CLIL Students Research Articles

Productive Skills of English A2 to B1-Level CLIL Students

Productive Skills of English A2 to B1-Level CLIL Students

Relationship between young learners’ L2 proficiency and subject knowledge: evaluating a CLIL programme in China

While CLIL programmes have been extensively researched for their impact on L2 learning outcomes, the relationship between young learners’ L2 proficiency and subject knowledge has received less attention. This study aimed to address this research gap by examining the science content knowledge of two cohorts of Grade 5 students (n = 100) from two primary schools in China, with one school implementing a CLIL science programme and the other offering a conventional science programme. The study also investigated the correlation between science achievement and L2 proficiency, measured by assessing learners’ English speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills using the Cambridge Young Learners English Tests. Science knowledge was evaluated with a tailored test aligned with the National Science Curriculum. Results indicated no statistically significant differences in science achievement between CLIL and non-CLIL students, with the former achieving higher mean scores. We also found a significant positive correlation between science knowledge and overall L2 proficiency. Notably, receptive language skills significantly correlated with science scores, while productive language skills did not. These findings provide positive evidence for the potential effectiveness of CLIL programmes in the primary education setting in China.

Students’ content learning in Science in CLIL vs non-CLIL classes in Greece

The recent introduction of CLIL instruction in some Greek state schools has given rise to concerns voiced by parents – and sometimes educators as well – regarding students’ ability to learn content in or through an L2. The fear is that students’ low proficiency in L2 will inhibit full understanding of the content and eventually will impact negatively on subject competence. Although there are several studies in the impact of various types of bilingual education programs on students’ L2 development, research in their impact on content learning is scarce (see Murphy et al., 2020). Our study aims to contribute to this research by examining 3rd grade students’ performance in Science when this is taught through English as L2. The main objective is to assess if students learning Science through the L2 (English) will outperform their peers studying the same content in Greek (L1) as regards content acquision. The participants of this study are 90 pupils in grade 3 – 46 CLIL students and 44 non CLIL students. Two Science tests are used to assess students’ performance and the two cohorts are compared on the basis of their scores in those tests. The main finding is quite encouraging for parents and educators alike, as the two cohorts’ performance is very similar in both tests; this indicates that CLIL instruction does not impact negatively on students’ content acquisition and that CLIL programs can support not only L2 instruction but also content knowledge.

Teaching critical reading in the classroom: A comparison of CLIL and EFL across contexts

Critical reading (Fairclough, 1989, 1995; Kress, 1985; Wallace, 2003) is considered to be one of the instruments that gives the necessary resources to construct meaning in discourse. This paper presents the results of a quasi-experimental study with a pre-test post-test design on students in the 6th year of primary education (10-11 years old) enrolled in two schools in Spain, one school located in the Basque Country (Content and Language Integrated, CLIL group) and the other in Cantabria (English as a Foreign Language, EFL group). Altogether four groups were selected: CLIL-experimental, CLIL-control, EFL-experimental and EFL-control. The experimental groups received critical reading strategy instruction for seven weeks while the control groups continued with regular classes. The one-way ANCOVA results showed that students in both the CLIL and EFL programmes developed greater mastery in critical reading after the teaching protocol. However, and contrary to our initial hypothesis, experimental students from the EFL context outperformed the CLIL learners. The novelty of the critical reading awareness protocol seemed to have a greater influence on the EFL students, who, unlike the CLIL students, were not so familiar with strategy learning. The new training procedure helped them to promote higher order critical reading skills, taking more advantage of the whole strategy learning protocol.
 

The Role of Motivation in Content-specific Learning in CLIL: Core vs Non-core Subjects

The paper investigates the effects of CLIL on the acquisition of content-specific competence in Italian high-school students. Two educational contexts are examined: Chemistry classes (CLIL and non-CLIL) in a science-oriented high school and Physics classes (CLIL and non-CLIL) in a humanities-oriented high school. The two subjects share many epistemological features but have a different status (core vs non-core subject) for students in the two educational contexts. Two types of content-specific competence are measured: receptive disciplinary knowledge (M1) and productive argumentation skill (M2). Findings show that CLIL students do not underperform non-CLIL peers in both disciplines, rather CLIL students of the non-core subject outperform the control group, especially for M2. Furthermore, a Multiple Factor Analysis illustrates that M1 and M2 results can be predicted by considering the individual variability of students’ motivation toward the discipline, CLIL, and Foreign Language Learning. The motivation toward the subject emerges as the trigger factor for CLIL benefit but plays an unexpected role: it is inversely proportional to content-specific learning. Implications for CLIL studies and educational policy are discussed.

