ABSTRACT

Although the core element in CLIL and immersion programmes is the integration of content and language, it is challenging to achieve a balance between the two to meet the dual-objective of CLIL. Research on the beliefs teachers have about CLIL and the way they understand the role of content and language in their classes is crucial to achieve that balance. In the Basque Autonomous Community (BAC), a multilingual region in Spain, schools are implementing CLIL programmes in order to improve students’ English proficiency and foster multilingualism. This case study aims at exploring how teachers in this particular setting conceptualise the integration of content and language in CLIL and their understanding is reflected through pedagogical practices. For that purpose, the thoughts and practices of two CLIL teachers with different teaching backgrounds are examined here. The findings show that teachers understand and implement CLIL in different ways and that there are substantial differences between the content-oriented teacher and the language-oriented teacher. This study shows that it is difficult to achieve a balance of content and language in CLIL classrooms because some classes tend to be content-oriented without enough attention given to language, while others are language-oriented without enough attention paid to content.

摘要

虽然 CLIL 和沉浸式课程的核心元素是内容和语言的融合，但要在两者之间取得平衡以实现 CLIL 的双重目标具有挑战性。研究教师对 CLIL 的信念以及他们理解课堂内容和语言的作用的方式对于实现这种平衡至关重要。在西班牙的多语种巴斯克自治区 (BAC)，学校正在实施 CLIL 计划，以提高学生的英语水平并培养多语种能力。本案例研究旨在探索在这一特定环境中的教师如何将 CLIL 中的内容和语言整合概念化，并通过教学实践反映他们的理解。为了这个目的，这里考察了两位具有不同教学背景的 CLIL 教师的思想和实践。研究结果表明，教师以不同的方式理解和实施 CLIL，内容导向型教师和语言导向型教师之间存在显着差异。本研究表明，CLIL 课堂很难实现内容和语言的平衡，因为有些班级倾向于以内容为导向，没有对语言给予足够的重视，而另一些则以语言为导向，没有对内容给予足够的重视。