Content And Language Integrated Learning Learners Research Articles

Integration in CLIL: a proposal to inform research and successful pedagogy

Research on content and language integrated learning (CLIL) has expanded substantially in the last 10 years. While research interests have predominantly focused on language learning outcomes and the comparison between CLIL and English as a foreign language (EFL) students’ competence in the foreign language, recent studies have called for the need to focus on how language and content are best learnt in integration. In order to understand integration in its full scope, there are two main variables that need to be carefully investigated: the functions of language in different subjects (subject literacies and genres) and the way language and content interact in a variety of classroom interactional activities. This article presents a model for the understanding of integration in CLIL drawing on the combination of systemic-functional linguistic (SFL) and classroom interactional approaches to language and meaning construction. As shown in previous studies, CLIL teachers and learners need to be aware of the characteristics of different genres within their academic disciplines and the lexico-grammatical resources required to participate in those genres. CLIL learners are expected to use these linguistic resources in a second/foreign language to express academic knowledge (ideational function), but also to appraise that knowledge and participate socially in the classroom (interpersonal function), and to produce and distinguish between written and oral texts (textual function). However, the SFL model alone does not offer the complete picture of how content and language are learnt in integration. In addition to knowing what is integrated, it is equally necessary to understand how integration unfolds in the actual context of the classroom. For this second purpose, the study suggests a combination of SFL with other approaches that consider interaction as a key element in the learning process. This process can be studied by identifying students’ language and content engagement when they participate in different classroom activities.

A pluriliteracies approach to content and language integrated learning – mapping learner progressions in knowledge construction and meaning-making

Over the past decades content and language integrated learning (CLIL) research has predominantly focused on the language proficiency of CLIL learners. The results are very promising and show that working language skills in learners, especially reading and listening skills, can be improved through a CLIL programme. Studies focusing on subject learners are still few but they indicate that learners maintain or under certain conditions can improve their subject learning when compared to learners learning in L1. However, more recent studies have raised challenging questions concerning academic language competence which indicate that CLIL instruction may not be reaching its full potential. Unravelling the integrated approach and the inherent interrelationship of using language for progressing knowledge construction and meaning-making needs to be addressed, drawing together linguistic and pedagogic theoretical underpinnings. This article posits that CLIL can pragmatically address the growing educational malaise of functional illiteracy. We reason that progression along the knowledge pathway towards deeper subject understanding requires a greater command of secondary discourse, and mastery of subject-specific literacies. In traditional classrooms, content teachers do not usually focus on the quality of learners’ disciplinary literacy and discourse. In language classrooms, subject-specific literacies are considered irrelevant. We suggest that if ‘literacy’ were at the centre of the learning agenda, regardless of subject disciplines, a fundamental shift towards deeper learning would occur. Therefore, the article addresses two fundamental issues: (i) the role of subject-specific or disciplinary literacies in CLIL and (ii) the iteration of a model building on the existing 4Cs framework, which maps literacy and language progression in CLIL contexts and serves as a guide for evolving classroom practices.

Dictogloss and the production of the English third person '–s' by CLIL and mainstream EFL learners: A comparative study

This study compares focus on form in Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) and mainstream English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts in the production of a specific morphological feature, the English 3rd person singular present tense marker –s. Research conducted in CLIL contexts to date examining morphosyntactic features has yielded disparate results. Thus, little is known about how this methodology affects learners’ attention to form while completing a dictogloss task (Wajnryb, 1990). In the study 116 adolescent learners (CLIL, n = 54; mainstream EFL, n= 62) in the Basque Autonomous Community completed a dictogloss collaboratively and individually. Results showed that CLIL learners noticed and produced more instances of the 3rd person singular -s than mainstream learners, but not in a significant manner, and that those working in pairs in the CLIL group obtained significantly better results.

Content and language integrated learning next in Asia: evidence of learners’ achievement in CLIL education from a Taiwan tertiary degree programme

This study investigates learners’ performance in a Taiwanese tertiary content and language integrated learning (CLIL) programme. Learners’ English proficiency was measured immediately after entering the programme and before their industrial placement, i.e. after two years. As in previously reported cases, the learners showed a significant improvement in their receptive linguistic skills. They also performed better than other university students in a national-scale English proficiency test. The findings identify a positive correlation between receptive competence and productive competence in English. The correlation between language competence and content achievement was also examined, with the results exhibiting that entry-level language proficiency can affect learners’ initial content achievements, but that this effect is not sustained after the first semester as students’ language proficiency continued to improve. In the questionnaire survey, the respondents generally agreed with the claimed benefits of the CLIL approach, but were doubtful about the improvement in their productive linguistic skills, enhanced learning motivation and the use of English for instructing content courses. These doubts were most pronounced among those students with lower level language skills or content knowledge. Interviews with CLIL practitioners were also conducted to provide understanding of how they assess CLIL learners’ linguistic and content performance. Implications for CLIL practices in Asian contexts are discussed.

