007) discusses that because of the way the passive voice is

constructed, it can seem particularly alienating to students and make them feel less

involved in the text. He notes that students usually prefer narrative stories or

informational storybooks in science. This is because they make the students feel

personally involved and evoke emotions and connections from the students. Germano

(2005) adds that students listen more actively to these types of texts because they feel a

human connection to the author. Unfortunately, students cannot always use narrative

texts and must often use texts filled with passive voice constructions, which can make

them feel more distance from the text.

The Gap

Even though there has been previous research and text analyses conducted on

passive voice construction, why it is preferred in scientific text, and challenges that it

presents to students, to my knowledge there has not yet been a textbook analysis of a

typical high school biology text, like with the text Biology (Nowicki, 2008). For this

reason, I plan to analyze this specific textbook to gain more information that could be

helpful for teaching my students. Biology (Nowicki, 2008) is used widely in the state and

especially in urban areas, including where I teach. This study could help inform educators

who use this textbook.

Research Questions

This paper aims to cover: How often does the use of passive voice occur in the

textbook Biology (Nowicki, 2008)? What does the use of passive voice look like in

Biology (Nowicki, 2008)? What types of issues can passive voice cause for teachers and

students, including classroom expectations of using the textbook? What strategies can

help ELLs better understand and use the passive voice?

Summary

This chapter highlighted challenges that the language of science presents. Then, it

defined the construction of passive voice with many examples, including agent and

agentless passives. From there, it considered reasons why passive voice is preferred in

scientific text, while providing examples. In addition, the role that passive voice has in

learning was considered, with emphasis on difficulties that impact students and

challenges that the construction presents. Finally, the gap in research was addressed and

the research questions were revisited. Chapter Three discusses the methodologies that

will be used for this research.

CHAPTER THREE

METHODOLOGY

This text analysis has been designed to investigate the use of passive voice in the

high school textbook Biology (Nowicki, 2008). This study is important because my ELLs

struggle with the use of passive voice in their prescribed textbooks, and I want to find

strategies to help them better understand and use the passive voice, so that they can

access the meaning of the text. For this study I plan to explore how often the use of

passive voice occurs in the textbook Biology (Nowicki, 2008), what the use of passive

voice looks like in Biology (Nowicki, 2008), what types of issues passive voice causes for

teachers and students (including classroom expectations of using the textbook), and what

strategies can help ELLs better understand and use the passive voice.

For this study I performed a text analysis that closely examined one specific

textbook, Biology (Nowicki, 2008), in regards to how often passive voice is used and

what passive voice looks like in the text. I performed a quantitative analysis by collecting

data that included counting the numbers of passives, passives with agents, agentless

passives, regular past tense verbs, and irregular past participles. The regular past tense

verbs and irregular past participles were active voice constructions. I counted them so I

could compare the number of active voice and passive voice past tense verbs in the

chapter. When collecting data about the regular past tense verbs and irregular past

participles in active voice constructions, I did not recount verbs that were already

accounted for in the passive voice examples. I did this because I wanted to keep the

categories of passive voice and active voice examples as separate as possible for making

comparisons. Two specific chapters of Biology (Nowicki, 2008) were examined. Chapter

3, Cell Structure and Function, was chosen because of the importance it has in the

biology curriculum. This chapter sets the foundation for the remainder of the school year,

and each unit that follows refers back to information learned in this chapter. Chapter 10,

Principles of Evolution, was chosen because it usually presents several linguistic

challenges for students. I wanted to find out if passive voice could be contributing to

those challenges.

A text analysis is important because it can inform teachers about grammatical and

linguistic issues that students have with their textbooks. This information can inform

teachers and hopefully enable them to better serve their students. The teachers can use the

text analysis, to create lessons to help students better understand the text. Hopefully this

will help students to feel empowered to use their textbooks successfully. This text

analysis included a mixed paradigm of both a quantitative and qualitative analysis. The

quantitative analysis focused on counting the numbers of passives, passives with agents,

agentless passives, regular past tense verbs and irregular past participles in active voice.

This showed how often passive voice is used and what passive voice looks like in two of

the chapters of the textbook. The qualitative analysis focused on the types of issues that

passive voice can cause for teachers and students, which includes classroom expectations

of using the textbook, and what strategies can help ELLs better understand and use the

passive voice.

Overview of Chapter

This chapter explains the methodologies that were used in this research based text

analysis of Biology (Nowicki, 2008). I will discuss quantitative and qualitative research

paradigms and why these research paradigms were chosen for this study. Then I will

explain how the data will be collected and the rationale for conducting a text analysis.

This will be followed by a data analysis and the verification of the data.

