Student-teacher interaction in CLIL and non-CLIL elementary education

This study analyzes interaction in a primary school science classroom. We compare the verbal scaffolding strategies used by a teacher during lessons from the same instructional unit taught in CLIL (English) and regular (Spanish) contexts. Results show that although there was no difference in the amount of information (‘content’) made available to students through the interactions, different verbal strategies were used (precision, justification and recall were more frequent in Spanish and exemplification in English) and that students were more active in engaging with science knowledge in the Spanish context. We discuss these findings in relation to the level of abstraction the teacher supported in interacting about science in the regular session, with implications for supporting children in learning both content and language in CLIL contexts.

Content and language integrated learning (CLIL) and the linguistic difficulties of Saudi students learning algebra

This study explores the type of linguistic difficulties that Saudi students are encounter in Introductory Algebra courses at college level and how an integrated pedagogical approach, such as Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), might impact students’ learning of both algebra and the language needed to learn it. A mixed-method design was implemented for 12 weeks to collect and analyze data in three phases. The study sample comprised of a study group of 28 students from an Introductory Algebra class. Findings identified and classified the types of difficulties that the students encountered and suggested a CLIL instructional model to overcome or minimize them.

The agency of CLIL primary school teachers in Austria

Although recent years have seen a growth in studies examining teacher agency, educators working in the primary sector remain a relatively under-researched population. One specific group of teachers in primary education are those who teach Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). In this study, we wanted to understand how CLIL primary teachers’ sense of agency helped them to navigate this professional role, considering factors in their ecologies which supported or inhibited their agency. Based on semi-structured, in-depth interviews with six primary school CLIL teachers, this study shows that even though these teachers were initially passionate about CLIL, they all ultimately exercised their agency as teachers in giving up on CLIL due to a limited sense of agency in the particular role as a CLIL educator.

Coordinating, communicating, and combining languages in local immersion education policy reform in Finland

The aim of this article is to examine local enactment of new curriculum policy, paying special attention to combining the language of instruction in the school (Finnish) and the immersion language (Swedish) in an early total one-way Swedish immersion programme in Finland at a programmatic level. The study combines ethnography with educational language policy by focusing on coordinative and communicative discourses surrounding local immersion curriculum. The participatory observation data consist of 36 hours of audio-recorded curriculum working group meetings with immersion teachers and researchers. The findings showed that the curriculum task assigned to municipalities and cities providing immersion education was extensive. They also revealed how discursively oriented policy research on immersion education opens up new ways to develop immersion education. The actual curriculum decisions implied that the Swedish portion of the immersion programme is multilingual and rich in connections between multiple languages, contesting the common belief of monolingual practices in immersion instruction.

Exploring conceptions of reading risk and program-specific literacy outcomes for Spanish speakers in dual language and English-medium programs

Considerable research documents the efficacy of dual language programs for the reading achievement of English learners from Spanish-speaking homes. However, there is uncertainty in the field of dual language education about how students at-risk for literacy difficulties fare in these same programs, as well as questions about how risk should be defined – i.e., difficulty with decoding versus lower levels of vocabulary – with distinct understandings of risk potentially differentially explaining students’ reading trajectories. This study followed Spanish-speaking students from Grades 3–5 to understand how students at-risk for reading difficulties fare in English reading comprehension in dual language versus English-medium programs, examining two different risk indicators in the process. Study results indicate that across risk categories, students performed equally well regardless of program model. In addition, decoding was a more robust indicator of risk than vocabulary.