The receptive vocabulary of Spanish 6th-grade primary-school students in CLIL instruction: A preliminary study

One of the key factors in early stages of L2 learning is the number of words learners know. However, there has been little research regarding the receptive vocabulary size of learners involved in content and language integrated learning (CLIL) programmes at primary level. Accordingly, the 2,000-word frequency band of the Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT) (Schmitt, Schmitt, & Clapham, 2001) was administered to explore the receptive vocabulary knowledge of 6th-grade, primary-level Spanish students learning English through CLIL instruction to relate their receptive vocabulary size to their ability to understand written and spoken discourse in English and to establish sex-based differences amongst the participants. The results show that students’ receptive vocabulary knowledge is below the 1,000 frequency band, which implies that students may find it difficult to understand spoken and written discourse in English (Laufer, 1992; Nation, 2001; Adolphs & Schmitt, 2004). As for sex-based differences, female students outscored their male partners in the VLT, but these differences were not statistically significant. Nevertheless, further research needs to be conducted with a larger sample of CLIL learners to compare groups from different schools implementing these programmes in the same area, as well as to compare their results with those obtained by students in traditional non-CLIL environments.

The receptive vocabulary of Spanish 6th-grade primary-school students in CLIL instruction: A preliminary study

One of the key factors in early stages of L2 learning is the number of words learners know. However, there has been little research regarding the receptive vocabulary size of learners involved in content and language integrated learning (CLIL) programmes at primary level. Accordingly, the 2,000-word frequency band of the Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT) (Schmitt, Schmitt, & Clapham, 2001) was administered to explore the receptive vocabulary knowledge of 6 th -grade, primary-level Spanish students learning English through CLIL instruction to relate their receptive vocabulary size to their ability to understand written and spoken discourse in English and to establish sex-based differences amongst the participants. The results show that students’ receptive vocabulary knowledge is below the 1,000 frequency band, which implies that students may find it difficult to understand spoken and written discourse in English (Laufer, 1992; Nation, 2001; Adolphs & Schmitt, 2004). As for sex-based differences, female students outscored their male partners in the VLT, but these differences were not statistically significant. Nevertheless, further research needs to be conducted with a larger sample of CLIL learners to compare groups from different schools implementing these programmes in the same area, as well as to compare their results with those obtained by students in traditional non-CLIL environments.

The impact of additional CLIL exposure on oral english production

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.

The Value of a Digital Story in a Content and Language Integrated learning (CLIL) European Context

This article presents the research conducted within the framework of the funded project called European CLIL Resource Centre for Web 2.0 Education ( E-CLIL , 504671-LLP-1-2009-1-ES-COMENIUS-CMP). The mission of E-CLIL is to increase children's exposure to European languages and to improve the quality of teaching through the implementation of content and language integrated learning (CLIL) within the European demand for acquiring a mother tongue plus two foreign languages. The project is currently building multilingual interactive resources for the use of CLIL teachers. More specifically, the present study investigates the value a digital story may bring to a Primary education context which promotes CLIL and ICT as methodological procedure and resources. The central digital story, originally created for this project, entails three main objectives which involves exposing young learners to European languages, children literature and science content. Our main aim was to prove whether the universal narrative elements and structure present in this digital story may enhance 8 to 10 year-old students' learning involvement and CLIL achievement. In an initial piloting phase of the study, the story was presented to a total of 12 experienced English CLIL teachers working in three different state bilingual schools in the region of Madrid. In order to gather objective data that may prove our hypotheses these teachers completed initial and final questionnaires which were then analysed. The outcome gathered has been used to extend the piloting to other European countries participating in the project. This larger study will provide information on cross-cultural similarities or differences regarding the results already obtained here. These initial findings point towards the richness a central digital storyline may add to a CLIL learning context at linguistic, content, literary, cognitive, social and cultural levels.

