Abstract
This study aims at testing the effectiveness of additional CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) exposure on the oral production of secondary school learners of English as a Foreign Language. CLIL learners, who had received a 30% increase in exposure by means of using English as a vehicular language, were compared to mainstream English students in a story-telling task. Analyses indicated that CLIL learners’ productions were holistically perceived to exhibit better fluency, lexis and grammar while no differences were found as regards content and pronunciation. Besides, although Non-CLIL learners’ productions were larger in quantity and longer in time, CLIL learners produced denser and more fluent narrations, as attested by their higher number of different words over total number of words, of words over turn, and of utterances over turn. Additionally, CLIL learners resorted to their first language to a lesser extent and demanded fewer vocabulary clarifications. Our findings thus go along with previous research which has revealed advantages of additional CLIL exposure on oral English production.
Highlights
Many schools in Spain are currently incorporating Foreign Language (FL) teaching programmes where English is used as a vehicular language, the socalled Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) programmes, to teach other school disciplines1
Given that existing research has produced arbitrary results on the effects of CLIL on oral skills (Van de Craen et al 2007; Ruiz de Zarobe 2007) and that potential positive outcomes have been suggested to be less evident in secondary school students (Van de Craen et al 2007), the present study aims at exploring the oral production on the part of two secondary education groups which, having started learning English as a FL at the same age and presenting similar motivation rates, differ in the methodological approach and in amount of exposure, since one of the groups has received CLIL instruction for 3-4 years in addition to traditional FL lessons
Our study supports the findings of those investigations indicating that the CLIL approach is associated with better language outcomes (Ackerl 2007; Hüttner and Rieder-Bünemann 2007; Bürgi 2007; Jimenez Catalán, Ruiz de Zarobe and Cenoz 2006; Jiménez Catalán and Ojeda 2009; Jiménez Catalán and Ruiz de Zarobe 2009; Martinez Adrián and Gutierrez Mangado 2009; Moreno Espinosa 2009; Navés 2011; Ruiz de Zarobe 2010; Sylvén 2004, 2006; Villarreal and García Mayo 2009; Xanthou 2007) and more the findings of research pinpointing that oral production can be enhanced by CLIL (Hüttner and Rieder-Bünemann 2007; Lasagabaster 2008; Ruiz de Zarobe 2008; Whittaker and Llinares 2009)
Summary
Many schools in Spain are currently incorporating Foreign Language (FL) teaching programmes where English is used as a vehicular language, the socalled Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) programmes, to teach other school disciplines. In the light of these unsatisfactory results, a further approach was adopted – CLIL–, which aims at intensifying exposure, rather than extending it in time, and which uses the FL as a means of instruction, rather than as an object of instruction These programmes have been referred to as pseudo-immersion since they are based on immersion programmes as those of French in Canada (Genesee 1987; Snow 1990; Met 1994) or minority languages such as Basque or Catalan in Spain (Arzamendi and Genesse 1997; Muñoz 2003). An important difference between CLIL and immersion programmes is the fact that the target language (almost always English) is not present in the community where CLIL is being implemented
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