Quantitative Research Paradigm

Mackey and Gass (2005) describe quantitative research as an experimental design

that begins with a hypothesis and involves the quantification of data and some kind of

numerical analysis to examine the data. Quantitative research involves controlled

measurements and objectivity. It is generalizable, reliable, replicable, and outcome

oriented (Mackey & Gass, 2005). McKay (2006) explains that quantitative research is

able to break down reality and study its parts. The researcher observes and measures the

data using statistical analysis and technical language. Typically quantitative research

involves a short period of time and a large, random sample. Additionally, surveys are

often used with quantitative research. The purpose of quantitative research is to

generalize and predict, while creating a study that has validity (McKay, 2006). This is

relevant to my research because I was able to break down parts of the textbook that my

ELLs use by counting different grammatical structures that influence the passive voice in

the textbook. This was completed in a short period of time and helped me to generalize

and make predictions about the text.

Qualitative Research Paradigm

Mackey and Gass (2005) describe qualitative research as not involving an

experimental design or hypothesis. Qualitative research cannot be easily quantified. The

analysis of qualitative research involves interpretation as opposed to a numeric or

statistical analysis. Qualitative research is naturalistic and controlled, subjective, process

and discovery oriented, and not generalizable (Mackey & Gass, 2005). McKay (2006)

explains that qualitative research can only be studied holistically and that the researcher

becomes a part of what is being studied. Typically qualitative research involves a long

amount of time and a limited number of participants. Oftentimes qualitative research

involves case and ethnographic studies with the use of field notes and interviews. The

purpose of qualitative research is to contextualize, interpret, and look for patterns in the

data, while using descriptive language (McKay, 2006). This is relevant to my research

because I was able to explore what types of issues passive voice causes for both teachers

and students, especially when including expectations of using the textbook in class. This

also led me to find strategies to better help my students understand and use the passive

voice. I was able to interpret and look for patterns in the data that can potentially help

guide my future instruction. Additionally, I looked at passive voice with the challenges

my students face in mind and was able to use those challenges to inform my

interpretations.

Mixed Research Paradigm

This text analysis is a mixed study that incorporated both quantitative and

qualitative methods. Both methods are valuable and needed to analyze this textbook.

Quantitative research was used to count frequencies of passive voice, including passives

with agents, agentless passive examples, as well as regular past tense verbs and irregular

past participles that were used in active voice construction. This information was counted

in order to find out how often ELLs in my co-taught biology class encounter this type of

grammar. Quantitative research allowed me to make generalizations about the language

in the textbook. This is important for guiding my future instruction and to better be able

to meet the needs of my students. Qualitative research was also used to interpret and look

for patterns in the data. This allowed me to look at the text in a holistic way, while

thinking about my students and their learning challenges. This can help my instruction in

the future, because I will be more aware of what struggles the passive voice may cause

for my students and what strategies can be useful for ELLs to interact with the passive

voice in a successful way.

Data Collection

Participants

For this research I did not actually study any students, but performed a text

analysis on the textbook that my ELLs use in my sheltered, co-taught, biology classroom.

This research is intended to help guide my instruction, which will hopefully help the

students to interact in a more meaningful way with their textbooks in the future.

Even though biology class is typically intended for tenth grade students, my

students range in ages and grade levels. I have students who are fifteen, and I have

students who are twenty-one years old. Most of my students have never received formal

educations, and many of them have received limited educations in refugee camps, mainly

in Asia and Africa. Almost all of their families have fled their home countries because of

war and religious or cultural persecution. The majority of the students and their families

have dealt with injury, loss, devastation, and have been faced with extremely challenging

and heartbreaking circumstances. Many of my students work after school to support their

families in the United States as well as in their home countries. Some of the students are

in the United States illegally, and they are in constant worry about their legal statuses and

if they will be able to continue to work to send money to their families. Some of my

students are already married with children. A few of them were forced into marriages

before they came to the United States, which places a significant amount of stress on the

students. Additionally, the vast majority of my students have only been in the United

States for about two to three years.

The majority of my students are refugees who come from lower socioeconomic

statuses. Most of the students are Karen and come from refugee camps in Thailand. In

addition to Karen speakers, we have a large group of Somali speakers and smaller groups

of Spanish and Hmong speakers. Other languages spoken in our class include Nepali,

Karenni, Burmese, Thai, Lao, Tigrinya, Amharic, Swahili, Luganda, and Sarakole.

In the co-taught biology class there are about 70 students total and they are

divided into two class periods. The class is intended for students who have English

language proficiency levels 3-5 World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment

(WIDA) designation. However, many of our students are below a WIDA level 2. The

majority of students are below a WIDA level 3. A student at a WIDA level 2 is basically

able to read at about a first or second grade level and has very limited mastery of

grammar, including irregular verbs. This means that my students’ access to academic

English is severely limited, which has presented numerous academic challenges in our

classroom. While most of the students are able to use English in a meaningful way for

everyday use in informal situations, the use of academic English in the classroom is still

quite complicated for the majority of my students. In addition to dealing with the

challenges from inside of the classroom, students also have to try to balance challenges

from outside of the classroom, which can make high school a very daunting place.

Location/Setting

I work at a public high school in an urban environment in the upper Midwest.

