Teacher language awareness for CLIL in multilingual settings: insights from across UK and Dutch primary classrooms

Abstract

Schools are increasingly using content and language integrated learning (CLIL) approaches to education, whereby the teaching of subject content and an additional language occurs in an integrated manner. While language and learning are inextricably linked and the rewards of CLIL many, integrated teaching requires a specialised professional awareness of how an additional language operates and is acquired within content classrooms. However, research focused on teacher language awareness (TLA) for CLIL is still sparse. Moreover, it has focused solely on CLIL teachers’ awareness of the target language, thereby disregarding the teacher plurilingual awareness (TPLA) required for effective CLIL, which is inherently multilingual and increasingly implemented in linguistically diverse settings. This study brings together the expertise of Dutch primary school teachers using CLIL to teach English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners, with the expertise in teaching in multilingual settings of UK teachers supporting English as an Additional Language (EAL) learners. Using a CLIL Teaching Wall activity within interviews, it was possible to gain rich insight into the characteristics of the TLA and TPLA underpinning teachers’ ability to recognise and teach to the language demands of multilingual dual-focused classrooms.