CLIL Implementation in Greece

Abstract Despite the increasing interest in CLIL in Greece over the past decade, Greek CLIL research is largely absent from international review studies. This systematic review focuses on primary and secondary education, and examines peer-reviewed empirical research on CLIL implementation in Greece from 2006 to 2020. A total of 33 items are reviewed using qualitative Content Analysis. Organized according to commonalities shared by their foci, the reviewed items highlight three main research areas of CLIL implementation in Greece: (1) CLIL project evaluation, (2) CLIL students’ development, and (3) CLIL teachers. The reviewed studies suggest that CLIL implementation in Greece tends to be quantitatively examined, context specific, and very small in scale. The reviewed studies are largely outcome oriented and concerned with issues of efficacy. Contrary to project evaluation and learning outcomes, CLIL teachers in Greece have received significantly less attention from empirical research.

STUDENT PERCEPTION OF CLIL: THE CASE OF ANDALUCÍA

This study aims to make a large-scale evaluation of the student perception of CLIL in Andalucía. To this purpose, 58 CLIL schools (29 primary and 29 secondary schools) were selected by stratified random sampling, controlling for socioeconomic status and geographical distribution in the region of Andalucía. All of them were English CLIL schools. The students in the final year of each school (N= 2104) were surveyed. The survey, which was in Spanish, consisted of close-ended questions addressing CLIL methodology, L2 use, and extracurricular school activities. Questions covered how often students did certain activities in class, which were their favourite ones, how often and for which purpose they used the L2 during content classes, what extracurricular activities were offered in their schools and whether they thought that learning through an L2 was affecting their content acquisition. Results show that, even if CLIL students have an overall positive attitude towards the programme, their preferred activities do not match the ones most frequently used in class. They also manifest that there is an imbalance between written and oral L2 use, oral communication playing a secondary role. Furthermore, differences between primary and secondary students’ perception are observed.

Differences between CLIL and non-CLIL students: motivation, autonomy and identity

ABSTRACT This article aims to contribute to the explanation of why bilingual education (CLIL) may reduce the differences in motivation and English proficiency commonly seen between students from different SES backgrounds (Shepherd and Ainsworth 2017). From a mixed-methods approach involving a questionnaire and focus group interviews, fourth year Secondary Education students in the Community of Madrid (Spain) were asked about their views on education, teachers, classroom practices, and their use of English outside the classroom. Results reveal significant differences in the way that students from bilingual schools and those from non-bilingual schools see their schooling experience (what they value in teachers and schools) as well as how often they speak English outside of school. This may be explained by the nature of students’ motivation in each case, which may, in turn, be influenced by the schools’ characteristics. Further research is needed as to whether bilingual schools are inherently more autonomy-supportive learning environments.

CLIL for the undergraduate students of engineering in teaching business English

The present study is an experiment on the effectiveness of CLIL methodology for teaching Business English to undergraduate students. The experimental classroom adopted CLIL learning strategy at tertiary level so as to enable the learners to achieve proficiency in both subject knowledge and communication skills simultaneously. The aim is to facilitate the learners’ global carrier opportunities and internationalized higher studies gateways which can be achieved by concentrating on the content specific knowledge and communicative competency. A group of 60 students are taken into consideration and divided into two groups as control group and experimental group. The experimental group students are taught with CLIL methodology and the speaking skill of the learners are assessed after the periodical 5 hours of teaching. The speaking skills of both the groups were assessed based on their language production. It is found that CLIL students showed more interest in learning the subject and had an improved language style, fluency and high deliverance potential along with confidence.

Diversity in CLIL as experienced by Finnish CLIL teachers and students: matters of equality and equity

ABSTRACT This article focuses on how Finnish CLIL teachers and students orient to and experience diversity in CLIL. The data consist of teacher and student interviews that were analysed using qualitative content analysis to identify recurrent themes with regard to diversity. The findings indicate that the theme of equality in the sense of ‘the same for all’ in both teaching, assessing and homework was readily brought up by both groups, reflecting the ethos of equality prevalent in Finnish education. Equity, however, was not similarly highlighted even though it is a guiding principle alongside equality in the Finnish Core Curriculum for Basic Education. Teachers were found reluctant to topicalise diversity, at least in the form of explicit differentiation. This applied especially to academic skills, with students’ different linguistic skills more readily addressed. Both teacher and student interviews construct CLIL students as high-achievers in comparison to peers in regular classrooms. The students, however, also criticised being treated as a homogenous group and expressed wishes for personalised support. In sum, the findings show tensions between maintaining equality and securing equity in that adherence to the same type of education for all may render invisible the varying competences, ways of learning and needs for support.

