Queering CLIL: a Critical Sexual Literacy Curriculum for the Hong Kong Context

Abstract

This paper demonstrates how the Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) approach can be useful for developing a critical sexual literacy curriculum that combines gender and sexuality education and critical language teaching. The findings from an action research study conducted with 20 tertiary students in a voluntary English class in Hong Kong show how a heightened awareness of conflicting discourses could be stimulated by the heteroglossic nature of the classroom input that included media texts, face-to-face interaction with queer individuals and in-class Boal’s Image and Forum Theatres. The learners also experienced mixed emotions toward LGBTI people and reported language gain from the curriculum. A lot more would have to be done in critical sexual literacy research and practice to foster critical awareness of gender and sexuality and to challenge homo- and transphobic ideologies in everyday discourses.