On 18 February 2025, the BALEAP STEM SIG hosted a second ‘Hidden Language Around Equations’ workshop — this time focusing on how students explain equations in spoken classroom settings. Facilitators Aaron Woodcock and Laura Duncan guided participants through reflective discussions and hands-on activities to explore the language demands of explaining equations clearly at CEFR B2 level and beyond.

Building on the first workshop, which looked at verbalising equations, this session addressed the broader communicative task of explaining concepts and processes — an important skill in STEM education and one strongly aligned with CEFR mediation skills.

Participants analysed two authentic spoken explanations:

1. Complete Combustion of Methane
2. Area of a Circle

Through collaborative breakout discussions, they identified key features of effective explanations, including:

• Clear pronunciation of technical terms and symbols
• Use of stress and pausing to structure meaning
• Effective choice of verbs and prepositions
• Supportive discourse markers and classroom language

Discussion also highlighted the importance of reducing cognitive load:

• For EAP teachers, this means selecting familiar equations so that the learning can focus on language.
• For STEM teachers, it means adapting language when introducing unfamiliar content — for example, avoiding UK-centric references that may not resonate with international students.

👉 Practical Takeaways – Helping Students Explain Equations. The Practical Takeaways document summarises these strategies for both EAP and STEM teachers. You can view it here.

The workshop also surfaced valuable reflections on next steps, including the need for:

• More explicit teaching of the language of explanation
• Greater collaboration between EAP and STEM colleagues
• Resources for supporting students’ spoken academic English in STEM

Participants’ feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with strong interest in continuing this line of inquiry.

👉 You can also view the slides from this session here.

Our final session in the series — on writing about equations — took place in May 2025. A video of content in the session is available here. The session was well-attended, and we will write a blog post about this soon!