Discussion: multiple approaches in CLIL: cognitive, affective and linguistic insights

ABSTRACT This article is an afterword to the special issue on ‘Assessing CLIL: A multidisciplinary approach'. It provides a conceptual overview of the key approaches and issues in CLIL research addressed in the different articles. Apart from the focus on the comparison of CLIL and non-CLIL students' L2 proficiency in the Belgian context, some of the variables addressed are the focus on different L2s, the longitudinal approach, or the use of a solid corpus of learner language. The different approaches to SLA addressed in the issue (cognitive, attitudinal and linguistic) are also discussed.

Foreign language motivation in primary education students

Abstract This article explores the effects of the type of instruction (Content and language integrated learning, CLIL, vs. non-CLIL) and gender upon foreign language motivation in Primary Education learners in northern Spain. A total of 252 students with ages ranging from 9–12 completed a questionnaire measuring different motivation components. Results showed that CLIL students seem to manifest greater parental support and be more critical with their image as foreign language learners. Additionally, gender turned out to be a more influential factor in non-CLIL learning settings, since non-CLIL males obtained worse results than their female counterparts in overall motivation and intrinsic motivation. This gender effect was not observed in CLIL classrooms, which potentially makes this learning approach a more egalitarian educational setting for both genders in terms of foreign language motivation.

CLIL students’ definitions of historical terms

ABSTRACT The ability to manage specific forms of disciplinary expression – Languages of Schooling – is regarded as a factor of academic success (Council of Europe recommendations – Council of Europe CM/Rec. [2014]. Recommendation of the Committee of Ministers to Member States on the Importance of Competences in the Language(s) of Schooling for Equity and Quality in Education and for Educational Success. Accessed December 25, 2018. https://search.coe.int/cm/Pages/result_details.aspx?ObjectID=09000016805c6105). One of the core discursive functions students perform across academic subjects is defining, which is part of the inventory of descriptors for the language of schooling (e.g. Beacco [2010]. Items for a Description of Linguistic Competence in the Language of Schooling Necessary for Teaching/Learning History (End of Obligatory Education). Strasbourg: Language Policy Division, Council of Europe). This study addresses defining as a component of the language of schooling by which CLIL students express specialized knowledge across languages, educational levels and fields (see Coffin [2006b]. Historical Discourse. The Language of Time, Cause and Evaluation. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, Continuum). We elicited, analysed and compared students’ written definitions in English (L2) and Spanish (L1) of two different historical fields in primary (6th grade) and secondary (8th grade). For this purpose, we applied an analysis scheme that merges Trimble’s ([1985]. English for Science and Technology: A Discourse Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) definitional construct and Systemic Functional Linguistics (Halliday and Matthiessen [2014]. An Introduction to Functional Grammar. London: Hodder; Martin [2013]. “Embedded Literacy: Knowledge as Meaning.” Linguistics and Education 24: 23–37). Our results show that while students produced more definitions in English in the higher educational level, the differences in their realizations are attributed more to the field being defined. The study has also shown no differences in the frequency and type of definitions across languages.

Students’ and families’ attitudes and motivations to language learning and CLIL: a longitudinal study

ABSTRACT Over the past few years, research has shown that stakeholders involved in CLIL develop positive views and attitudes alongside with higher motivation towards the foreign language (Czura, A., K. Papaja, and M. Urbaniak. 2009. Bilingual education and the emergence of CLIL in Poland. In CLIL Practice: Perspectives from the Field, ed. D. Marsh, P. Mehisto, D. Wolff, R. Aliaga, T. Asikainen, M.J. Frigols-Martín, S. Hughes, and G. Langé, 172–178. Finland: University of Jyväskylä; Doiz, A., D. Lasagabaster, and J. M Sierra. 2014. CLIL and motivation: the effect of individual and contextual variables. Language Learning Journal 42, no. 2: 209–224; Pladevall-Ballester, E. 2015. Exploring primary school CLIL perceptions in Catalonia: students’, teachers’ and parents’ opinions and expectations. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 18, no. 1: 45–59). Although there is plenty of literature dealing with teachers’ perceptions, there does, however, seem to be a need for research (1) addressing families’ and students’ attitudes and motivations, and (2) stretching over time. Of the few existing longitudinal studies, the one conducted by Lasagabaster and Doiz's (2017. A longitudinal study on the impact of CLIL on affective factors. Applied Linguistics 38: 688–712) suggested that motivation towards the foreign language might not be sustained in the long term. This article encompasses a two-year longitudinal quantitative study on two groups of students (n = 20 and n = 24) and their families (n = 20 and n = 24). It deals with stakeholders’ attitudes and motivations towards language learning within a multilingual CLIL environment, a medium-sized rural high school in Galicia (Northern Spain). The findings reported show that both CLIL and non-CLIL students as well as their parents developed long-term positive attitudes and motivation towards language learning, although CLIL students and their parents improved their attitudes to a greater extent.