There are approximately 2,000 students in the school and roughly 40% of them are ELLs,

although our school only provides direct services to approximately 25% of the ELL

population. Most students who receive direct services are new to the United States and

have not lived here for longer than three years. Many of the students in our school are

considered to be Long Term ELLs, which means that they have been designated as an

ELL for more than five years. For the most part, our Long Term ELLs do not receive

direct services. The students speak a variety of languages; however, the most prominent

first languages are Karen, Hmong, Somali, and Spanish.

Data Collection Technique 1

According to McKay (2006) text analysis is used for a variety of reasons,

including examining syntactic, rhetorical, or cultural features of a text. Text analysis can

include counting specific features of a text while using predetermined categories or

examining the research data to develop specific categories for text analysis. I used a text

analysis that examined the grammatical features of a text in relation to the use of passive

voice, while using predetermined categories to collect my data.

Because passive voice occurs frequently in scientific text, including this

classroom textbook Biology (Nowicki, 2008), I chose to examine two chapters from the

textbook. The chapters that were chosen are Chapter 3, Cell Structure and Function, and

Chapter 10, Principles of Evolution. Chapter 3 is the basis of the entire year’s curriculum,

and we refer back to it often throughout the year. Chapter 10 is a good example of a

chapter that often presents numerous linguistic and comprehension challenges for

students and is important to examine. My hope in examining this chapter was to better

understand what those challenges are so I can improve my instruction.

For this study, I wanted to know exactly how often the passive voice is used and

what it looks like in Biology (Nowicki, 2008). Therefore, the categories that I

investigated were the number of times that passives, passives with agents, agentless

passives, regular past tense verbs in active voice construction, and irregular past

participles in active voice construction were present in the chapters. This not only showed

me data based on research, but also provided insight as to what types of issues passive

voice presents to my students. I wanted to know if the structure of passive voice, the use

of irregular past participles in active voice, or both, are challenging to students and

influence their understanding. I want my ELLs to be able to have a voice in the

classroom, and I believe that understanding their textbook and the grammatical and

linguistic features within the text can give them the power to be heard.

As mentioned above, the text that was analyzed is called Biology (Nowicki,

2008). This text was chosen because it is the required text that was chosen by the district

that I work in. All biology students in the district use this text, including ELLs. There are

thirty-four chapters in the textbook, and the units include an introduction to biology,

cells, genetics, evolution, ecology, classification and diversity, plants, animals, and

human biology. This textbook has been written for general high school biology students

and was not specifically written for ELLs. Therefore it is an authentic text that ELL

students are expected to read, interpret, and understand to help guide their biology

studies.

Data Collection Technique 2

Science texts use passive voice frequently and with purpose. This is why I asked

the questions: How often does passive voice occur and what does the use of passive voice

look like in the textbook Biology (Nowicki, 2008)? What types of issues does passive

voice cause for students? How do the classroom expectations of using the textbook

impact students and teachers? What strategies can help ELLs better understand and use

the passive voice? While I explored these questions I was thinking about my students and

the challenges they face with the textbook. These questions came to mind: Does passive

voice interfere with understanding for ELLs more than other types of grammar or

structure? Does the amount of passive voice examples impact student comprehension?

Will it take only one sentence that uses passive voice to deter students from

understanding? Can students get back on track after they misunderstand one part of the

text? How can I teach more strategically to help students understand their textbooks?

What strategies can help students understand the use of passive voice and then transfer

that knowledge so they can better understand their textbooks?

Now that I have collected all of my information and data, I plan to discuss my

findings with other ESL, biology, and science teachers. I am hopeful that I will be able to

teach my colleagues about this important text feature and offer strategies for them, so

students can better understand how to use the passive voice and their textbooks. I am

hoping to present this information to my colleagues at future Professional Learning

Communities (PLCs). PLCs generally meet a few times a week in small groups. This

would be a great opportunity to present information and collaborate with my colleagues

to get further ideas.

Data Analysis

Text analysis is a good technique because it can be used for a variety of purposes

(McKay, 2006). Text analysis can examine syntactic, rhetorical, or cultural features of a

text. Text analysis includes the counting of specific language features with or without

predetermined categories. McKay (2006) also notes that text analysis can be

advantageous because researchers can pay attention to patterns found in the data.

I collected information by counting the numbers of passive examples, passive

examples with agents, agentless passive examples, regular past tense verbs and irregular

past participles used in active voice constructions that occur in Chapters 3 and 10 of

Biology (Nowicki, 2008). I used specific colored highlighters to identify examples from

each of those categories in both chapters. Then I tallied the results and recorded them in a

chart. Those categories are important because I wanted to know how often passive voice

occurred in the text, so that I could find strategies to help my ELLs better understand and

use the passive voice. I want my learners to be able to successfully use their textbooks

and find meaning from them, so they can have a voice in the classroom. My text analysis

is reliable, because another person could easily replicate the study. The findings of my

research will be listed in Chapter Four. The following table is what I used to collect my

data.

Table 3.1

Template to collect data