Book Review: Aprendre en una altra llengua / Learning through another language / Aprender en otra lengua

Learning through another language is a multilingual (Catalan, Spanish and English) compendium of valuable contributions from leading investigators to further the understanding and practice of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). The book offers an ample range of perspectives regarding CLIL learning and teaching. This review takes a look at how the collection deals with the following topics: the challenges involved in plurilinguistic education (chapters 1-4); the integration of content and language in the discourse of CLIL classrooms (chapters 5-7); and the need for in-service and pre-service teacher education and the role of collaboration among subject and linguistic specialists on the one hand, and investigators and practitioners on the other, in the successful implementation of CLIL programmes in the educational system (chapters 8-10).

Assessing FL pronunciation in a semi-immersion setting: The effects of CLIL instruction on Spanish-Catalan learners’ perceived comprehensibility and accentedness

This paper reports research in progress on the effect of content-based learning on speech production by Catalan-Spanish learners of English as a foreign language (FL). The data presented here are part of a longitudinal study which explores the short- and mid-term effects of CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning), a semi-immersion programme that consists in teaching one or two subjects of the school curriculum entirely in a FL. More specifically, we intended to find out whether there was evidence of gains in intelligibility and foreign accent after one year of CLIL instruction. Two groups of learners varying in amount and nature of formal FL instruction and a control group of native English peers were recorded performing a controlled speaking task at two data collection times separated by one-year interval. The speech samples were assessed by four expert native English judges in terms of degree of comprehensibility and foreign accent. As expected, the read speech samples by the CLIL learners were judged to be more intelligible and less accented than the samples by their peers in conventional formal instruction (FI), but both groups differed significantly from the native English group. No significant short-term improvement in either intelligibility or foreign accent was found after one year of CLIL instruction, suggesting that gains in learners’ pronun-ciation in a content-based learning context are more likely to appear in the mid or long run.

Historical explanations as situated practice in content and language integrated learning

This article examines secondary history content and language integrated learning (CLIL) students’ production of historical explanations in two discursive contexts: classroom discussions and individual interviews. Using data from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid CLIL corpus we combine a quantitative and qualitative methodology to examine the lexico‐grammatical resources and the interactional competences used in the construction of explanations in both contexts. This combined approach allows us to describe the use of academic speech functions in CLIL as a situated practice, and to explore the affordances and constraints of different participation frameworks for their production. The results show that explanation sequences were produced in different ways in the two contexts: in the interviews, CLIL students produced longer explanations and used a wider range of lexico‐grammatical features. The results of the qualitative analysis suggest that differences in interactional behaviour may account for these differences in language production. Overall, the study provides evidence that what CLIL learners can be said to ‘know’, both in terms of content and language, is strongly influenced by the situated practices in which such knowledge is produced.

The Effects of Content and Language Integrated Learning in European Education: Key Findings from the Andalusian Bilingual Sections Evaluation Project

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) represents an increasingly popular pedagogic approach that has evolved in response to the recognised need for plurilingual competence in Europe. In this article, we present key findings from one of the first large-scale, multidimensional CLIL evaluation projects. We begin by outlining the emergence of European CLIL and by comparing it with other, non-European bilingual education initiatives and then we narrow the scope to Southern Spain, where the research was conducted. We outline the Andalusian Bilingual Sections programme, one of the cornerstones of the government's Plurilingualism Promotion Plan (2005), within which the research was conducted. In presenting results, we focus on specific areas that we believe make significant contributions to some of the key concerns in contemporary CLIL research including the linguistic competence of CLIL learners, the question of starting age, the distribution and functionalities of L2 use in CLIL classrooms, and the ways in which CLIL appears to be impacting on the educational system in general.

CLIL Learning: Achievement Levels and Affective Factors

The aim of the study was to investigate how successfully pupils had learned content in content and language integrated learning (CLIL) and to assess pupils' affective learning factors, such as motivation and self-esteem, in CLIL. Learning was presented in terms of achievement level, which was described as the relationship between measured levels of intelligence and school success. The study indicated that there were no major differences in learning, whether the language used in instruction is the pupils' mother tongue or a foreign language; pupils of different intelligence levels had similar chances to succeed in both cases. However, it was discovered that there may not be as many overachievers among the pupils in CLIL as among the pupils in the Finnish language instruction group. Achievements in the Finnish language, i.e. the mother tongue, were not negatively affected by CLIL. In terms of the affective factors, the study indicated that CLIL pupils had a low self-concept in foreign languages, although pupils had a strong motivation to learn.