Docentgedrag En Cognities Binnen Taalgericht Vakonderwijs

Abstract

Content teachers play an important role in the realisation of content-based language instruction. This article addresses the question to what extent subject teachers stimulate the language acquisition of their students and what cognitions are crucial to their way of teaching. Views on the importance of comprehensible input, opportunities to use language productively, and providing feedback were part of the analyses. The research was set up as two separate case studies: an exploratory study in a multicultural economies class in vocational education, and an intervention study in mathematics in a multicultural primary school. Data on teachers' behaviour consisted of videotape lessons; data on teachers' cognitions were collected through stimulated recall interviews, concept maps, and semi-structured interviews. The results show that the teachers in both educational contexts realise comprehensible input to some degree, but do not create opportunities to use the language actively and do not give feedback on linguistic aspects of students' utterances. Interventions by the researcher-observer, however, promote change in both teaching practice and in the thinking of subject teachers towards a more language-sensitive approach.