But i'm not an English teacher!

In Australia, increasing calls to strengthen the teaching of science in schools, stimulated by a need for higher levels of scientific understanding in the general community and also concerns about falling educational standards, have led to a concerted push to raise scientific literacy. Given the multicultural nature of Australia, government and educators have acknowledged the critical role of identifying and describing the language and literacy demands in all disciplines and supporting learners and teachers to meet them. In science, a range of support material and teacher resources, mostly drawing on systemic functional linguistics, have been developed alongside revisions to national and state-based curricula. In addition, all preservice teacher education programs are required to address literacy as well as the needs of students learning in and through English as an additional language or dialect (EALD) as national priority areas. However, research into the complex language and literacy challenges faced by low literacy and EALD learners suggests that many mainstream secondary school teachers feel inadequately prepared to meet their needs. Thus, some universities are also developing more targeted language and literacy programs for preservice student teachers (PSTs). One example of a language and literacy tutoring program involving science PSTs at a secondary school is described, showing how the student teachers came to understand their key roles not just a disciplinary experts, but as providers of language and literacy development to students both before and after their mentoring placement.