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Purpose: Seeking online bilingual scientific information is a key aspect of bilingual scientific Web literacy -- abilities to engage critically with science on the Web using two languages. This study aims to determine whether factors such as age, education major, gender and type of school attended at secondary level (monolingual, bilingual, trilingual) influence undergraduates' ability to search online Spanish-English bilingual scientific information. Design/methodology/approach: The participants in this study were 60 students (43 females and 17 males, 18-25 years old) enrolled in a university bilingual science course at a high-ranked Colombian university. They were asked to complete two tasks in which they had to seek online scientific information in Spanish and in English and post their responses on the Web application, Padlet® (padlet.com). Findings: Results indicate that students' gender and age influence their academic performance in both tasks and level of originality in using information obtained via the Web, respectively. Moreover, the "scientific journal" was the top source of online information from which participants sought most information to complete both tasks. Originality/value: People are becoming increasingly accustomed to seeking and sharing online scientific information to support points of view and make decisions. However, it is not known which factors influence students' ability to seek online first language-English bilingual scientific information in countries where English is the second or foreign language.

The rise in university bilingual science courses is explained by a certain phenomenon, the internationalization of higher education. Bilingual Argument Mapping (BAM) -- the ability to construct argument maps using two languages -- is a key aspect of bilingual scientific literacy. An argument map is a visual representation of argument structure. The problem is that little is known about how to foster BAM in this type of course. The goal of this study was to explore the possibility of using formal and informal formative assessment (FIFA) -- a type of assessment for learning in which feedback is both preplanned and instantaneous --, to support undergraduates' BAM. The data consist of the bilingual argument maps constructed by forty-four students (27 females and 17 males, 18-23 years old) in Colombia during a university Spanish-English bilingual science course. Results indicate that FIFA helped the participants' creation of valid and coherent argument maps in Spanish, in English and in a hybrid version using code-switching as response to argumentative questions related to the scientific topics covered in the course. The potential contributions of FIFA and its implications are discussed in light of research and theory of bilingual science education.

Recent studies show that the exploration of ways to involve students in effective bi/multilingual science education is gaining attention at all educational levels. Introducing students to the construction of bilingual scientific argument maps--visual representations of scientific argument structure using two languages--contributes to the quality of bilingual science education as they are a key aspect of bilingual scientific literacy; however, very little is known about how to promote the construction of these maps in bilingual science courses. Here we provide evidence for the claim that peer feedback and instructor feedback can be integrated to support the construction of bilingual scientific argument maps. A pedagogical strategy that integrates both peer feedback and instructor feedback was implemented in a university bilingual science course with 29 students (23 females and 6 males, 18-24 years-old) in Colombia. Results show that the strategy effectively supported the construction of scientific argument maps in Spanish and English. Implications for research and practice are discussed.