Classroom Interaction in CLIL Primary School Classrooms: Research Insights to Inform Successful Pedagogy

Abstract

Two major new trends in foreign language teaching are gradually being implemented at schools all over the world: the teaching of foreign languages at an early age and the integrated teaching of foreign languages and other academic disciplines (CLIL-Content and Language Integrated Learning). Far from being separate models, these two educational trends are increasingly brought together in some European countries, like Spain. Focusing on the primary school level, this paper addresses two areas that have been recently identified as requiring special attention in CLIL research and pedagogy: the role of content and language integration and classroom interaction as a learning environment. Drawing on systemic-functional, sociocultural and discursive-pragmatic approaches to classroom interaction, the present paper explores the features of classroom discourse that promote content and language integrated learning (Llinares et aI., 2012). These features are illustrated in different studies carried out by the UAMCLIL research group (http://www.uam-cliI.org) in CLIL primary schools, which address the role of the school subject in students' content and language production (Llinares, 2017), the potential of group work to promote students' participation (Llinares & Pastrana, 2013) and the role of assessment for learning to enhance learners' content and language engagement (Pascual & Basse, 2017).