A Profile of Primary School Students’ Literacy Through EMI in CLIL Contexts

Abstract

For several years, the competence of students in Indonesia has always been recorded as very low. In PISA, Indonesia ranks at the 3rd or 4th lowest position, especially in Reading, Mathematics, and Science. This condition has, of course, raised the concerns of educators in Indonesia, and some schools then decided to implement an international curriculum along with the 2013 Curriculum. With the international curriculum, students are required to have very good literacy, to comprehend the texts and questions they work on. This also entails teaching them with teaching strategies which, besides developing their language competence, also enhance their critical thinking skills. This paper reports some ways in which EMI and CLIL can develop primary school students’ English proficiency, literacy, and critical thinking skills. Data were taken from some Primary Schools which implement the synergy of national and international standard curricula, particularly from the scores of the students on two tests. Focus is given to the students’ English proficiency and literacy.