Receptive knowledge of intensifying adjectival compounds: Belgian French-speaking CLIL and non-CLIL learners of Dutch and English

ABSTRACT Languages differ in their preferences for particular intensifying constructions. While intensifying adjectival compounds (IACs) (e.g. ijskoud, ice-cold) are productively used to express intensification in Dutch and English, in French this construction is hardly productive. Consequently, French-speaking learners may encounter difficulties acquiring IACs in Dutch/English. As part of a research project on CLIL in French-speaking Belgium, we explore the effect of CLIL on the acquisition of IACs in the target language (TL) Dutch/English through a multiple-choice test. The results confirm that CLIL students (learning English/Dutch) develop greater receptive knowledge of these constructions. Furthermore, the more frequent IACs are more likely to be recognized by the learners. Moreover, even when the CLIL effect is considered alongside other factors, such as the students' extracurricular exposure to the TL and their overall vocabulary, CLIL is still an important predictor of the learners' receptive knowledge of English IACs, in addition to productive and receptive vocabulary. By contrast, current informal contact with the TL and receptive vocabulary are significant predictors of learners' receptive knowledge of Dutch IACs, but CLIL does not significantly contribute to the regression model for the latter language.

The impact of CLIL on English language competence in a monolingual context: a longitudinal perspective

ABSTRACTThis study examines the impact of CLIL on the English language competence achieved by students in primary and secondary education in the monolingual autonomous community of Extremadura (Spain) and extends investigation to a year after the end of the secondary CLIL programme when students were finishing their first year of bachillerato. To compare CLIL and non-CLIL strands effectively, the homogeneity of participants was carefully controlled. This study also looked at ‘type of school’ (public schools vs. charter schools) as a variable having a potential differential effect on students’ L2 achievement. Comparing CLIL and non-CLIL groups in public schools, significant advantages were observed for CLIL pupils at the end of secondary education and were even more marked at the end of the first year of bachillerato. However, when comparing public school CLIL students with charter school non-CLIL students, no statistically significant differences were found in the language competences tested. The public school non-CLIL students showed significantly lower performance on all measures at all levels compared with charter school non-CLIL students. Thus it could be argued that CLIL streams in public schools may help to compensate for the advantage that charter schools typically represent in general academic achievement and English language competence.

Openings and Closing in Emails by CLIL Students: A Pedagogical Proposal

Email communication is pervasive in faculty interaction. As there exists status imbalance between students and professors in this type of context, emails are expected to cater for the uneven power relationships by means of using appropriate polite features. Previous research (e.g., Eslami, 2013; Salazar-Campillo & Codina-Espurz, in press) has pointed out the pragmatically deficient use of openings and closings in requestive emails sent by non-native students in educational contexts, revealing a lack of the expected deference and respect to the professor. In this paper, we firstly explore this topic further by looking at different groups of emails written by CLIL students to ascertain whether this variable affects students’ pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic ability when writing their emails. Secondly, a proposal for the teaching of openings and closings is suggested, which aims to help second and/or foreign language learners behave in a more target-like manner thus avoiding pragmatic failure.

The Written Production of Spanish CLIL and EFL Students: Proficiency Levels and Error Analysis

The Written Production of Spanish CLIL and EFL Students: Proficiency Levels and Error Analysis

Exploring CLIL contribution towards the acquisition of cross-curricular competences: a comparative study on digital competence development in CLIL

<p>This large-scale study compares the digital skills of CLIL and non-CLIL secondary students by means of two separate tests assessing ‘communicative digital competence’ (CLIL group, n=2,152, and non-CLIL group, n=18,093) and ‘informational digital competence’ (CLIL group, n=2,581, and non-CLIL group, n=17,553). The findings indicated that CLIL students showed significantly better digital skills than non-CLIL learners, particularly regarding communicative digital competence. This may suggest CLIL students are more familiar with the use of ICT, and that the communicative skills acquired by means of CLIL methodology based on communication, participation and interaction were transferred to digital environments. These outcomes reveal a new CLIL by-product as well as added value in a highly underexplored area in CLIL research: its effectiveness in the acquisition of key competences (in this case, digital competence), which are the major goals of compulsory education.</p>

Rumlich, D. (2016). Evaluating Bilingual Education in Germany. CLIL Students’ General English Proficiency, EFL Self-Concept and Interest. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 580 pp.

Rumlich, D. (2016). Evaluating Bilingual Education in Germany. CLIL Students’ General English Proficiency, EFL Self-Concept and Interest. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 580 pp.